Rachmaninoff 150: The Bells
Berwaldhallen celebrates pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in five special programmes this autumn. Sergei Rachmaninoff considered his choral symphony The Bells – inspired by the poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe – to be one of his personal favourites. Also, extraordinary violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Edward Elgar’s beloved violin concerto.
The concert will be broadcasted in the Swedish Radio P2 on Saturday, December 9 at 7:00 pm.
Soloist change - soprano
Mané Galoyan is replaced by Olesya Golovneva
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.
Daniel Harding is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom in 2022 he celebrated his 15-year anniversary. In the 2014/2015 season, he devised and curated the celebrated Interplay Festival, featuring concerts and related inspirational talks with renowned artists and academics. As Artistic Director, he continues this type of influential programming. Harding is also Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years, and Music Director of Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area in China. The 2024/2025 season will be his first as Music Director at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Harding is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. A renowned opera conductor, he has led acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, the Anima Mundi festival of Pisa, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Harding tours regularly with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing at prestigious venues all over Europe and the world, and has recorded several acclaimed and award-winning albums with the orchestra. His tenure as Music and Artistic Director will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. “It is increasingly rare that the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra not only lasts for more than a decade, but keeps growing,” he says about working with the orchestra.
In 2002, Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and in 2017 nominated to the position Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2012, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021, he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Daniel Harding grew up in Oxford, England, and played trumpet before taking up conducting in his late teens. He is also, since 2016, a qualified airline pilot.
Frank Peter Zimmermann har i mer än tre decennier turnerat världen över, spelat med vår tids mest ryktbara dirigenter och största orkestrar, och gästat framstående konsertsalar och festivaler i både Europa, Nord- och Sydamerika, Asien och Australien.
Under säsongen 2023/24 turnerar han med Wienerfilharmonikerna och Daniel Harding, och kommer att ge konserter tillsammans med Harding och tre orkestrar: Concertgebouworkestern, Staatskapeller Dresden och Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester. Han kommer även att spela med bland andra Londons Filharmoniska Orkester och Edward Gardner, Bambergs Symfoniorkester och Andrew Manze, samt Elbfilharmonins Orkester och Alan Gilbert. Dessutom ger han kammarkonserter med pianisterna Martin Helmchen och Dmytro Choni.
Zimmermann har en omfattande inspelningskatalog, varav flera både har hyllats av kritiker och belönats med flera priser. Bland de senaste kan nämnas Bohuslav Martinůs två violinkonserter med Jakub Hrůša och Bambergs Symfoniorkester; Beethovens samtliga violinsonater med pianisten Martin Helmchen; Sjostakovitjs två violinkonserter med Alan Gilbert och Elbfilharmonins Orkester; och solokonserter av Bartók, Beethoven och Berg med Berlinerfilharmonikerna och Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, respektive Kirill Petrenko.
Som en del av Trio Zimmermann, tillsammans med violasten Antoine Tamestit och cellisten Christian Poltéra, har han uppträtt runt om i Europa sedan 2010 och gjort prisbelönade skivinspelningar. Zimmermann själv har uruppfört solokonserter av Magnus Lindberg, Matthias Pintscher, Brett Dean och Augusta Read Thomas. Han har förärats med åtskilliga hedersutmärkelser, bland annat staden Duigsburgs musikpris 2002, Förbundsrepubliken Tysklands förtjänstkors av officersklass 2008, och staden Hanaus Paul Hindemith-pris 2010. Han spelar på en Antonio Stradivarius från 1711, ”Lady Inchiquin”, vänligen utlånad av Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen i Düsseldorf.
Approximate duration: 1 hr 55 mins with intermission
Tickets
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