Programme

The concert begins with Demon by the British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989) – a co-commissioned work by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in 2023 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She found inspiration in old folk tales from the British Isles, chilling stories where a demon can manifest anywhere - here as both menacing and playful orchestral music.

Menacing indeed. Mahler's heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder – Songs on the Death of Children – has tragic points of connection with Mahler's own life, and the composition would also come to seem like a premonition: a few years later, Mahler's eldest daughter Maria died. The poems by Friedrich Rückert that Mahler chose deal with the parents' grieving process and the slow reconciliation with a painful reality.

The world-renowned Nina Stemme is the soloist in this poignant music. ”Nina Stemme has probably never sounded better”, wrote Svenska Dagbladet about a concert with her earlier this year.

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in this program, which concludes with Carl Nielsen. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is subtitled "Det uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). It's dramatic music written in the midst of the First World War, famous in part for its duel between two timpanists.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Welcome to a soup concert dedicated to the wonderful music country of Czechia. While most people are familiar with and enjoy Dvořák, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's cellist Hanna Dahlkvist and guest pianist Darya Tchaikovsky show that there is so much more.

First, we hear music by the extremely talented conductor and composer Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915–40). She passed away at the age of 25 from tuberculosis but managed to compose an impressive amount of music. She also wrote a series of excellent chamber music works, such as the explosive Deux ritournelles for cello and piano.

Vítezslava Kaprálová studied with Bohuslav Martinu, and from him, we hear the brightly colored and rhythmically vibrant third cello sonata – one of his most beloved pieces. Martinu, in turn, studied with Josef Suk, who was Antonín Dvořák's favorite student at the Prague Conservatory. They also got to know each other personally, and Josef Suk later married Dvořák's daughter Otilie. Suk's music is characterized by a flowing melody and lyrical passion, as heard in his Ballad and Serenade, which at times recalls Brahms's late chamber music.

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Menu: Broccoli soup with parmesan. The soup is served with sourdough bread, crispbread, butter, mineral water/light beer, coffee/tea, and a piece of chocolate. Wine and beer available for purchase for those who wish.

All soups are lactose- and gluten-free. Please inform us of any special dietary requests when booking.

Konserthuset Stockholm at Hötorget is one of Sweden’s great architectural masterpieces. Created during a period of expansion in Stockholm, by the Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, it opened in 1926. Konserthuset Stockholm was built for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since the start been the dedicated venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as well as many other prestigious events.

• The guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 25 persons/tour.

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Subtitles
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Jan Lundgren is one of our foremost musicians, and with around fifty CDs and a range of projects and collaborations, he has consistently shown his ability to embrace tradition while always evolving. Each year, Jan Lundgren presents three concerts under the banner Kind of Jazz – unique meetings with invited artists and ensembles. Kind of Jazz 2025 marks the series’ seventh season.

This year’s Kind of Jazz series concludes with a duo performance. Till Brönner is Germany’s leading jazz trumpeter, often mentioned in the same breath as Chet Baker. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” says Jan Lundgren. “This will be our first concert together. He’s extremely busy, so it has taken some time to make this happen. Among Till Brönner’s idols are Chet Baker and Miles Davis. The title’s ‘vs’, versus, isn’t meant as a competition, but perhaps it suggests a playful shadowboxing. I look forward to a delightful meeting with lots of spontaneous twists. It’ll be melodic, with a blend of original compositions, jazz classics, and some pop elements.”

Till Brönner’s dozen solo albums, most recorded in Los Angeles, have been hugely successful, with his debut album in 1993 winning an award. He has performed with virtually all the international greats and was invited in 2016 by President Barack Obama to the White House for International Jazz Day. This will be the first time the renowned German trumpeter performs at Konserthuset Stockholm.

Few eras have united music and poetry with such profundity as the German Romantic period. In this concert, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, under the direction of Justin Doyle, offers a sonorous and expressive journey into the very heart and soul of Romantic choral music – from the intimate songs of Franz Schubert to the powerful choral works of Johannes Brahms and the lyrical elegance of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

The programme also includes music by Robert Schumann and Peter Cornelius, as well as a striking contrast: a work by the acclaimed German composer Elisabeth Fusseder (born 2000). In In waldeslust, with texts by Ernst Moritz Arndt, Emerenz Meier and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, she leads the listener into a forest whose Romantic innocence has long since faded.

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir is conducted by Justin Doyle, who is chief conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin. In addition, he serves as professor of choral conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music. This concert is a tribute to both word and tone, where poetry is brought to life in a spellbinding sonic landscape.

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 by the then 27-year-old Eric Ericson and has since occupied a central place in both Swedish and international musical life. It is among the world’s foremost professional vocal ensembles and has enjoyed a close collaboration with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Konserthuset Stockholm since 2003.

Welcome to this tribute concert for the legendary Finnish musician Jukka Kuoppamäki! We hear wonderful vocal soloists, such as Arja Koriseva, Pepe Willberg, Anna Hanski, Antti Railio, Anna Kuoppamäki, Inka Auhagen and Ville Liimatainen. Together with an orchestra led by Mirka Dojan, they present Jukka Kuoppamäki’s best known and most popular songs.

Jukka Kuoppamäki, born in 1942, began his career as a teenager in the 1960s as a member of the groups Neloset and Kukonpojat. His first solo album, “Mitä Kansa Haluaa”, was released in 1966. It marked the beginning his sixty-year career as a songwriter, during which he released 47 albums and 28 collections. His production of over 2,000 songs includes “Sininen Ja Valkoinen”, “Paljon Sanomatta Jää”, “Pieni Mies”, “Anna Mulle Tähtitaivas”, “Satulinna” and “Sinussa On Valo”.

Jukka Kuoppamäki has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Kullervo Linna Foundation Award in 1993, Special-Emma for his life’s work in 2001, the Juha Vainio Award in 2018 and the Pro Finlandia medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2019.

Welcome to the Chief of Navy’s Concert with the Royal Swedish Navy Band, presenting music that takes us to New York, a fascinating, energetic and diverse city of endless possibilities. The music of this concert captures the essence of New York City – from intimate jazz clubs and glittering Broadway musicals, all the way to Liberty Island’s Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and democracy. Countless composers have worked and been inspired in the bustling metropolis of New York, including George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber and John Corigliano, all of whom have captured in one way or another the soul of the city in their work.

The concert’s soloist is jazz singer Rigmor Gustafsson, who took the step from the forests of Värmland to the pavement of New York, settling afterwards in Stockholm to perform on Europe’s stages.

Join us on a musical journey to the Big Apple – the city that never sleeps!

In all three works, the vocal element takes centre stage. Soprano soloist in two of the pieces is Alexandra Büchel – one of our foremost interpreters of contemporary music, among other genres. This spring, she appears at Norrlandsoperan in the newly composed opera Älskarinnorna by Jenny Wilson, based on Elfriede Jelinek’s novel Women as Lovers (Die Liebhaberinnen).

Vägar, flyktvägar (Paths, Escape Routes) for soprano and percussion by Ylva Q Arkvik is a triptych exploring themes of captivity in the past, the longing to flee from and to something new, and the magic of liberation in an unexpected moment. The poems are taken from an upcoming collection by playwright, librettist, and author Kerstin Perski. The music captures the dreamlike quality of the texts.

Omnia tempus habent (Everything Has Its Time) is Arne Mellnäs’s setting of the text from Ecclesiastes. Composed for solo soprano, it conveys a consoling message in both words and music: hardship is temporary, and light will return. The piece, best performed in a venue with generous acoustics, was premiered in 1972 at Visby Cathedral by Marianne Mellnäs.

Jag märker allting (I Notice Everything) by Hans Gefors is a cantata in a prologue and twelve movements, with actor Hannes Meidal as narrator, guiding us through the music. As vocal soloist, we hear countertenor Elias Aaron Johansson. Gefors weaves together lines from Strindberg’s pilgrimage play To Damascus with poems by the 20th-century Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. The work is inspired by the Baroque cantata tradition, reflected both in its structure and instrumentation: narration, countertenor, a small choir, two violins, cello, percussion, and theorbo.

In collaboration with Swedish Music Spring. The concert is produced in partnership with the Society of Swedish Composers.

Tchaikovsky composed his fifth symphony during a few summer months in 1888. He had complained of lacking inspiration in the spring: "Am I burned out? No ideas, no desire?" But the fifth became a vital, emotionally charged, and in many respects brilliant symphony. It premiered under the composer's direction at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in November of the same year.

The concert begins with Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi's Liguria, music that takes us on a journey between five small fishing villages clinging to the cliffs along Italy's northwestern coast.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Sibelius's violin concerto is now the most performed of all violin concertos from the 20th century. Yet its musical language belongs to the late 19th century, and the music is warm and lyrical, dramatic and melancholic. Sibelius, himself a violinist, possibly wrote the concerto he himself would have wanted to play – albeit on a technical level far beyond his own. In this way, the violin concerto can be seen as a farewell to the youthful dreams of a career as a violin virtuoso. It is among the more challenging in the genre, as many violinists have attested.

Taking on the challenge is the young award-winning violinist Maria Ioudenitch. In 2021, she won first prize in the prestigious Ysaÿe International Music Competition and the same year also the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition. Maria Ioudenitch was born in Russia but moved to the USA with her family at the age of two.

Tchaikovsky composed his fifth symphony during a few summer months in 1888. He had complained about a lack of inspiration in the spring: "Am I burned out? No ideas, no desire?" But the fifth became a vital, emotionally charged, and in many respects brilliant symphony. It premiered under the composer's direction at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in November of the same year.

The concert opens with the Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodis's Liguria, music that takes us on a journey between five small fishing villages clinging to the cliffs along Italy's northwest coast.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft