Vara Konserthus Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra plays in Vara Konserthus

Bryce Dessner (b 1976) Violin Concerto ‘One thing is certain, one item is constant in the set of beliefs with which he travels. It is simply this, that when you reach the place called the end of the world, you fall off into the water.’ My Violin Concerto was partly inspired by Anne Carson’s essay ‘The Anthropology of Water’, which re-imagines the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I now live in the Basque region of France, just beyond the Spanish border on the Atlantic coast which sits directly on the pilgrimage route. In Carson’s essay, a modern young woman walks the Camino del Santiago. Each diary entry opens with a date, a place on the pilgrimage route (many villages are near where we live) and a quote from an earlier literary pilgrim (Mitsune, Basho..). I spent much of 2020 and 2021 at home during the pandemic, often taking long hikes through the oak forests with my four-year old son. I considered how journeys by foot create a different connection to the land and environment in which we live. Something about the practice of composing for orchestra, and writing a violin concerto, felt at times like a musical analog to this pilgrimage. Taking a journey that so many have taken before, and in which so many other musical pilgrims have left some of the most iconic and timeless music. So what does it mean for a contemporary artist to make this same journey and how these artifacts left behind by other artists inform our own course. Why are we drawn to a path so many before us have taken and often? What could I have to say that could be new or specific to my own journey? These were thoughts in my mind as I composed this concerto for my dear friend Pekka Kuusisto, also thinking of the amazing conductors and orchestras who would perform it. I have also often taken musical inspiration from the sea, a constant source for many artists, and one which has inspired pieces of mine such as St Carolyn by the Sea and Wave Movements. In the concerto I acknowledge the history and form of the concerto – loosely functioning in 3 movements with a cadenza between the first and second…while the second and third movements play almost like one large section and the whole piece is played attacca. I chose to work with a smaller size orchestra – which also suits the music well I think. It embraces elements of the heroic form of the violin concerto – with moments of intense interplay between soloist and orchestra – but in other ways I subvert the traditional form, with the solo violin driving large sections of string Tutti in the fist movement and then in the second movement this unison material distils into an individualist polyphony where each instrument, including every string player in the orchestra, has their own solo. Thus inverting the traditional relationships of soloist to orchestra. The third movement reflects back on this pilgrims journey with wave like gestures in the orchestra giving way to a more driving and pulsing finale. In Pekka Kuusisto, the violinist for whom my Concerto is written and dedicated, I have an ideal collaborator having previously composed a violin solo, Ornament and Crime (2015), for him and he has long been a champion of my music both as director and chamber musician. He works at the highest level with a wide range of classical repertoire and is equally hungry for new works. He has a broad knowledge and appreciation of music beyond the walls of the classical genre and brings a creative whimsy to everything he touches. Bryce Dessner, August 2021

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Symphony No 3 Mehr langsam - Adagio, bewegt, quasi Andante - Scherzo: Ziemlich schnell - Finale: Allegro It was only at the age of 43 that Anton Bruckner dared to compose a symphony, a genre which since Beethoven had been declared dead, and which even Brahms of the same age avoided for a long time. His third symphony, originally from 1873, became something of a problem child that he reworked and revised several times. When Bruckner composed, he was calm and confident, but in between he doubted his own ability. Sometimes he changed his works because of hostile, uncomprehending criticism, but more often under the fatal influence of well-meaning friends. In its original form, it is the longest and most Wagner-tinged of his symphonies, and today considered his artistic breakthrough. Bruckner himself preferred the tighter version from 1889, where the coda in the third movement was completely removed and further deletions were made in the first and last movements. Bruckner's symphonic tonality is original, with a modality colored by his long apprenticeship as a church musician and association with the old church tones. His orchestral treatment with large, extended chords has been likened to "an organist in the process of changing registers". Beethoven was one of his role models, whose Ninth Symphony gave him the formal scheme: a grand first movement, a profound adagio, an energetic scherzo in sonata form, and finally a summing finale. Richard Wagner, whom he greatly admired and dedicated the symphony to, contributed to the dimensions and some of the harmonics. Regardless of the version, Bruckner's third symphony shines!

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. Anna-Karin Larsson 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.

Andrew Manze is widely regarded as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of our time. 2014-2023 he was Chief Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover. Manze has for many years worked with leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Royal Philharmonic in Stockholm and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. In 2018 he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded the complete symphonic works of Ralph Vaughan Williams with the orchestra for Onyx Classics. Andrew Manze initially studied violin and quickly became a leading specialist in the field of historical performance (HIP). In 1996 he became Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music based in Cambridge and from 2003-2007 was Artistic Director of The English Concert. As a violinist, Andrew Manze has recorded a wide range of records, many of which have won awards. From 2006 to 2014, Manze was the chief conductor and artistic director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and, among other things, recorded symphonies by Beethoven and Brahms with the orchestra. He was assistant guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 2010-2014 and first guest conductor of the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra 2008-2011. In 2011, Andrew Manze received the prestigious Rolf Schock Award in Stockholm. He has been a guest of the Gothenburg Symphony several times, in the fall of 2023 he conducted music by Byström, Brahms and Beethoven.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto is known for his artistic freedom and innovative approach to repertoire. He is the artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and, since 2023, principal guest conductor and artistic partner of the Helsinki Philharmonic. He is also a partner with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. From season 2025-2026 he will be Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. In the 2023-2024 season, Kuusisto appeared as a violinist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He appeared as guest conductor with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Orchester de chambre de Paris. Under the name Council, he toured North America and Australia with singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. In the 2022-2023 season, Kuusisto made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and returned to orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Kuusisto gets involved across the entire artistic spectrum. He has collaborated with musicians such as Hauschka & Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, electro pioneer Brian Crabtree, jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen, juggler Jay Gilligan, accordionist Dermot Dunne and folk artist Sam Amidon. In 2023, Kuusisto released an album for BIS as conductor in Jaakko Kuusisto's symphony, and one for Alba as violinist with Malin Broman and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra with works by Tarrodi, Byström, Larsson and Zinovjev. Pekka Kuusisto plays an Antonio Stradivarius Golden Period c.1709 'Scotta' on a generous loan.