Composer Festival – The Seasons

This year’s Composer Festival at Konserthuset Stockholm is dedicated to Thea Musgrave, one of the most prominent and respected composers of the United Kingdom. Musgrave was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but has lived in the US for a long time. With her picturesque and dramatically figurative music, she has a rare ability to take hold and draw the listener in to her multidimensional sonic world.Musgrave often turns to visual art to find inspiration and covers for her music. Or to history. Many of her operas revolve around historical figures.

Thea Musgrave, 90 in May, has a unique production behind her. This chamber concert touches down in six different decades and conveys a unique perspective on her composition career. The harmonically bold Song for Christmas had its world premiere in 1958 with Musgrave herself providing the accompaniment, while the highly rhythmically complex Music for Horn and Piano was composed for horn player Barry Tuckwell and pianist Margaret Kitchin.

In the following decades, Musgrave experimented with electronics in several works for solo instruments and band. In From One to Another, she has recorded and electronically processed the sound of the viola, offering both a contrast and a complement to the live viola. The title of Niobe for Oboe and Band derives from Greek mythology. Niobe was the queen of Thebes, but was turned to stone in sadness when her children were killed. The bells and gongs of the band section provide accompaniment to the sorrowful oboe.

From the last three decades, we will hear From Spring to Spring for marimba, inspired by Japanese haiku; the emotionally powerful Threnody for English horn and piano, and the minute-long Dawn, a tribute to oboist Nicholas Daniel. In conclusion, we will hear the pensive Snow for soprano, English horn and viola.

Read more about Thea Musgrave, opens in a new window

Buy all four concerts in a package and get 50 % discount