Göteborgs Konserthus Ensemble Caplet

Jean Sibelius wrote a lot of music that can be placed within the English concept of "Light classics", simple, short and uncomplicated orchestral pieces that are nevertheless filled with great music. He wrote these at different times, but right at the beginning of the 1920s the most famous ones were added: Valse lyrique and Valse chevaleresque Op 96, Suite mignonne and Suite champêtre Op 98, as well as Suite caractéristique Op 100. The last two were first performed together with Valse chevaleresque at the same concert on February 19, 1923, when the composer himself conducted the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra and closed the concert with his Symphony No. 6. Suite caractéristique is a small suite in three movements, really not much more than a trifle with five minutes playing time, but given the added touch of the harp playing a prominent role. The very short sentences sweep by quickly. The middle movement Lento is the most substantial, almost a mournful march that ends in a quiet farewell.

I finished the piece Esquisses for string quartet and harp in 2019. Despite the graphic title (esquisses, 'sketches'), the first two movements are not inspired by or descriptive of any graphic artwork in particular. But hopefully it will help the listener imagine their own images. The last part is more descriptive. It is based on a haiku by the Japanese poet Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775). For me, the poem is about life ending, disappearing and ending in nothing. It is expressed by Chiyo-Ni in the most peaceful way I have ever read, and I tried to reproduce this feeling in this last movement. /Pierre Guis “The water turns to crystal the fireflies go out There is nothing more” (Chiyo-Ni)

Belgian music may not belong to what we usually associate with Western art music. César Franck is perhaps the one who beats us the most. For those versed in modernism, Henri Posseur or Karel Goeyvarts will surely appear, but if we nail down history, a rich flora of composers, not least with Flemish glasses, is hidden in these latitudes; Renaissance masters such as Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez derive from Belgian geography. Joseph Jongen, born in Liège, does not place himself far from César Franck, not only in a historical and geographical sense. Jongen, as well as Franck, had the organ as their main instrument, but all the more their music carries what we would call French features, underlined by Jongen's own compositional studies for both Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré. Not least in this quintet, they are strongly reminded. The first movement, illustrated through the whole-tone scales, bears traits of Debussy's airy and bright sonorous sensibility. The second movement, on the other hand, bears traits of Fauré's more introspective melodic lines, to break out in the third movement in a fleeting and witty Ravel-scented ending, where pure quotations from the Rapsodie Espagnole flash past. Esaias Järnegård

Jean Cras was a French composer and naval officer. His musical compositions are inspired by his homeland in Brittany, his travels to Africa and at sea. He achieved success in Paris in 1922 with his opera Polyphème, which became his most famous work. Early in his career, Jean Cras met the composer Henri Duparc. The two became friends for life. Duparc called Cras "the son of my soul". Although Cras' duties in the French navy left him little time to devote to music, he continued to compose throughout his life, mainly songs and chamber music. The quintet for violin, viola, cello, flute and harp from 1928 was composed by order of the harpist Pierre Jamet. The unusual instrument set-up makes full use of Cras. The influences of Debussy and Ravel permeate the score. The composition opens with the flute's sunny murmur against a background of the harp's glittering branchwork. As a whole, the piece suggests a misleading hedonism in an idyllic landscape.