Ethel Smyth's Mass

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was exceptionally talented and went to Leipzig, which was one of the most important music cities in the nineteenth century. She met Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Grieg there, but she found the teaching at the conservatory, which was founded by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, to be utterly underwhelming. Instead she began studying privately under Heinrich von Herzogenberg and through him she met Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who gave her significant support.

Smyth came to be a highly acclaimed personality, both as a composer and as one of the leading individuals of the suffrage movement which fought for women’s right to vote in England. In recent years, some of her music has been performed at Konserthuset, but this is the first time the programme will feature Mass in D – a Swedish premiere! The magnificent mass is constructed almost like an opera and is simultaneously melodically tasteful and intricate, dramatic and expressively imagistic. For her efforts in England, Ethel Smyth was named Dame of the British Empire.

We will also hear Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 2, which unites Romanticism and Impressionism to phenomenal effect when the exquisite melodies are seasoned with adventurous and masterful violin passages. The German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann will perform the solo.