The season’s tour concert features three works: music that was forgotten in a drawer for over 100 years, passionate poems bursting with impossible love set to music, and music by a successful entrepreneur who became a famous composer only after his death.
STENHAMMAR
Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871–1929) is one of Sweden’s great composers. When he was only 20 years old, he composed the orchestral movements Prélude and Bourré, but they weren’t premiered until over century later. Now, however, we are treated to this beautiful, folk music-inspired work from his youth.
WAGNER
Richard Wagner (1813–1833) wrote the set of songs Wesendonck Lieder while he was in exile in Zurich. Deeply in love with his landlord’s wife Mathilde, he could not concentrate on composing the Niebelungen Ring. Instead, he set Mathilde’s yearning poems to music, which resulted in five songs for piano and soprano.
Wesendonck Lieder is written for piano and soprano and is often performed at chamber concerts. Some of the songs have also been performed by male singers. In the late 1800s, the work was orchestrated for the first time for a large orchestra. Here it is performed in a Swedish translation by Patrik Ringborg.
BERWALD
Frans Berwald (1796–1868) was a successful entrepreneur in diverse fields such as orthopaedic technology, glasswork and hat making. But his true passion was always his music.
Today he is one of the great Swedish composers, but during his lifetime he never received the recognition he so desperately sought. The work performed at the concert, Symphonie Naïve, was not premiered until ten years after his death.