Nordic Weeks: Song Without Words
Wilhelm Stenhammar’s The Song is, in turn, lyrical as well as majestic. It is rarely performed, as it requires a large orchestra as well as vocal soloists and upwards of a hundred choristers of all ages. Patrik Ringborg conducts this performance of Stenhammar’s tribute to choral singing as a force for unity, as well as the long-awaited world premiere of Emmy Lindström’s Song Without Words for female chorus and orchestra: a personal tribute to Stenhammar.
The concert will be broadcasted on Berwaldhallen Play and in the Swedish Radio Friday, November 17 at 7 m.
Soloist change - baritone
Due to illness, baritone John Lundgren is replaced by Fredrik Zetterström
Participants
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a multiple-award-winning ensemble renowned for its high artistic standard and stylistic breadth, as well as collaborations with the world’s finest composers, conductors, and soloists. It regularly tours all over Europe and the world and has an extensive and acclaimed recording catalogue.
Daniel Harding has been Music Director of the SRSO since 2007, and since 2019 also its Artistic Director. His tenure will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. Two of the orchestra’s former chief conductors, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa-Pekka Salonen, have since been named Conductors Laureate, and continue to perform regularly with the orchestra.
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, and is a cornerstone of Swedish public service broadcasting. Its concerts are heard weekly on the Swedish classical radio P2 and regularly on national public television SVT. Several concerts are also streamed on-demand on Berwaldhallen Play and broadcast globally through the EBU.
32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.
The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.
The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 by the then 27-year-old Eric Ericson and has since been a prominent hub of the Swedish as well as the international music scene. The ensemble’s interest in continually finding new music and new fields of work has given them a very extensive repertoire: from early music to the very latest. For generations of Swedish and international composers, the choir has represented an ideal with its characteristic Nordic sound and skilful virtuosity. The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir is part of the international elite of professional ensembles. Fredrik Malmberg has been their choirmaster since 2013.
Patrik Ringborg är en av Sveriges internationellt mest efterfrågade dirigenter med en bred konserterfarenhet och en operarepertoar som omfattar över 90 verk. Sedan 2022 är han förste gästdirigent vid Malmö Opera, där han redan lett en lång rad produktioner. Han har varit förste kapellmästare vid Aalto-teatern i Essen, chefsdirigent vid teatern i Freiburg och gästat de flesta stora tyska operahus. Som Generalmusikdirektor vid Staatstheater Kassel ledde han under tio års tid över 150 konserter och 27 nyproduktioner. 2010 debuterade han vid operan i Köln med nypremiären av Rosenkavaljeren, inklusive Dame Kiri te Kanawas avskedsföreställningar.
Som förste gästdirigent vid GöteborgsOperan dirigerade han bland annat Göteborgspremiären av Tristan och Isolde 2003 och premiären av Valkyrian, en nyproduktion av Salome, urpremiären av Hans Gefors Notorious och 2022 Gösta Nystroems Herr Arnes penningar. Vid Kungliga Operan har han bland annat lett den omskrivna premiären av Parsifal i regi av Christof Loy och urpremiären för Daniel Börtz Medea, samt Kungliga Hovkapellets 490-årskonsert.
Ringborg har dirigerat över trettio orkestrar i Tyskland, däribland Dresdens statskapell, Frankfurts Radios symfoniorkester, WDR Västtyska Radions symfoniorkester i Köln och Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, samt varit verksam i många andra länder. I Sverige har han arbetat med samtliga större orkestrar. Han har gästat Kungliga Filharmonikerna i över 25 år och lett orkestern vid exempelvis Nobelprisutdelningen 2008 och utdelningen Birgit Nilsson-priset 2022.
Ringborg tilldelades Svenska Dagbladets Operapris 2014 för produktionerna Parsifal och Rhenguldet och var överst på Opuslistan 2015. Han är ledamot av Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien och förärades 2022 utmärkelsen Litteris et Artibus.
Chief conductor of the Jeune Choeur de Paris, he started a collaboration with the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart in 2013 (including a recording of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé), and also works regularly with the Chœur de Radio-France and the Choeur Accentus since 2014, for tours, radio performances, recordings, preparations and A Cappella concerts. He collaborates with many personalities, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniele Gatti, Louis Langrée, Stéphane Denève, Daniel Harding, Laurence Equilbey, L. G. Alarcon… He has also conducted the WDR Rundfunkchor in 2016. In July 2016, he has prepared both the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart and the NDR Chor for Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette. In 2017, he has participate to the opening of the Seine Musical conducting the choir accentus and in 2018, he starts a collaboration with the Croatian Radio Choir. Korovitch works for many festivals: the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Recontres Musicales d’Evian, the Festival de Radio-France in Montpellier or the festival Mozart in New York.
Approximate duration: Fri Nov 17, 1 hr 50 mins with intermission & Sat Nov 18, 2 hrs 5 min with intermission
Tickets
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