FUNharmonics: The Snail and the Whale

Death and the Maiden

Mozart's G major Quartet KV 387 and Schubert's Death and the Maiden are two favourites in the string quartet genre. Mozart had met Haydn and was inspired to compose a set of six quartets. In the dedication to Haydn, Mozart wrote that the quartets were "the fruit of a long and laborious work", and added, "you renowned man and my dearest friend".In his penultimate string quartet, Schubert employs the melody from one of his most famous songs, Death and the Maiden. The quartet contains both intensely fervent and dreamy passages. It is in the second movement that Schubert utilizes the poignant Death and the Maiden melody, which then serves as the basis for five variations. Here, Schubert's portrayal of death is by no means solely dark.In between, we hear a newly written quartet by the acclaimed British composer Bushra El-Turk. The BBC named her one of the world's 100 most inspiring women. Her music sometimes reflects her Lebanese roots. During the creation of Three Tributes, she collaborated with the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam, whom we hear here.This quartet, based in Amsterdam, is making their debut at Konserthuset Stockholm and has been praised for their empathetic playing in a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary compositions.

The Nutcracker and I

A pianist, a ballerina, state-of-the-art animations and digital effects. The Nutcracker for the 21st century.

Metropolis – Romance and the City

In this concert, Orkestern Filialen and friends celebrate the big city. The music portrays metropolitan places and their many contradictions, because indeed, cities have it all: noise and traffic, but also parks and quiet streets. Above all, they have people. The repertoire reflects these contrasts and diversity with a captivating mix of works all linked by one common factor: romance.We embark on a journey through space and time, from a dystopian sci-fi depiction from 1927 of an imagined Manhattan in 2026, via Rome’s magnificent umbrella pine trees, to a couple in the midst of war-torn Warsaw. We follow Konserthuset’s statue of Orpheus on an adventure in Stockholm, and also visit New York and Paris before finally landing on the streets of London. The guide on this musical tour is Christopher Wollter. Andreas Hanson conducts and Nils Hansson Meng is the piano soloist.SEK 50 of every ticket sold is donated to Stockholms Stadsmission.

The Schumann Couple and Felix

Clara Schumann's piano concerto is stunningly beautiful and a sparkling fireworks display. She was one of the most admired and influential pianists of the 19th century, performing in the same league as Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. In the concerto, we also hear the inspiration from Chopin, whom she preferred over Liszt. Clara Schumann was only 16 years old when she premiered the virtuosic concerto herself in Leipzig in 1835.The soloist in Clara Schumann's piano concerto is the Romanian-British pianist Alexandra Dariescu, known for her expressive playing as well as her advocacy for female composers. Around the same time Clara performed her piano concerto, she met her future husband Robert, one of the great figures of Romantic music. His impassioned overture to the incidental music for Manfred is based on Lord Byron's dramatic poem.Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a friend of Clara and Robert Schumann – also a great Romantic with a particular sense for melodic beauty. This is evident in his Fifth Symphony, which is also a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach. Swedish conductor Magnus Fryklund makes his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with this concert. Educated in Denmark, he has made a name for himself particularly as a skilled opera conductor, including in France.

Oboe and the Human Voice

›The Horn and its Friends‹

Listen, join in, have fun, discover music – the radio3 Children’s Concerts of the DSO are the perfect introduction to the wonderful world of classical music. In six concerts per season, children of primary school age can get to know the orchestra’s enchanting sound machine in all its facets. Together with the DSO, moderator Christian Schruff takes the six to twelve-year-old concertgoers on entertaining and interactive voyages of discovery, tells exciting stories, and presents great music. Already before the concert, at the Open House in the foyer, the young music fans can get to know various instruments together with members of the orchestra, have their faces painted, do crafts, sing, and much more.

Tin Men and the Telephone

They let their concerts be controlled by app and dub political speeches, tennis matches or animal sounds with music: the group Tin Men and the Telephone combines technology, humour and great jazz. In their programme »It’s About Time«, the trio composes playfully and, using cinematic tricks, the rules of time don’t apply – freeze, fast-forward and rewind the moment in music and video or switch on the time lapse? No problem! Tin Men and the Telephone formed in Amsterdam and work meticulously there on ever new concepts for their concerts. They expertly combine their brilliant improvisation skills with influences from hip-hop, pop, jazz and the daily madness of the Internet. With their innovative multimedia shows, they perform worldwide at the biggest jazz festivals, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, the London Jazz Festival and jazzahead!

Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake: Schubert and the Schumanns

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

NOSPR / Webster / The Fun-Fair and the Moonrise Kingdom

If Dvořák, Kisielewski and Britten could meet – would they find a common language? Certainly so, only that would be neither Czech, nor Polish, nor English, but the language of humour and classical proportions.The Carnival Overture is its composer’s declaration of faith in the vital power of ethnic music. Remarkably, it is the central part of the “Nature – Life – Love” trilogy. Dvořák did not approach folk themes with a scholarly studiosity. Instead, seeking inspiration in their rhythms and melodies, he created an exuberant vision of his homeland’s folklore. The Slavic pulse in Dvořák’s work was so strong that it forced its way into scores, even when, having crossed the Atlantic, the composer decided to write national music for the Americans – this might be the reason why the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” seems to resonate with Prague nostalgia more than with echoes of the prairies. Humour is probably the most important aesthetic value in music composed by the erudite, author and politician, Stefan Kisielewski. Similarly to Dvořák, while drawing from ethnic traditions, the Polish composer also carefully listened to town life: both the sounds of its fairs and its everyday rhythm. The Fun-Fair, self-identifying in its subtitle as a single-act ballet with prologue, paints a sonic cityscape within a neoclassical framework.Benjamin Britten’s works also show an unshakable faith in the power of musical tradition. There is no dearth of tributes to the Englishman’s excellent predecessors in his oeuvre, one of the most beautiful testimonies to his faith in the heritage of British culture being The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The piece is a cycle of variations on a very short theme from Abdelazer by the Baroque master Henry Purcell. The promise made in the title of the work is fulfilled in a pedantic presentation of each section of the orchestra and every family of instruments. The whole is intricate enough to have proven worthy of a prologue to one of Wes Anderson’s films (Moonrise Kingdom, 2012).Krzysztof SiwońConcert duration: approximately 60 minutes

Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez - The Man and the Music

Musicologist Professor Jonathan Cross talks to former members of the BBC SO as well as former Radio 3 Controller Sir Nicholas Kenyon – about their personal experience of working with Pierre Boulez.