Composer Weekend – Stealth Start

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) offers one year of training on site at Konserthuset Stockholm. The RSPO Orchestra Academy aims to give participating musicians heightened knowledge and understanding of the profession. The young musicians receive individual tuition on their instrument by tutors that are predominantly leaders and principals of the orchestra.

In addition, extensive chamber music playing is a vital part of the course. In anticipation of this year's Composer Weekend, and in collaboration with students of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, we are treated to three works by festival composer Lisa Streich.

Enuma Elish for brass orchestra was composed for the brass festival Signal in Gävle, where the task was to reflect on the music of medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen. The second piece, Nebensonnen for clarinet and string trio, was written for composer Helmut Lachenmann’s 80th birthday celebration and depicts sunlight on a cold winter day. In Maria Callas for ensemble, the starting point was Henry Purcell's Here the Deities Approve, while the title, of course, refers to the legendary soprano.

We will also hear Czech composer Pavel Fischer's String Quartet No. 3 ”Mad Piper” from 2011, music inspired by Canadian bagpiper Bill Millin, who became known for playing during the battles of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944.