Programme

Mozart's twenty-first piano concerto is one of his most beloved and performed works. Since Bo Widerberg used its enchantingly beautiful second movement in his film about the tightrope walker Elvira Madigan, many refer to the concerto as Elvira Madigan. It is also one of Mozart's most majestic and virtuosic concertos. The soloist is the acclaimed young French-Albanian pianist Marie-Ange Nguci, who in recent years has been praised by critics and has thrilled audiences in concert halls worldwide.

Beethoven's overture to Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragic drama about the Roman general Coriolanus is grandiose and dramatic, yet also enchantingly beautiful. It is written in the key of C minor, which Beethoven often used in his most intense and heroic works.

With Nielsen, humour is often present. This is particularly true for his second symphony, which was inspired by a visit to a village inn. On the wall hung a painting that ironically depicted the four temperaments of humans – the choleric, the phlegmatic, the melancholic, and the sanguine – which Nielsen portrays with good humour, a touch of drama, and palpable warmth in his second symphony, also known as the "Four Temperaments".

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Alan Gilbert, the orchestra's former chief conductor (2000–2008) and since then its Conductor Laureate. He has served as the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and is currently the chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg and the music director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.

In recent years, the Italian pianist (and vocalist) Francesca Tandoi has gained international recognition and performed with a host of jazz greats. Her flawless technique and rhythmic energy, in particular, have been highlighted, with talk of her being a successor to legends like Oscar Peterson and Monty Alexander. In other words, we're talking about explosive and life-affirming jazz, melodic and with a clear swing.

Now, Francesca Tandoi visits Konserthuset Stockholm for the first time with her trio. In a trio format, she has recorded a series of acclaimed albums. Her trio this time, in addition to Tandoi, includes Matheus Nicolaiewsky on bass and Sander Smeets on drums.

Since its inception in 1984, KammarensembleN has been one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music. Its members are distinguished instrumentalists, and the ensemble has performed at several major festivals for contemporary music, such as Ultima in Oslo, Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and ISCM World Music Days in Stockholm and Hong Kong.

Many composers have written directly for the ensemble, resulting in well over a hundred premieres over the years. Together with directors, lighting designers, and video artists, KammarensembleN has carried out a series of acclaimed concert series in Stockholm. The ensemble has also undertaken several tours and recorded several critically acclaimed CDs.

For the anniversary concert, they take on Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen's Schnee – ten canons for nine instruments. It is music with crystalline clarity and evocative rhythms. The ten canons are presented in pairs, something Abrahamsen likens to seeing two versions in different colours of a painting with the same motif. For his sophisticated music, Abrahamsen has been awarded both the Nordic Council Music Prize and the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. He has also been a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 2017.

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New Friday is the series for anyone who is curious and interested in exploring the new music of our era. Come early, stay late – the bar will be open before and after the concert with drinks and appetizers.

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has hosted an ”Orchestra Academy”. The international RSPO Orchestra Academy is a one-year, advanced academic programme for young musicians. Under the guidance of the section leaders from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Piteå School of Music, the musicians receive intensive training individually, in chamber music, and orchestral playing.

The academy also presents itself through a series of public chamber music concerts, such as this one featuring this year’s academy students. On this occasion, we  experience yet another collaboration between the orchestra academies of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

The concert begins with an originally orchestrated work by the British-American composer Anna Clyne, which also includes recorded sounds from a music box that her father gave to her mother when he was courting her, as well as ambient sounds from her childhood in the coastal town of Brighton.

"It is five instruments conversing with each other," is how Carl Nielsen described his often-performed and much-loved Wind Quintet. He also noted that it cannot "be played without a deep feeling for nature." The piece is filled with surprising effects, but also pastoral and idyllic elements.

After the interval, the programme continues with music by two of Poland's foremost 20th-century composers. In Witold Lutosławski’s relatively early piece, Little Suite from 1950, the inspiration from folk music is clearly audible. Like Lutosławski, Grażyna Bacewicz found ways to maintain artistic integrity within the controlling communist climate of the mid-20th century. Her Concerto for String Orchestra from 1948 has become one of her most performed and beloved works, admired by, among others, her colleague Lutosławski.

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The partnership between Konserthuset Stockholm and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice is taking place in 2024-2025, under the project name Institutions of the Future 2024-2025. This project is supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture under their Inspiring Culture initiative.

Welcome to a concert by one of the most influential and acclaimed composers of our time – Max Richter!

His characteristic fusion of classical technique and electronic technology, heard on both solo albums and countless pieces for film, dance, art and fashion, have paved the way for a new generation of musicians and made him an iconic composer with fans around the world.

His ninth solo album, In A Landscape, is the first one composed and recorded at his peaceful new studio in rural Oxfordshire. According to Richter, it is a fleeting self-portrait of a musician in constant motion. But it also goes much deeper than that. It is music about “uniting polarities.” Bringing together the electronic and the acoustic, the human and the natural world, the big questions of life and the quiet pleasures of living.

After grappling with big ideas and thorny social and political questions, the making of In A Landscape has opened up another, greener world for Richter. Above all, making music remains “a way to make a kind of alternate reality,” a constructed world “where everything is in its place.”

The French-Albanian pianist Marie-Ange Nguci has positioned herself as one of the most exciting young soloists on the world's major stages. The term 'unique' is worn out, but it's difficult to find better words to describe her. Nguci was admitted to the conservatory in Paris at the age of 13 and graduated three years later with top marks. Since then, she has studied both pedagogy and musical analysis in Paris, as well as conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

In recent years, she has made her debut on virtually all of the world's major stages: Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Tonhalle in Zurich, the Sydney Opera House, Philharmonie de Paris. The list could go on. With the concert together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 (Thursday, November 21) and this recital, she makes her long-awaited debut at Konserthuset Stockholm.

We hear her in musically exciting and technically demanding pieces such as Scriabin's fifth piano sonata, which alternates between floating impressionism and explosive chords, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit with its cascading soundscapes, and Prokofiev's intense sixth piano sonata.

Schumann's Kreisleriana, subtitled Fantasies for Pianoforte, oscillates between feverish nervousness and darkly veiled contemplations. He wrote them for his beloved wife Clara but nevertheless dedicated them to Frédéric Chopin, whom he considered to be a genius.

A string quartet from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by the orchestra's pianist Stefan Lindgren in Brahms' generously melodic and adventurous Piano Quintet. It was a work that underwent several transformations during composition before Brahms was satisfied. Much of the inspiration he drew from the model of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata for piano.

The concert opens with the compelling quartet from the late 1920s by the Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans. She was herself a concert pianist and wrote a plethora of piano music, but as we can hear in this melodically swirling quartet, she also had a fantastic ability to express her musical visions through string instruments.

Austrian Johanna Müller-Hermann was well-known and respected during her lifetime. She studied with greats such as Alexander Zemlinsky and Franz Schmidt and herself taught music theory at the conservatory in Vienna. We hear her harmonically dense and often exquisitely beautiful string quartet from 1910.

The Count Basie Orchestra is one of jazz’s most iconic big bands and has continued to perform around the world, even 40 years after its founder, William “Count” Basie, passed away. Count Basie was born in 1904 and began his career as a pianist and organist. He soon started exploring his love for the blues and joined Benny Moten's orchestra before forming his own band in 1935 – The Count Basie Orchestra.

This big band has been one of the foremost representatives of Kansas City swing and contributed significantly to the big band era. Basie encouraged his musicians to compose and arrange music, which contributed to the unique sound and enduring success. Among the jazz greats who worked with Basie are Lester Young, Billie Holiday, and Joe Williams.

Since Basie's death in 1984, The Count Basie Orchestra has continued to perform under the leadership of Scotty Barnhart, with some members originally hired by Basie himself. The Count Basie Orchestra has been awarded 18 Grammy Awards and has performed for royalty as well as in numerous films and TV shows. The latest album, Basie Swings the Blues, won a Grammy in 2024. The Count Basie Orchestra remains a living symbol of jazz history.

It is now exactly 20 years since The Count Basie Orchestra last visited Konserthuset Stockholm (November 2004).

Sibelius' Fifth Symphony is his most performed and beloved. He already felt during its composition that he was creating something great. ”Have received a wonderful theme”, he noted in a diary entry. He had seen sixteen swans, which gave him the idea for the magnificent theme in the final movement. ”One of the great experiences of my life! My God, what beauty.” 

The orchestra is led by the Latvian conductor Aivis Greters, who has conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra a couple of times in recent years. As a prelude to Sibelius after the interval, we hear the latest orchestral work by the Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad. The world premiere of Resil was recently performed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and here the work is presented for the first time in a version for a large symphony orchestra.

The composer, pianist, and conductor Adolf Wiklund's two piano concertos are among the best Swedish works in their genre. The first concerto from 1906 is grandly romantic in the footsteps of Rachmaninov, spiced with a touch of Grieg and a pinch of his friend Stenhammar. Wiklund was also the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's second conductor, from 1925 to 1938.

As the soloist in Wiklund's first piano concerto, we have the versatile pianist Magnus Svensson. He performs concerts both in Sweden and internationally. He has particularly immersed himself in the art lieder and is the artistic director for Konserthuset’s series of lied concerts. Since 2012, he has also been working at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with re-publishing older Swedish music.

Three string musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by pianist Terés Löf in Gabriel Fauré's youthfully fresh and outgoing first piano quartet. It is one of his most beloved major chamber music works, and the French Academy of Fine Arts also awarded the quartet with its prestigious Prix Chartier.

Fauré's music ranges from light salon music to musical romanticism on the brink of modernism. Fauré made a significant impact on the French music scene, serving as an organist at the Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris, conductor at the Madeleine Church, and for many years as a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Among his students were Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger.

Claudia Bonfiglioli is the section leader in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's second violin section, violist Catarina Skoog Aquilonius celebrates her 20th anniversary with the orchestra this year, and Marie Macleod is the principal cellist. Terés Löf is one of the country's most accomplished pianists . She has guested Konserthuset on several occasions and in 2016 performed the Swedish premiere of Amy Beach's Piano Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Menu: Pumpkin soup with coconut milk and roasted, salted seeds. The soup is served with sourdough bread, crispbread, butter, mineral water/light beer, coffee/tea, and a piece of chocolate. Wine and beer available for purchase for those who wish.

All soups are lactose- and gluten-free. Please inform us of any special dietary requirements when booking.