ConcertPulse
Stenhammar's second symphony
Konserthuset Stockholm, The Main Hall (Stockholm)
Composer Mats Larsson Gothe has had significant success in recent years, including with the opera Löftet ("The Promise") at the Royal Swedish Opera. Already in 2016, he was the focus of Konserthuset’s Composer Weekend Festival. Here, we hear the world premiere of a new cello concerto, featuring internationally renowned Torleif Thedéen as the cello soloist. "The cello concerto for Torleif captures everything that a cello can convey: longing, dreams, pain, and melancholy – but also anger and resignation. I have used the full range of expression", Mats Larsson Gothe explains.The cello concerto is preceded by music by Elfrida Andrée, a Swedish pioneer around the turn of the last century and the first female cathedral organist. She followed in the footsteps of her teacher Ludvig Norman but was also strongly influenced by composers like Beethoven. Additionally, she was a conductor and herself led at least one famous performance of this majestic Concert Overture in D major.After hearing Sibelius' second symphony, Stenhammar experienced an artistic crisis. He withdrew his first symphony and sought new paths. In the second symphony, he allows the Nordic elements to take more prominence: in several places, Swedish folk music shines through. Stenhammar's ambition to write "sober and honest music without superficiality" had succeeded.The orchestra is led by Johannes Gustavsson, who has conducted many of the country's foremost orchestras – the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra most recently in spring 2023. He is the Chief Conductor of the Jönköping Sinfonietta and has previously been the Chief Conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra in Finland and at Wermland Opera.