A Mahler Finale with the RSPO Orchestra Academy

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.

They also showcase their talents through a series of public chamber music concerts – such as this one featuring this year’s academy musicians. This finale is more than just a traditional chamber concert – we hear Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in a version for a smaller ensemble, led by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s Chief Conductor, Ryan Bancroft!

Symphony No. 4 is both simple and sophisticated; it is like dewdrops on a flower, suddenly shimmering with thousands of colours as the sunlight touches them – as Mahler himself described the melodies of the first movement. The symphony has been called “heavenly blue.” The first three movements lead to a final movement with a soprano solo: Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden – We revel in the heavenly joys. It is open, bright, lyrical, yet also playful, with themes and sonorities from the earlier movements reappearing.

The soloist is the Swedish soprano Karin Mobacke, who in recent years has been gaining increasing attention on the country’s opera and concert stages. She made her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2023 in a concert performance of Johann Gottlieb Naumann’s national opera Gustaf Wasa.