Paula Murrihy sings Brahms, Mahler and Grieg

Mahler Festival: Song recital Alma Mahler and friends

For four days, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler's most beautiful songs. A special recital is dedicated to his wife Alma, combining pieces by her with those by friends. Perhaps today's most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists during all these concerts. Today you will hear French soprano Axelle Fanyo, a 'true storyteller' according to Forum Opéra. She shares the stage with one of the greatest Dutch talents, baritone Raoul Steffani.Austrian Alma Maria Schindler was introduced to her future husband, Gustav Mahler, by her composition teacher Zemlinsky. Under Mahler's name, she would become known - but never primarily as a composer. Mahler did not want his wife to write any more music, and Alma herself also had doubts about her work. Although most of it has been lost, her late-romantic, often melancholic songs are still widely performed. Here today in the Recital Hall, they alternate with pieces by friends and acquaintances. Axelle Fanyo and Raoul Steffani perform songs by Ernst Krenek, Mahler's son-in-law. You will also hear works by Berg, Korngold and Stravinsky.

Karen Su and Ruben Plazier: Franck and Grieg

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!

Sings and whispers. Matilda Lloyd's trumpet

Over the last two centuries, wind instruments were pushed into the background of classical music by strings, which were considered “nobler”. The trumpet is troubled by the stereotype of a “signal” instrument, even though, after all, it would still sing so beautifully in the baroque era. Maybe it is this tradition that the British composer Dani Howard will reference; certainly, we are going to hear the trumpet singing in the lyrical and elevated Legende by George Enescu. Matilda Lloyd has actually sang an entire album with arrangements of operatic arias – it is a must-listen! One of the pieces to be found there is the Song of the rain by Chopin’s friend, the singer and composer Pauline Viardot, taken from her opera The Last Sorcerer. In her Katowice concert, the trumpeter will return to Paris, reaching for arrangements of the well-known works of Debussy and Ravel, as well as for the proud Intrada by Arthur Honegger, in which the trumpet presents itself to us without even the slightest complexes. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 70 minutes

Works by Dvořák, Wagner and Brahms

Countertenor Alexander Chance sings Purcell

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!

Haas and Mahler

Pavel Haas (1899–1944) and Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) emerged from similar roots in the Bohemia that is now Czechia: Haas from Brno and Mahler from Kaliste, 120 kilometers away. Both were Jewish, but Haas hailed from a Moravian-Jewish family and Mahler from an Austrian-Jewish one.Pavel Haas was deported during World War II to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, later to be murdered in Auschwitz. His only symphony remained unfinished. It wasn't until half a century later that the remaining material was orchestrated, and the work premiered in 1998. Haas' creative output is characterized by Bohemian and Jewish influences, with elements of folk music and jazz. The symphony is a remarkable, staggering piece.If darkness pervades Haas' symphony, Mahler's fourth symphony is brighter, lyrical, and playful. It's been dubbed "sky blue" at times, and the fourth movement features a soprano solo: "Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden," "We enjoy the heavenly pleasures."The soloist is our latest soprano star in the international music scene, Christina Nilsson. Conducting this captivating program with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is the American conductor Joshua Weilerstein, noted for his championing of rare works.

Haas and Mahler

Pavel Haas (1899–1944) and Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) emerged from similar roots in the Bohemia that is now Czechia: Haas from Brno and Mahler from Kaliste, 120 kilometers away. Both were Jewish, but Haas hailed from a Moravian-Jewish family and Mahler from an Austrian-Jewish one.Pavel Haas was deported during World War II to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, later to be murdered in Auschwitz. His only symphony remained unfinished. It wasn't until half a century later that the remaining material was orchestrated, and the work premiered in 1998. Haas' creative output is characterized by Bohemian and Jewish influences, with elements of folk music and jazz. The symphony is a remarkable, staggering piece.If darkness pervades Haas' symphony, Mahler's fourth symphony is brighter, lyrical, and playful. It's been dubbed "sky blue" at times, and the fourth movement features a soprano solo: "Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden," "We enjoy the heavenly pleasures."The soloist is our latest soprano star in the international music scene, Christina Nilsson. Conducting this captivating program with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is the American conductor Joshua Weilerstein, noted for his championing of rare works.

Mahler and Nielsen

The concert begins with Demon by the British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989) – a co-commissioned work by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in 2023 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She found inspiration in old folk tales from the British Isles, chilling stories where a demon can manifest anywhere - here as both menacing and playful orchestral music.Menacing indeed. Mahler's heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder – Songs on the Death of Children – has tragic points of connection with Mahler's own life, and the composition would also come to seem like a premonition: a few years later, Mahler's eldest daughter Maria died. The poems by Friedrich Rückert that Mahler chose deal with the parents' grieving process and the slow reconciliation with a painful reality. The world-renowned Nina Stemme is the soloist in this poignant music.Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in this program, which concludes with Carl Nielsen. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is subtitled "Det uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). It's dramatic music written in the midst of the First World War, famous in part for its duel between two timpanists.Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Mahler and Nielsen

The concert begins with Demon by the British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989) – a co-commissioned work by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in 2023 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She found inspiration in old folk tales from the British Isles, chilling stories where a demon can manifest anywhere - here as both menacing and playful orchestral music.Menacing indeed. Mahler's heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder – Songs on the Death of Children – has tragic points of connection with Mahler's own life, and the composition would also come to seem like a premonition: a few years later, Mahler's eldest daughter Maria died. The poems by Friedrich Rückert that Mahler chose deal with the parents' grieving process and the slow reconciliation with a painful reality. The world-renowned Nina Stemme is the soloist in this poignant music.Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the orchestra in this program, which concludes with Carl Nielsen. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is subtitled "Det uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). It's dramatic music written in the midst of the First World War, famous in part for its duel between two timpanists.Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Mahler Festival: Mahler songs with Julius Drake, Catriona Morison and James Newby

This first Recital Hall concert of the Mahler Festival focuses on Mahler's most beautiful songs. Today's most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks vocalists he admires. Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison is praised for her refined yet full voice. 'A real star,' according to the Times. You will also hear baritone James Newby, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award. He recently released the acclaimed album Fallen to Dust.Julius Drake chose a series of songs full of drama and poetry for Morison and Newby. That poetry sometimes comes from Mahler himself, as today in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. 'When my dearest marries' is the name of one of the songs. The lady in question did not marry Mahler, who experienced this as a 'glowing knife' in his heart. He processed all his frustration and sorrow in this stirring song cycle. In the five lyrical Rückert-Lieder, he shows a happier side.