Programme

Igor Levit is one of the most significant pianists of his generation (born in 1987) and regularly performs on all the major stages worldwide. He has appeared at Konserthuset Stockholm on several occasions, including during the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, when he performed all of Beethoven's piano sonatas in a series of live-streamed concerts (due to the pandemic).

Beethoven is also featured on the program for this concert: the third symphony – Eroica – in Franz Liszt's famous arrangement. The program as a whole consists of what is often referred to as the three great Bs of classical music history: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and begins with Bach's chromatic fantasy and fugue. It was acclaimed and regarded as a masterpiece even during Bach's lifetime, filled with advanced voice leading and lightning-fast runs.

Between Bach and Beethoven, Levit has placed Brahms' atmospheric and youthfully explosive ballades; he was only 21 years old when he wrote them. They are designed as short musical narratives. We know that the first one is based on an old Scottish ballad about Edward, who returns home with blood on his sword. The atmosphere is dark and ominous. However, no source material for the other three has been preserved.

In Monday at Last, violinist Cecilia Zilliacus and cellist Kati Raitinen invite guest artists to perform both newer and older music. The guests this time are Swedish pianist Peter Friis Johansson and South African violist, composer, and overtone singer Gareth Lubbe.

We get to hear the incredible possibilities and resources of the voice in Lubbe's Miniatures, where he uses a special singing technique to create a whole range of resonant overtones. It's a completely unique sound world that conveys the feeling of something magical and primal.

British-American composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) was a highly skilled violist and a pioneer among female composers. Her Morpheus for viola and piano was first performed in 1918 at Carnegie Hall and was her first major success. After Schnittke's both wild and contemplative string trio, and Mozart's lively Duo, "Finally Monday" concludes with the rarely performed ecstatically charged piano quartet by Finnish composer Helvi Leiviskä in a late romantic style.

Two piano quartets – one modern and one romantic classic. They are, of course, very different in style, but the intensity and melancholic expressions unite these two works. The music is performed by three string musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra together with pianist Anna Christensson.

British composer Charlotte Bray (born 1982) composed the piano quartet Replay in 2011. In ten minutes, she creates a world that begins in a sort of lament, then escalates in intensity before the music thins out and slowly dies away, as if from exhaustion.

Johannes Brahms' third piano quartet in C minor is one of the finest works in the genre – a masterpiece that many consider to be his most personal and autobiographical music. Embedded in the notes are both his anguish for his sick friend Robert Schumann and his forbidden feelings for Schumann's wife, Clara Schumann. Brahms believed that the both powerful and contemplative music should be illustrated with a photo of himself and a pistol aimed at his head.

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Menu: Asparagus soup with sunflower seeds. The soup is served with sourdough bread, crispbread, butter, mineral water/light beer, coffee/tea, and a chocolate piece. Wine and beer available for purchase for those who wish.

All soups are lactose- and gluten-free. Please inform us of any dietary requirements when booking.

Konserthuset Stockholm at Hötorget is one of Sweden’s great architectural masterpieces. Created during a period of expansion in Stockholm, by the Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, it opened in 1926. Konserthuset Stockholm was built for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since the start been the dedicated venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as well as many other prestigious events.

• The guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 25 persons/tour.

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Subtitles
Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.

Konserthuset Stockholm at Hötorget is one of Sweden’s great architectural masterpieces. Created during a period of expansion in Stockholm, by the Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, it opened in 1926. Konserthuset Stockholm was built for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since the start been the dedicated venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as well as many other prestigious events.

• The guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 25 persons/tour.

***

Subtitles
Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.

Beethoven's five late string quartets are a listening adventure like no other. One of the most performed and beloved is No. 14, with opus number 131. Here, it seems as if Beethoven is searching for the freedom of thought and soul through his music. Perhaps that's also why this music speaks so strongly to us, with its warmth, imagination, and intensity, transcending all historical barriers. And the slow, dense first movement is among the most beautiful ever created for a string quartet.

The Belcea Quartet is one of the world's most prominent string quartets. The quartet has performed at Konserthuset Stockholm on several occasions previously, including in a series of concerts featuring all of Beethoven's string quartets.

Here, instead, the quartet combines Beethoven with Arnold Schönberg, whom many associate with twelve-tone music. But Schönberg was a great romantic, and the string quartet we hear here, the first of four numbered ones, was his first truly major composition. It is music brimming with wild energy and swelling late romanticism, composed in 1905 in Vienna, a city that had a significant influence on Schönberg with its vibrant art scene and Freud's psychological investigations.

Full of inspiration, Robert Schumann began work on his second symphony in early December 1845. However, his depressions, poor health, and constant tinnitus meant that it wasn't until the following autumn that the symphony was completed. Yet, his severe personal condition has not left its mark on the music at all; instead, the symphony is bright and forward-looking, a resounding triumph over the darker aspects of life.

The concert begins with the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's hypnotically evocative Ciel d’hiver, Winter Sky – an arrangement of a part of her orchestral work Orion. The music is inspired by the Greek myth of the hunter Orion, who was transformed into a constellation. Saariaho's music possesses a strange beauty that makes her unique, and she is considered one of the most significant composers of our time. Saariaho passed away in 2023, and ten years earlier, she was awarded the Polar Music Prize.

Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

Sibelius' Violin Concerto is one of the most performed violin concertos of the 20th century. However, its tonal language belongs to the late 19th century, and the music is warm and lyrical, dramatic and melancholic. Sibelius, himself a violinist, possibly wrote the concerto he himself would have wanted to play – albeit on a technical level far beyond his own. It is among the more challenging in the genre, as many violinists have attested.

Taking on the challenge is the Russian-born Israeli violinist Maxim Vengerov, one of the greats of our time, who has only performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra once before, and that was 30 years ago! He is ranked among the world's finest, and in addition to performing concerts on the major classical stages, he is a guest professor at both the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and the Royal College of Music in London.

Full of inspiration, Robert Schumann began work on his second symphony in early December 1845. However, his depressions, poor health, and constant tinnitus meant that it wasn't until the following autumn that the symphony was completed. Yet, his severe personal condition has not left its mark on the music at all; instead, the symphony is bright and forward-looking: a resounding triumph over the darker aspects of life.

The concert begins with the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's hypnotically evocative Ciel d’hiver, Winter Sky – an arrangement of a part of her orchestral work Orion. The music is inspired by the Greek myth of the hunter Orion, who was transformed into a constellation. Saariaho's music possesses a strange beauty that makes her unique, and she is considered one of the most significant composers of our time. Saariaho passed away in 2023, and ten years earlier, she was awarded the Polar Music Prize.

Learn more about Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

For children 3–5 years old.

Get close to the musicians in the Grünewald Hall – and discover the orchestra's string instruments in a classical concert with listening games, together with a music teacher. 

After this approx. 30-minute concert, there is a chance to try out different instruments in the foyer.

For children 3–5 years old.

Get close to the musicians in the Grünewald Hall – and discover the orchestra's string instruments in a classical concert with listening games, together with a music teacher. 

After this approx. 30-minute concert, there is a chance to try out different instruments in the foyer.