Canellakis and Benedetti

Richard Strauss’ opera The Woman without a Shadow (Die Frau ohne Schatten) from 1919 is a mystery about motherhood and love. The woman who is the empress belongs to the spiritual world and has no shadow, because she is unable to have a child. The wife of a dyer who does not want a child is willing to sell her shadow to the empress. It is one of Richard Strauss’ masterpieces and the instrumentation is phenomenal, for example through the impressive percussion arsenal.

The opera was a hit and Strauss therefore compiled a Symphonic Fantasy, which the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performs here under the baton of American conductor Karina Canellakis, whose outstanding conducting career took off when she was given the Sir Georg Solti Award in 2016. She is working with the main international orchestras and this is her third visit with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In December she will return to lead the orchestra at this year's Nobel Prize Concert.

We will also hear star British violinist Nicola Benedetti in Karol Szymanowski’s lyrically beautiful and masterful Violin Concerto No. 1. Benedetti performed the composer's second violin concerto at her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016.

As a concluding highlight, we will hear Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7, inspired by Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. While Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 may be his most played, many wish to feature the seventh in particular as one of his very best compositions.