Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Songs of Beuren) is the German composer Carl Orff’s musical setting for a collection of forbidden folk poems from the 12th and 13th centuries. Here, the iconic piece is performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Choir and soloists Karolina Bengtsson, Tobias Westman, and David Risberg conducted by the Taiwanese conductor Yi-Chen Lin.
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.
Storkyrkan’s Chamber Choir, belonging to the Stockholm Cathedral, is a newly founded choir for young, talented singers, aged 17-26. It was founded in August 2023 by conductor Helene Stureborg, and quickly generated interest. Today there are around 40 members with solid backgrounds as choir singers, many with experience from music high schools and higher music educations. The repertoire extends over all genres and periods. During the choir’s first year, it has already given a large number of concerts with music by Fauré, Grigorjeva, Orff, Forte, Bingham and Sandström, among others. It has given a cappella concerts, performed with wind orchestra, chamber orchestra, organ and jazz ensemble, in churches, concert halls, and in the Stockholm City Hall. The competition in Tolosa this year was the choir’s first experience abroad.