International Composer Festival – Ghosts

This year's International Composer Festival at Konserthuset Stockholm is dedicated to the Scottish composer James MacMillan. His music combines raw emotional power with spiritual focus, rooted in his Catholic faith.

MacMillan often draws inspiration from traditional Scottish music and culture, and the tone poem The Death of Oscar is based on one of the legends of the Celtic poet Ossian. These ancient stories have had a significant influence on the image of Scotland, inspiring composers such as Mendelssohn-Bartholdy when he wrote The Hebrides, and Goethe in The Sorrows of Young Werther.

The trombone concerto oscillates between darkness and light, with dance-like episodes and meditative calm. At times, it is incredibly beautiful and poignant. MacMillan composed it in memory of his granddaughter Sara Maria MacMillan, who died at the young age of five from an incurable brain disease.

James MacMillan shares his strong Catholic faith with Olivier Messiaen (1908–92), and both composers' music contains spiritually meditative elements. Messiaen's Les offrandes oubliées – The Forgotten Offerings – was his very first published orchestral piece. It is subtitled Méditation symphonique, symphonic meditation. This is music in which Messiaen gives us his own glimpse of eternity.

The Concerto for Orchestra, ”Ghosts”, is the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's co-commissioned work for the festival. The piece was premiered a few months ago in London. The Guardian wrote about “a remarkably effective work” and noted its “energy and thrilling drama.” The title Ghosts is a reference to Beethoven's Ghost Trio, and because the music “seems to be haunted by other, earlier musical spirits and memories,” as MacMillan puts it.

Read our interview with James MacMillan (in Swedish)

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft