Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

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)

Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

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

Beethoven's overture to Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragic drama about the Roman general Coriolanus is grandiose and dramatic, yet also enchantingly beautiful. It is written in the key of C minor, which Beethoven often used in his most intense and heroic works.

With Nielsen, humour is often present. This is particularly true for his second symphony, which was inspired by a visit to a village inn. On the wall hung a painting that ironically depicted the four temperaments of humans – the choleric, the phlegmatic, the melancholic, and the sanguine – which Nielsen portrays with good humour, a touch of drama, and palpable warmth in his second symphony, also known as the "Four Temperaments".

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Alan Gilbert, the orchestra's former chief conductor (2000–2008) and since then its Conductor Laureate. He has served as the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and is currently the chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg and the music director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.