Göteborgs Konserthus Christmas Concert: Handel’s Messiah

The Gothenburg Symphony, called "one of the world's most formidable orchestras" by the Guardian, has toured the USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East and performed at major music centres and festivals throughout the world. Chief conductor is Santtu-Matias Rouvali who started his tenure in 2017. Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach are principal guest conductors since 2019. Already at the orchestra's very first years, the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed principal conductor, contributing strongly to the Nordic profile of the orchestra by inviting his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to conduct their own works. Subsequent holders of the post include Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. During Neeme Järvi's tenure (1982-2004), the orchestra became a major international force. In 1997 it was appointed the National Orchestra of Sweden. During his celebrated tenure as music director (2007-2012), Gustavo Dudamel took the Orchestra to major music centres and festivals in Europe, making acclaimed appearances at BBC Proms and Vienna Musikverein. The list of prominent guest conductors has included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan, Myung-Whun Chung, Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra also runs extensive concert projects for children, and regularly releases digital live concerts free on gsoplay.se. The orchestra has been involved in many prestigious recording projects, the latest one the complete Sibelius Symphonies with Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Alpha Classics. Earlier, the orchestra has issued over 100 recordings on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Farao Classics and several other labels. The Gothenburg Symphony is owned by the Region Västra Götaland.

Graham Ross, born 1985, is co-founder and Principal Conductor of The Dmitri Ensemble and Director of Music and Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. He is in demand as a guest conductor for several ensembles in the UK and abroad and has recently collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra. At the age of 25 he made his BBC Proms and Glyndebourne debuts. He has conducted and recorded world premieres by a wide range of composers. His latest album Ice Land: The Eternal Music was released in 2022. As a composer he has been commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, O Duo, Park Lane Group, Wigmore Hall and The Solstice Quartet. Ross is the founder and artistic director of Singers Abroad and patron of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. On BBC Radio, he is, among other things, a guest presenter for Inside Music.

Eirik Grøtvedt was born in 1993 and is educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 2017 he performed Don Ottavio at the Opera's Stage 2, as part of the Opera Academy's production of Don Giovanni, and the Male Chorus in The Rape of Luctretia at the Lidal North International Opera Workshop. In 2018, Grøtvedt participated in NRK's celebration of Edvard Grieg, and he sang Don Ottavio at the Oslo Opera Festival and at opera galas with the Lithuanian National Philharmonic and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. As a concert singer, he has had solo roles in Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Mass in C minor and Coronation Mass, Haydn's Creation, Dvorak's Stabat Mater and in several Bach cantatas. At Opera Østfold, he has appeared in Mendelssohn's Elias and as Ruiz in Verdi's Troubadour. On Opera's big stage, he has been involved as Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro, Borsa in Rigoletto and Le Dancaïre in Carmen. Grøtvedt has a special fondness for lieder. Despite his young age, he has already built up a considerable repertoire, with songs by Alfvén, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Grieg, Liszt, Rangström, Schubert, Schumann, Sibelius, Stenhammar and Vaughan Williams

Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg appears regularly at opera houses such as La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, Theater an der Wien, the Zurich Opera, the National Opera in Paris, the Royal Opera in Stockholm and the Drottningholm Palace Theatre. She also sings regularly in concert halls and at festivals in Europe and North America. Among the conductors she has collaborated with are Frans Brüggen, William Christie, Peter Dijkstra, Adam Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Järvi, Riccardo Muti and Marc Minkowski. Her repertoire includes a large number of leading roles in operas by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Purcell, Bizet and Massenet. As a concert singer, she performs music from the early 17th century to contemporary composers, including Monteverdi, Cavalli, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, Chausson, Waxman and Börtz. In 2019-2020, Ann Hallenberg was Artist in Residence at Drottningholm's Slottsteater and did, among other things, the title role in Handel's Ariodante. In 2021 she was seen at the same theater in Agrippina.

With her beautiful sounding voice and musical versatility, Camilla Tilling has sustained a career at the highest level for two decades. A celebrated debut at the New York City Opera was her international breakthrough, which then brought her to the world's leading opera and concert halls. At the same time, she has built up an impressive discography. As a highly respected concert singer, Camilla Tilling is a regular guest of the world's leading orchestras. Current highlights include performances of Mahler's Fourth Symphony and Bach's Matthew Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, Schumann's Scenes from Faust with the Elbphilharmonic and Thomas Hengelbrock, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the New York Philharmonic and Christoph von Dohnányi, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and Bernard Haitink as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. She has also sung Dutilleux's Correspondances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the La Scala Orchestra and Bernard Haitink and the Royal Philharmonic and Michael Tilson-Thomas, as well as Alban Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder in Sydney, Paris and London.

As one of Sweden's leading baritone singers, Fredrik Zetterström has been involved with the majority of Scandinavian opera houses. He has also appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and the Chicago Opera Theater. Fredrik Zetterström's roles include Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Germont in La Traviata (Verdi), the Count in Figaro's Wedding (Mozart) and Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet). Fredrik Zetterström has performed with orchestras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, the Norrland Opera Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. His concert repertoire includes, among other things, Mahler's Rückert-lieder, Rangström's King Erik's Songs, Stenhammar's Florez and Blanzeflor as well as most of the oratorios from the standard repertoire. Fredrik Zetterström's great vocal range has also made him a prominent and appreciated interpreter of new vocal works, such as by Daniel Börtz, Thomas Jennefelt, Sven-David Sandström, Knut Nystedt, Karin Rehnqvist and Lars Ekström.

The choir was founded in 1917 by cousins Elsa and Wilhelm Stenhammar. Elsa Stenhammar was one of the driving forces in turn-of-the-century choir life in Gothenburg and became the choir's first rehearser. On December 8, 1917, the choir debuted in Beethoven's Choir Fantasy with Wilhelm Stenhammar as soloist at the grand piano. As the country's oldest symphonic choir, they were able to celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2017 with a big celebratory concert where Mozart and Brahms as well as Stenhammar, Elfrida Andrée and Björn & Benny were on the program. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir is a non-profit association that is linked to the Gothenburg Symphony. The choir participates in concerts and performances under both the orchestra's and its own auspices. The music is mixed and the repertoire extensive. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir has participated in concerts in, among other places, the Royal Albert Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England, as well as participated with the Gothenburg Symphony in the annual music festival in the Canary Islands and on a tour to China.