Two Piano Quartets
Leading string musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Martin Sturfält play music for piano quartet by the two pioneering Swedish composers Elfrida Andrée and Amanda Maier-Röntgen.
About the video
- Published online 17 April 2020.
- Filmed 8 & 9 April 2020.
- The video is approximately 53 minutes.
- Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.
The well-regarded British newspaper The Guardian has taken note of this video, writing that Elfrida Andrée – who is new to the newspaper’s critic – is a real discovery: “A composer absolutely in control of her medium, the musical gestures bold, the textures subtle. The performance is a joy, too: intensely hot-blooded throughout.”
Elfrida Andrée was an organist, conductor and composer, and a pioneer who paved the way for future generations of women in music. She was a student of Ludvig Norman and Niels W. Gade, and her Piano Quartet in A Minor, which was composed in Strömstad in the summer of 1865, had its world premiere in Copenhagen, Gade’s home city.
Konserthuset Stockholm endeavours to achieve a repertoire that features women and men equally. A participant in these efforts has been Klas Gagge, who also presents this concert. He is not only a cellist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, but also a music researcher who has worked for a long time to spotlight the music of Amanda Maier-Röntgen.
Maier-Röntgen was twelve years younger than Elfrida Andrée and lived most of her adult life in Amsterdam, after marrying pianist and composer Julius Röntgen in 1880. Before then, she was the first woman in Sweden to earn a degree as a music director. It is uncertain how many pieces she composed, but the unique piano quartet from 1891 is one of her best-known pieces today and demonstrates that she was a late-romantic composer of international stature.
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The music
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Elfrida Andrée Piano Quartet a minor
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Amanda Maier-Röntgen Piano Quartet e minor
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Participants
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Joakim Svenheden violin
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Patrik Swedrup viola
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Johannes Rostamo cello
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Martin Sturfält piano
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Klas Gagge presenter
