Göteborgs Konserthus Gageego! 30 years

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) Dérive 1 The piece Dérive 1, or Dérive as it was called before the sequel Dérive 2 was added, was first performed by the London Sinfonietta in 1984. The history of the piece goes back to 1976 when Boulez, Lutoslawski, Dutilleux, Pousseur, Blacher and other composers wrote music for the celebration of patron and conductor Paul Sachers 70th birthday. While most of the works became solo pieces for cello, Boulez composed a work for solo cello and six violoncellos, Messagesquisse. The tonal material in all works were musical interpretations or paraphrases of the name Sacher – ess, a, c, h, e, re (d). Six chords are formed from the six notes. Through small and continuous shifts, a feeling of extended time is created which contrasts with melodic ornamentation at a fast pace. This polarity is also expressed in the contrast between the two parts that can be distinguished in the piece. Through increasingly clear pulsating elements, an ambivalence between harmony and melody arises, chords become fragments of melody, figures are swallowed by harmony.

Carola Bauckholt (b 1959) Luftwurzeln for flute, clarinet, viola and cello During the 2000s, Carola Bauckholt became one of the big names as well as a composer and teacher with guest laureates from Oslo to Chile and with several composition prizes on the shelf. The music explores the borderland between musical theatre, performance art and concert music. In Luftwurzeln, the noise-derived, sound-associating music carries a strong visual mark, not through what happens on stage, but in the listening. The music explores various tremolating, vibrating and air-like sounds and the ear slowly begins to hear the gestures almost as choreographic elements. A repetitive gesture is imitated in instrument after instrument, slowly transforming until suddenly, as if by chance, it changes direction - like a sudden gust of wind, the music is carried from place to place in an imaginary landscape.

Madeleine Isaksson (b 1953) Rooms Three tempi run simultaneously. Each instrument follows a series in one of the piece's three basic tempos. Series and tempo can be interchanged between the instruments, but the three different tempi, in original, divided or augmented, are running in parallel throughout the composition. When the three different tempi periods land on one and the same pulse, a new "room" has been opened. Room is built on the basis of two series of numbers, 3 1 4 2 5 and 2 1 4 3 5, in mirrored and retrograde variants. These series have been applied to the overall form, divided into five according to the series 3 1 4 2 5, and to the division of rhythm within a period of fifteen pulsations (the sum of series).

Simon Løffler (f 1981) b (2012) for three musicians Simon Løffler is one of the leading Danish composers of a young generation where innovation in both the aesthetic and technical sense comes to the fore. Løffler's "letter suite" is perhaps one of its prime examples. The six works expand and above all invent new conditions for sound - or, perhaps rather, our experience of sound. Just as the sound is important, several of the works are independent of their visual presentation. In "b (2012)" we meet three musicians, six effects pedals, three neon tubes and a loose mono cable that investigates and portrays static electricity and amplification of the human body. The body's natural tension is eased into an "open circuit" of electricity, which manifests itself in disjointed, static sounds and a flickering fluorescent lamplight, while the musicians' feet - in interconnected effect pedals - contribute an additional electronic discharge, the clearest sonorous result of which is the shift in pitch. Esaias Järnegard

Stuart Saunders Smith (1948–2024) In Common In common (1991) by the recently deceased composer Saunders Smith was performed by Gageego! at their very first concert, 23 March 1995 at Kronhuset. Since then, his music has periodically sounded in Gothenburg and the surrounding area during Gageego!'s concerts. Saunders Smith's music often has the percussion at the center, so also in In Common. His music is characterized by an eclectic and esoteric vein with often surprising elements. About the short and dense work In Common, Saunders Smith quotes two complementary sentences: "Music is one of our little dances with death in which we lead.” and "Music is one of our little dances with life where we follow." Anders Jonhäll

Esaias Järnegard (b. 1983) Tunnlar. Diken. Gravar (premiere) “Tunnels. Ditches. Graves is a composition that is as much mine as the memory of Gageego! A collection of phrases from meetings with these musicians since 2014. In the center moves a viola solo that carries excerpts and concert memories from the time when Johanna Persson in several of my works and other composers' music taught me how strings can sound. In the periphery, the woodwind parts of Ragnar Arnberg and Anders Jonhäll move like elusive shadows of both voices and lines. The hands mark the constant presence of the percussion. The rasping, down-tuned string is Johan Stern's thoughtful string movement. Surrounding all this is an echo of the past year's life. Nothing in Tunnlar. Diken. Gravar is really a homage, but the way I built the 7 interwoven sets bears traces that point in several directions. In a note quite late in the composition process it says 23, 29, 21, 7 and 41. The numbers mean little to the listening, but also mean everything. Thank you Gageego!” Esaias Järnegard

Per Mårtensson (b. 1967) Quartet The precision, virtuosity and sensitivity of Per Mårtensson's writing have always gone hand in hand with the ensemble's diligent exploration. The composer Hans Gefors has said the following about Mårtensson's quartet: "How do you create musical characters? Just like when assessing people - it is important to have a sharp eye. It is important to listen carefully! Concentration. Listen to both foreground and background; listen to both the individual instrument and the overall result; both be curious about the detail and keep the big picture in mind... Quartet has four movements, presents four characters. It is very quiet - then you get more details in the listening. And it is short, very short. Like seeing a person on the platform when the subway is leaving the station and seem to be facing someone's fate.” Anders Jonhäll

Djuro Zivkovic (b. 1975) Night Music In 2019, Gageego performed! Djuro Zivkovics On the guarding of the heart under the direction of Peter Eötvös. A memorable concert where every millimeter of Stenhammarsalen's podium was used. Tonight, the music is more chamber music where we get to hear a peculiar conversation between the tonal worlds of Zivkovic and Scriabin (1872–1915). Zivkovic says himself: "Night Music is inspired by one of the most beautiful short piano compositions, written by Alexander Scriabin after 1900. As I understand that all genius music can have new layers, I have used six pieces by Scriabin as background to a newly composed music and thus added to Scriabin an absurd imagination, alien passion and exotic illusions...The piano, however, should not be considered a solo instrument, but a distant sound, which comes from far away in the universe.” Anders Jonhäll

Joakim Sandgren (b. 1965) endroits susceptibles Since 2003, a significant part of Joakim Sandgren's music has been based on a sonogram, where various analyzes of the sonorous content of a short recording from the streets of Paris have formed a seemingly unimaginable source of creative achievements. Several works have been written for Gageego!, such as tonight's piece, which in 2013 was awarded Sweden's largest chamber music prize, the Järnåker scholarship. Sandgren writes: "I wrote endroits susceptible for several periods from 2010 to 2012. It was extremely difficult. Many decisions that were difficult to make. I eventually learned that it was the periods that made it good. Or rather the pauses. Afresh ear and mind can see structures and shape more clearly after a break of several months. At the premiere we played with congas. Later there was an occasion where I needed to replace the conga with a piano (!) and that version was so successful that it is the one that has been played ever since. Gageego are absolutely fantastic and the piece is what it is and has become thanks to them.”

The ensemble was formed in 1995 and wants to explore and make contemporary chamber music more accessible. As one of the most important actors in Music Sweden, the ensemble is appreciated for interpreting today's music at the highest technical and artistic level in a joyful and curious way. The group collaborates regularly with Swedish and international guests such as Peter Eötvös, H K Gruber and Pierre-André Valade. In addition to concerts in Sweden, the ensemble has toured in Russia and Denmark, among other places, and played as a guest at Lange Nacht der Neuen Klänge in Vienna's concert hall. The members come from Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Norrbotten Neo and Gothenburg Opera, among others. The latest album release is called Infiltrations (2024) and collects music by Madeleine Isaksson.

Tuula Fleivik is co-principal for the violas in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She studied violin at the Helsinki Conservatory and viola at the Sibelius Academy and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2000-2001 she was a member of the Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra. She has worked as principal in Sinfonia Lahti, Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana (Palau de les Arts) and Helsinki City Orchestra. Tuula Fleivik also has a great interest in contemporary music and has played with ensembles such as Gageego! and the Zagros Ensemble.

Fredrik Burstedt has worked with many professional orchestras in Sweden and throughout the Nordics, including Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted the Staatskapelle Weimar, Nürnberg Sinfoniker and I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan. In opera, Fredrik Burstedt has conducted Janaçeck's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Gothenburg Opera, Bizet's Carmen and Martinu's The Greek Passion at the Värmland Opera, Lehar's The Merry Widow and Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Royal Opera and Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe at the Norrland Opera. He has led premieres of, among others, Jonas Bolin's Tristessa at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, which was named one of the five most important opera events in the world, as well as The Silver Bird by Mats Larsson-Gothe, The War of Love by Paula by Malmborg-Ward and The Norrmalmstorg Drama by Albert Schnelzer. Fredrik Burstedt is a former concertmaster and violinist and began his conducting studies with Jorma Panula. He received additional tuition from Daniel Harding, Stefan Solyom and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He was awarded the Royal Opera's Sixten Ehrling Prize for young conductors and the Royal Academy of Music's prestigious Herbert Blomstedt Scholarship. In 2017, he was awarded a Grammy for his portrait album of the composer Mats Larsson Gothe, in which he conducted the Västerås Sinfonietta and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.