Göteborgs Konserthus Animatopia

Albert Roussel (1869–1937) Le Festin de l'araignée Prélude – Ants' entrance - Butterfly's dance - Dragonfly's dance and funeral Albert Roussel showed his musicality already as a child, but as a 15-year-old invested in training to become a naval officer. He gained life experiences and got to travel the world, and since there was a piano on board, he enjoyed himself. He resigned from the navy in 1898 to start studying music at the Schola Cantorum in Paris as a 29-year-old instead. In addition, he himself became a popular teacher of counterpoint at the same institution, where for twelve years he taught such diverse personalities as Erik Satie, the fugitive Bohemian Bohuslav Martinu and the strange avant-garde Edgar Varèse, who later emigrated to the United States. Roussel would quickly make up for lost years to become the foremost symphonist in early 20th century France. In 1913, his one-act ballet The Spider's Guest was first performed, a work that survived and 25 years later was also performed at the Paris Opera. Here we get to be part of all the quiet drama that unfolds in the world of insects. We are in a garden dominated by a large spider web, where its owner lures in wait for its victims. We get to follow the dance of a butterfly, when it is saved from the spider's bite by a falling apple, which in turn gives rise to a battle between worms and ants. We get to experience the birth and whole life of the dragonfly in the form of a waltz, and its burial after completing its short life with that glory, while the night leaves the garden in silence. But of course, it is really human suffering and greed that is depicted with an ironic heel kick. Stig Jacobsson

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Histoires naturelles (arr Anthony Girard) Le paon - Le grillon - Le cygne - Le martin-pêcheur - La pintade Ravel liked to write songs, and they are as significant as his piano and orchestral works, but on a different level. His first extant works were dated 1893 and the last 1933, they were both songs. In total, he wrote about 50 songs, most of them to contemporary French poets, whose often symbolic words are often given emotional interpretations, not least when they were dressed up in his fingertip-sensitive orchestral movement. He was often radical both in his choice of texts and in the design of the music. He was perhaps most questioned by the collection Histoires naturelles (1906), which thus deals with simple episodes from natural life. The lyrics were written in 1896 by Jules Renard (1864–1910). Here we meet a smug and screaming peacock, a bouncing cricket who tries to get his home in order before he locks himself in, a lazy and voracious swan who finds it difficult to find prey, a timid kingfisher who lands on the narrator's fishing line and a flapping guinea fowl hunting the farm's domestic fowl, and Ravel is careful to interpret Renard's direct and descriptive words as naturalistically as possible, something that critics of the time found both ridiculous and degrading. It was noted that both laughter and booing occurred during the concert where they were performed for the first time in 1907. Among the harshest critics were his colleagues Fauré and Debussy. Stig Jacobsson

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) Overture and the Lion's March - Hens and Roosters - Aquarium - The Swan - Turtles - Finale Camille Saint-Saëns was a very prolific composer who found it so easy to compose that not everyone took him seriously. Someone said that he was the greatest composer who was not a genius, and thus said that he lacked deep personality. He had always liked to joke and had always been fond of animals. He combined these two character traits in a Great Zoological Fantasy which he called the Carnival of the Animals. He wrote this nearly 25-minute long suite in February 1888 during a holiday in Austria. He himself realized that the music would dilute the criticism against him. No one would take it seriously. So he allowed no public performances and refused to have the sheet music printed. But just a couple of months after his death, the music was first performed with great success, on February 25, 1922. Only the solemn Swan had been performed before, and it had become, much to the composer's chagrin, his most famous and beloved work. In the introduction and the royal march, we hear the lion, king of the beasts, roaring in a way reminiscent of French baroque music with low unison strings and the bass octaves of the piano. No one can mistake that sentence 2 is about chickens and roosters. So much slower are the turtles, and with inimitable humor Saint-Saëns makes them dance the can-can out of Offenbach's Orfeus in the underworld – slower than you might imagine. The aquarium is depicted in shimmering light of the best impressionistic kind. The strings are arranged and there are glissandi and glass bead playing. The collection as a whole also includes individuals with long ears, kangaroos, birds, a cuckoo and then the fossils with quotes from some famous pieces of music, including Saint-Saën's own Dance macabre. Whereupon the entire animal world gathers in a joyous finale. Stig Jacobsson

Erik Satie (1866-1925) La pieuvre (from Sports et Divertissements) Desséchés of the embryo: Edriophthalma Préludes Flasques (pour un chien) Véritable Préludes Flasques (pour un chien) Satie has become famous for giving his works strange and downright absurd titles. Perhaps to tease Debussy who sometimes used excessively poetic titles such as The Sunken Cathedral, Steps in the Snow, Reflections in Water, Gardens in Rain. Satie continued in the same vein, naming his works so that everyone would notice them: Desiccated Fetuses (1913) is a suite in three movements dealing with sea cucumber, ringworm and crustacean fetuses. In the second movement, he quotes Chopin's familiar mourning march, but writes in the notes that it is the "famous mazurka of Schubert." Slack Preludes (For a Dog) was followed by Really Slack Preludes (For a Dog) (1912). Did he perhaps feel like a cowed dog? In any case, he had a hard time finishing his pieces. The most famous pianist of the time, Ricardo Viñes commented that they were typical "9 o'clock in the morning pieces" which, according to the composer, should be played "Like a nightingale with a toothache". Normally, a composer specifies the way in which the music should be performed, it is common with e.g. Allegro, élegico, andante, fast, slow, sad - but Satie also develops that side and sometimes specifies that one should play With surprise, Without trembling too much , Don't eat too much, Don't worry, Open your head, Arm yourself with clear vision. Sometimes it was full of anecdotes, probably added to put the pianist in a good mood. Although contemporaries often mocked him, he has influenced so many composers' way of looking at music that he must be taken seriously. The collection Sports et Divertissements (1914) are illustrations to an album of 20 drawings by Charles Martin. He had interpreted various sports, and Satie has suggested in the preface that the pianist should turn the pages with a smile, because this is a purely whimsical work. Among the often unexpected sports we find Picnic, Sea bathing, Tango, Fireworks and the half-minute long La pieuvre; a word that can be translated as octopus, but also as female vampire. Stig Jacobsson

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Sten Cranner is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is first guest conductor for the Gothenburg Symphony since 2019. She is also Première Artiste Invitée of Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Associate Artist of London Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (2024/25 onwards). Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her artistic colleagues include John Zorn, Krszysztof Warlikowski, Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, and Kirill Petrenko. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician. The Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 90 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen. The past few seasons have brought the premiere of a new production of Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine, and recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam's I am not a tale to be told with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, John Zorn's Split the Lark and Star Catcher, Zosha di Castri's In the Half Light with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a new project with Katia and Marielle Labeque inspired by the life and music of Hildegard von Bingen. 2023-2024 includes further world premieres by John Zorn, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Jan Sandström. Last season, Barbara made her conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with further debuts with Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, as well as ongoing musical collaborations with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, LSO, Santa Cecilia, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic. On record, Barbara Hannigan’s fruitful relationship with Alpha Classics began in 2017 with the release of Crazy Girl Crazy, which won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album. Five critically-acclaimed recordings followed, including Vienna: fin de siècle with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, La Passione featuring works by Nono, Haydn and Grisey, and in 2023 Infinite Voyage, joining her colleagues of the Emerson String Quartet for their final album, in works of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Berg and Chausson. Spring 2024 brings the release of the ecstatic vocal works of Messiaen with pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists (2017), and Momentum: our Future Now (2020). In 2021, Barbara Hannigan was appointed an honorary scholarship holder by the Swedish Stenastiftelsen and received a scholarship amounting to SEK 300,000. In 2022, she was named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine. Barbara resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France, directly across the Atlantic from where she grew up in Waverley, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is first guest conductor for the Gothenburg Symphony since 2019. She is also Première Artiste Invitée of Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Associate Artist of London Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (2024/25 onwards). Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her artistic colleagues include John Zorn, Krszysztof Warlikowski, Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, and Kirill Petrenko. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician. The Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 90 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen. The past few seasons have brought the premiere of a new production of Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine, and recent world premieres include Golfam Khayam's I am not a tale to be told with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, John Zorn's Split the Lark and Star Catcher, Zosha di Castri's In the Half Light with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a new project with Katia and Marielle Labeque inspired by the life and music of Hildegard von Bingen. 2023-2024 includes further world premieres by John Zorn, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Jan Sandström. Last season, Barbara made her conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with further debuts with Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, as well as ongoing musical collaborations with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, LSO, Santa Cecilia, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic. On record, Barbara Hannigan’s fruitful relationship with Alpha Classics began in 2017 with the release of Crazy Girl Crazy, which won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album. Five critically-acclaimed recordings followed, including Vienna: fin de siècle with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, La Passione featuring works by Nono, Haydn and Grisey, and in 2023 Infinite Voyage, joining her colleagues of the Emerson String Quartet for their final album, in works of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Berg and Chausson. Spring 2024 brings the release of the ecstatic vocal works of Messiaen with pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists (2017), and Momentum: our Future Now (2020). In 2021, Barbara Hannigan was appointed an honorary scholarship holder by the Swedish Stenastiftelsen and received a scholarship amounting to SEK 300,000. In 2022, she was named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine. Barbara resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France, directly across the Atlantic from where she grew up in Waverley, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Katia and Marielle Labèque are known for their interaction and energy. They became internationally famous for their contemporary interpretation of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and have since performed all over the world. They have played with prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic and worked with greats such as John Adams, Sir Colin Davis , Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta and Barbara Hannigan. They have appeared with the English Baroque Soloists and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica and Reinhard Goebe, with Venice Baroque and Andrea Marcon, Il Pomo d'Oro and Maxim Emelyanichev and toured with the orchestra The Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle. The Labèque sisters play at festivals and venues such as the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie and the BBC Proms. They played to a record audience of over 100 000 visitors at Vienna's Summer Night Concert in Schönbrunn. The project Electric Fields with Barbara Hannigan with music by Hildegard of Bingen premiered at Disney Hall in 2023, followed by concerts at the Aix en Provence Festival and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The Labèque sisters last guested with the Gothenburg Symphony in the spring of 2016 in the Philip Glass Concerto for two pianos.

French baritone Laurent Naouri studied in Marseille and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and moves from early baroque to contemporary opera. He has appeared in many of Europe's leading opera houses, as well as in cities such as New York, Dallas and Tokyo. Naouri debuted at the Opéra Garnier as Thésée in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, followed by Eugene Onegin at the Opéra de Nancy. At the Opéra Bastille he performed the roles of Count Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon and Figaro in Figaro's Wedding. Baroque roles have included Rameau's Platée and Les Indes galantes and Handel's Alcina. More recently, he has sung roles in Prokofiev's The Burning Angel, in Romeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Hoffmann, Cinderella, Samson and Delilah at The Met, in La Traviata at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Viva la Mammà at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Pelléas et Mélisande in Helsinki, Madama Butterfly and many more. He also gives solo concerts with his wife Natalie Dessay and pianist Maciej Pikulski.

David Dencik is a Swedish-Danish actor and known from Nordic film and television as well as Hollywood movies. He has had roles in films such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Bond film No Time to Die, as well as in TV series such as Chernobyl and Quicksand. His Swedish breakthrough he got in 2005 in Lasermannen. He has also appeared in Jane Campion's Top of the Lake and in the Danish crime drama Kastanjemannen. In the fall of 2023 he appeared in the drama series Huset.