Nordic Weeks: Grieg’s Piano Concerto
Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland plays countryman Edvard Grieg’s only piano concerto. Also, Tobias Ringborg and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra play Swedish pioneer Elfrida Andrée’s Glömska (Forgetfulness) for strings and harp, and Daniel Börtz’ Sinfonia 12 with baritone Hannes Öberg.
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.
Tobias Ringborg is equally appreciated in opera houses and concert halls – as a conductor, soloist and chamber musician. Winning the prestigious Swedish Soloist Prize in 1994 launched his career – the same year, he graduated with diploma from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, afterwards continuing his studies at the Juilliard School in New York City.
As a violinist, he has performed with all the major Swedish symphony and chamber orchestras and has worked with conductors including Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, Sakari Oramo and Daniel Harding. His international merits include performances with orchestras all over Europe and the United States, and first prize in Concours International de Musique de Chimay in Belgium.
Ringborg started his conducting career when he won an international conducting competition in Helsinki in 2000, and has since appeared with most Scandinavian orchestras, often in dual roles as both conductor and solo violinist. He has a life-long passion for opera, debuting as opera conductor at Folkoperan in Stockholm in 2001, appearing later that same year at the Royal Swedish Opera, being hired by the Malmö Opera the following year.
He is a potent ambassador for Swedish music, having recorded numerous albums with chamber music and violin concertos by primarily Swedish composers. He plays on a Gagliano generously loaned by the Järnåker Foundation. Tobias Ringborg has received the Herbert Blomstedt Conductor’s Award and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Christian Ihle Hadland has established himself as a true craftsman of the piano, a musician whose delicate, refined playing and individual touch have led him to the most prestigious stages in the world.
Ihle Hadland came to international attention in 2011 when he began a two-year stint as a BBC New Generation Artist. As an NGA he performed with all five of the BBC’s symphony orchestras from London to Manchester and broadcast solo and chamber recitals for the corporation in London. As a finale to his tenure, Christian was the soloist in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto at the BBC Proms with the Oslo Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko; the concert was broadcast live and Christian was praised by London critics for his ‘pearly’ and ‘otherwordly’ sound.
At the age of 15, Ihle Hadland made his professional concerto debut with KORK, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, He has since performed with all the major orchestras in Scandinavia including the Swedish Radio and Danish National Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo Philharmonics and also the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In the UK he has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Manchester Camerata, in addition to his work with the BBC orchestras. He has played with renowned conductors at the highest level, including Sir Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt and Thomas Dausgaard.
Ihle Hadland is highly sought after as a chamber musician and has been Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, his hometown, since 2010. He appears regularly at The Wigmore Hall, where he gave his debut solo recital in 2013, and is a regular guest at the Risør Chamber Music Festival and at the Bergen International Festival in Norway.
Christian Ihle Hadland was born in Stavanger in 1983 and received his first piano lessons at the age of eight. At the age of eleven he entered the Rogaland Music Conservatory, and in 1999 began lessons with Professor Jiri Hlinka, both privately and at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.
Hannes Öberg studied two years chamber music at Vadstena pre college music school for Vocal Coaches Anders Düring and Monica Thomasson and got accepted at the Bachelor program at University college of opera in Stockholm. Öberg finished his bachelors degree in 2015 and subsequently his masters degree in 2017 where he studied for the tenor and vocal coach Erik Årman.
In 2014 Hannes debuted at the Royal Opera in Stockholm as the role of Don Juan at the world premiere of the opera My Brother is Don Juan by Niklas Brommare. He has also performed roles such as Valentin in Faust by Charles Gounod, Ruthven in Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Il Conte in Nina, o sia La pazza per amore Giovanno Paisiello amongst others.
Öberg joined the Opera ensemble at Theater Kiel in Germany for the spring season of 2019, and later came back for the season 2020-21, singing roles as Silvio in Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia Gioacchino Rossini and Balu in Das Dschungelbuch by Giovanni Sollima. In the summer of 2021 Öberg moved back to Sweden and joined the soloist ensemble at the Gothenburg Opera.
Outside of the opera stage, Hannes Öberg has performed a great number of Liederabends and several oratorios, such as; Messiah George Friedrich Händel, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré and Johannes Brahms, Krönungsmesse by Mozart and, Carl Heinrich Graun Der Tod Jesu amongst others.
Approximate duration: 1 hr 30 mins with intermission
Tickets
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