Strings from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, reinforced by guest cellist Andreas Lavotha, form a quartet and perform together with the orchestra's pianist Stefan Lindgren two truly magnificent piano quintets, by Dmitri Shostakovich and Dora Pejačević.

Shostakovich's quintet was composed against a dark backdrop, in the war year of 1940. The music, full of contrasts and surprising twists, depicts tragicomic scenes, musical flashbacks, and hopeful gestures. It is one of his most famous and beloved chamber music works.

Dora Pejačević's piano quintet is powerful with its dense harmonies and beautiful melodies – it is a highlight in her oeuvre. Dora Pejačević was born in Hungary, and her mother was Hungarian, but her father was a Croatian nobleman, and therefore she became part of the Croatian nobility around the turn of the last century.

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

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