Göteborgs Konserthus Out of the Ashes Towards the Top

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Suite no 2 from The Tempest Chorus of the Winds - Intermezzo - Dance of Nymphs - Prospero - Song I - Song II - Miranda - The Naiads The score for the stage work The Tempest came about surprisingly quickly in the fall of 1925, possibly in part at the beginning of the following year. The over an hour long stage music has been composed for vocal soloists, mixed choir, harmonium and a large orchestra. In all, the music perceives 36 numbers. The first performance took place in Copenhagen on March 15, 1926, and the music in the play in particular was a success. "Shakespeare and Sibelius, these two geniuses, have found each other." Shortly after the premiere, Sibelius wrote: "In the Tempest music there are a lot of motifs that I wanted to develop in more detail. For the sake of drama, I have only been able to outline them." The subsequent work Tapiola's final climax and its whole-tone and chromatic textures can be seen as further developments of The Tempest and especially of its overture. But otherwise Sibelius unfortunately gave up on his plans: the two orchestral suites which are based on the stage music and the detached overture comprise a total of 19 numbers in which Sibelius, on the contrary, concentrated and combined parts, sometimes with a slightly strange touch that obscured the drama. In the original music for Stormen, Sibelius proves to be a composer at the height of his creative power. The music ranges from baroque in the style of Corelli and Purcell right through to neoclassicism à la Stravinsky (scene no. 31) and crispness à la Prokofiev (Caliban numbers 11 and 13). Despite the wide range of styles, he manages to keep the music together. Sibelius combines the crudest commedia dell'arte (Stephano's and Caliban's songs, the drinking brothers' Canon no. 16) to the most sublime tragedy (the Prospero numbers) - in true Shakespearean spirit. In The Tempest, Sibelius created one of his most ingenious orchestral scores. Veijo Murtomäki (excerpt)

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b 1977) Catamorphosis "The core inspiration behind Catamorphosis is the fragile relationship we have to our planet. The aura of the piece is characterized by the orbiting vortex of emotions and the intensity that comes with the fact that if things do not change it is going to be too late, risking utter destruction – catastrophe. The core of the work revolves around a distinct sense of urgency, driven by the shift and pull between various polar forces – power and fragility, hope and despair, preservation and destruction. The relationship between inspiration and the pure musical feeling and methods, for me, tends to shift at a certain point in the creative process of every work. The core inspiration provides the initial energy and structural elements to a piece and then the music starts to breathe on its own and expand. In Catamorphosis this point in the process became more apparent and tangible as it aligned with an event that has had such dramatic impact on our lives and reality. The notion of emergency was already integrated into the music and to counterbalance that a sense of hope and belief. The meditative state of being needed to gain focus in order to sustain and maintain the globally important elements in life also became increasingly important and provided another layer to the inspiration. Catamorphosis is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope – perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopia, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us." Anna Thorvaldsdottir Catamorphosis premiered in January 2023 with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) An alpine symphony For posterity, Strauss's last tone poem carries through its title perhaps the simplest entry into a possible listening: the ascent of a mountain. Already in the opening measure, where brass, wind and strings in unison Bb intonate a horizon line that gives birth to its minor scale and forms a misty shimmer of dawn, the timbre is palpable. We are facing the first introduction of the rise theme. The story of the conquest of an alpine peak in Strauss's sound body then unfolds in this painterly way in 22 seamlessly interconnected parts, exposing a touch of unmanageable orchestra. Theme after theme follows the narrative. The sunrise is followed by the mountain theme, we hear musically the crossing of rivers, echoes of hunting teams, waterfalls, glaciers, thunder and storm and finally the imposing view that inevitably follows the descent. Finally we reach the end of the journey and night falls. Strauss writes in his notes that in this work he finally learned to orchestrate, in any case here he stretches his ability to its peak. It's not just a utopian extended orchestra, but we get in part sound combinations that Strauss would never before and never later compose. Esaias Järnegard

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.

Since 2017, Santtu-Matias Rouvali is the chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He also has a successful international career as a conductor and has been hailed by The Guardian as "the Finnish conductor tradition's senesta stortade påvning man bara muste lysna på". Since 2021, Santtu-Matias Rouvali is also the chief conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. He has toured with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and pianist Hélène Grimaud in Nordic capitals as well as with pianist Alice Sara Ott and percussionist Martin Grubinger in Germany. The years 2013-2022 Santtu-Matias Rouvali was chief conductor and artistic director of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. During the 2023-2024 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali will continue to collaborate with orchestras at the top level throughout Europe and the USA, such as the BBC Proms, the New York Philharmonic and many more. He collaborates with soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Arabella Steinbacher, Nemanja Radulovic, Leonidas Kavakos, Bruce Liu, Alice Sara Ott, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Vadim Gluzman, Randall Goosby and Vilde Frang. When he is not conducting, he devotes himself to farming and fishing at his farm outside Tampere.