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Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Piano Quintet Op 44 Allegro brillante In modo d'una marcia: Un poco largamente Scherzo: Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann wrote his piano quintet in 1842 for his wife, the star pianist Clara. She premiered it in concert on January 8, 1843. The piece came to set the pattern for the piano quintet genre in general, and Schumann's piece has gained a reputation as one of the foremost chamber music works of the 19th century. There is a relationship with a Schubert work, the Piano Trio No. 2, which Schumann admired. Schumann himself cited Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 29 as another decisive impulse. The stroke of genius was to let the piano lead the development with the strings in an accompanying function. After Mendelssohn played the solo part at a private performance in December 1842, he persuaded Schumann to revise the middle movements and add a second trio to the third movement. The quintet subsequently became one of Clara Schumann's masterpieces. What particularly characterizes the piano quintet is the melodic density and swing of the music, where the impulsiveness of the first movement in the C minor theme of the following mourning march darkens and comes to its senses. The light penetrates again in the scherzo with the two contrasting trio parts, the first soft and gentle, the second restlessly elusive, before the whole work is crowned polyphonically with a 52-bar double fugato. The peculiar character of the mourning march in particular was highlighted by Ingmar Bergman as a leitmotif in the film Fanny and Alexander.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Piano Quintet Op 44 Allegro brillante In modo d'una marcia: Un poco largamente Scherzo: Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann wrote his piano quintet in 1842 for his wife, the star pianist Clara. She premiered it in concert on January 8, 1843. The piece came to set the pattern for the piano quintet genre in general, and Schumann's piece has gained a reputation as one of the foremost chamber music works of the 19th century. There is a relationship with a Schubert work, the Piano Trio No. 2, which Schumann admired. Schumann himself cited Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 29 as another decisive impulse. The stroke of genius was to let the piano lead the development with the strings in an accompanying function. After Mendelssohn played the solo part at a private performance in December 1842, he persuaded Schumann to revise the middle movements and add a second trio to the third movement. The quintet subsequently became one of Clara Schumann's masterpieces. What particularly characterizes the piano quintet is the melodic density and swing of the music, where the impulsiveness of the first movement in the C minor theme of the following mourning march darkens and comes to its senses. The light penetrates again in the scherzo with the two contrasting trio parts, the first soft and gentle, the second restlessly elusive, before the whole work is crowned polyphonically with a 52-bar double fugato. The peculiar character of the mourning march in particular was highlighted by Ingmar Bergman as a leitmotif in the film Fanny and Alexander.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Piano Quintet Op 44 Allegro brillante In modo d'una marcia: Un poco largamente Scherzo: Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann wrote his piano quintet in 1842 for his wife, the star pianist Clara. She premiered it in concert on January 8, 1843. The piece came to set the pattern for the piano quintet genre in general, and Schumann's piece has gained a reputation as one of the foremost chamber music works of the 19th century. There is a relationship with a Schubert work, the Piano Trio No. 2, which Schumann admired. Schumann himself cited Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 29 as another decisive impulse. The stroke of genius was to let the piano lead the development with the strings in an accompanying function. After Mendelssohn played the solo part at a private performance in December 1842, he persuaded Schumann to revise the middle movements and add a second trio to the third movement. The quintet subsequently became one of Clara Schumann's masterpieces. What particularly characterizes the piano quintet is the melodic density and swing of the music, where the impulsiveness of the first movement in the C minor theme of the following mourning march darkens and comes to its senses. The light penetrates again in the scherzo with the two contrasting trio parts, the first soft and gentle, the second restlessly elusive, before the whole work is crowned polyphonically with a 52-bar double fugato. The peculiar character of the mourning march in particular was highlighted by Ingmar Bergman as a leitmotif in the film Fanny and Alexander.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Piano Quintet Op 44 Allegro brillante In modo d'una marcia: Un poco largamente Scherzo: Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann wrote his piano quintet in 1842 for his wife, the star pianist Clara. She premiered it in concert on January 8, 1843. The piece came to set the pattern for the piano quintet genre in general, and Schumann's piece has gained a reputation as one of the foremost chamber music works of the 19th century. There is a relationship with a Schubert work, the Piano Trio No. 2, which Schumann admired. Schumann himself cited Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 29 as another decisive impulse. The stroke of genius was to let the piano lead the development with the strings in an accompanying function. After Mendelssohn played the solo part at a private performance in December 1842, he persuaded Schumann to revise the middle movements and add a second trio to the third movement. The quintet subsequently became one of Clara Schumann's masterpieces. What particularly characterizes the piano quintet is the melodic density and swing of the music, where the impulsiveness of the first movement in the C minor theme of the following mourning march darkens and comes to its senses. The light penetrates again in the scherzo with the two contrasting trio parts, the first soft and gentle, the second restlessly elusive, before the whole work is crowned polyphonically with a 52-bar double fugato. The peculiar character of the mourning march in particular was highlighted by Ingmar Bergman as a leitmotif in the film Fanny and Alexander.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Piano Quintet Op 44 Allegro brillante In modo d'una marcia: Un poco largamente Scherzo: Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ma non troppo Robert Schumann wrote his piano quintet in 1842 for his wife, the star pianist Clara. She premiered it in concert on January 8, 1843. The piece came to set the pattern for the piano quintet genre in general, and Schumann's piece has gained a reputation as one of the foremost chamber music works of the 19th century. There is a relationship with a Schubert work, the Piano Trio No. 2, which Schumann admired. Schumann himself cited Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 29 as another decisive impulse. The stroke of genius was to let the piano lead the development with the strings in an accompanying function. After Mendelssohn played the solo part at a private performance in December 1842, he persuaded Schumann to revise the middle movements and add a second trio to the third movement. The quintet subsequently became one of Clara Schumann's masterpieces. What particularly characterizes the piano quintet is the melodic density and swing of the music, where the impulsiveness of the first movement in the C minor theme of the following mourning march darkens and comes to its senses. The light penetrates again in the scherzo with the two contrasting trio parts, the first soft and gentle, the second restlessly elusive, before the whole work is crowned polyphonically with a 52-bar double fugato. The peculiar character of the mourning march in particular was highlighted by Ingmar Bergman as a leitmotif in the film Fanny and Alexander.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Justyna Jara began playing the violin when she was seven years old. After winning a prize at a competition for young violinists in Gdansk, Poland, she continued her studies in Warsaw with Miroslaw Lawrynowicz. During her studies, she won prizes in several violin competitions. She also recorded Wieniawski's Etudes Caprices Op 10 and 18 for the Acte Préalable record label as a tribute to her teacher. She studied for a year at the Chopin University in Warsaw and then at Juilliard in New York, working with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, often as assistant concertmaster. In 2014, she was appointed second concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Forsström moves naturally between the symphonic repertoire, oratorios and intimate chamber music. With her background in church music, she is often hired as a soloist in Baroque music, but she is just as happy to sing the great late Romantic music such as Brahms' Altrapsodie and Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and newly written works. She has recorded for Musica Rediviva, Sony Classical, Chandos Records and BIS. Since 2014, she has visited the Oxford Lieder Festival several times with pianist Matti Hirvonen and toured with Schubert's Winterreise together with Bengt Forsberg. Maria Forsström also commissions new music for mezzo, marimba, organ and piano for her chamber music trio, including in collaboration with Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück. She has sung with orchestras such as Musica Aeterna, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Christoph Eschenbach, Edward Gardner, Masaaki Suzuki and Jacek Kaspszyk.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Cellist Johan Stern is principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and teaches cello, chamber music and orchestral playing at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the Juilliard School in New York. As a member of Gageego!, the Gothenburg Ensemble for New Music, he has premiered several solo works by our leading Nordic composers. Johan Stern has participated in a number of international festivals and as a soloist and chamber musician has performed with figures such as Bobby McFerrin, Edward Gardner, Petri Sakari, Kristjan Järvi, Daniel Müller-Schott and Levon Chilingirian. During his studies at Juilliard, he had the privilege of collaborating with several internationally renowned musical figures, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composers Elliott Carter and John Cage.

Justyna Jara began playing the violin when she was seven years old. After winning a prize at a competition for young violinists in Gdansk, Poland, she continued her studies in Warsaw with Miroslaw Lawrynowicz. During her studies, she won prizes in several violin competitions. She also recorded Wieniawski's Etudes Caprices Op 10 and 18 for the Acte Préalable record label as a tribute to her teacher. She studied for a year at the Chopin University in Warsaw and then at Juilliard in New York, working with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, often as assistant concertmaster. In 2014, she was appointed second concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Claes Gunnarsson has toured all over the world as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher. He made an early and acclaimed debut as soloist in Dvorák's Cello Concerto with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Shortly afterwards he was appointed principal cellist of the orchestra, a position he has held since 1999. As soloist, Claes has appeared in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls, including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonie, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Singapore Symphony Hall. He has also appeared at leading international festivals such as La Folle Journée in Nantes, Music@Menlo in California, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Affinis in Japan, Yuri Temirkanov's Winter Festival in St. Petersburg and the Qingdao International Cello Festival. Conductors he has collaborated with include Neeme Järvi, Kent Nagano, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Alexander Lazarev, Christian Zacharias and Christopher Warren-Green. As a chamber musician, Claes has collaborated with prominent musicians such as Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolaj Znaider, Christian Zacharias and Hélène Grimaud. Of particular significance is his nearly 25-year collaboration with violinist Sara Trobäck and pianist Per Lundberg in the piano trio Trio Poseidon. The trio has toured extensively both nationally and internationally and made a critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Brahms' Double Concerto together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi for Chandos Records. For Chandos Records, he has also recorded Weinberg's Cello Fantasy and Cello Concerto together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Thord Svedlund. The recording of the cello concerto was awarded the Diapason d'Or award. He is also represented on BIS Records with the premiere recording of Albert Schnelzer's cello concerto. Claes is regularly invited as a guest solo cellist with, among others, the Oslo Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. In parallel with his concert performances, he is active as a teacher at the Academy of Drama and Music at the University of Gothenburg. Claes plays a cello built in 1707 by David Tecchler, generously on loan from the Järnåker Foundation.

Cellist Johan Stern is principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and teaches cello, chamber music and orchestral playing at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the Juilliard School in New York. As a member of Gageego!, the Gothenburg Ensemble for New Music, he has premiered several solo works by our leading Nordic composers. Johan Stern has participated in a number of international festivals and as a soloist and chamber musician has performed with figures such as Bobby McFerrin, Edward Gardner, Petri Sakari, Kristjan Järvi, Daniel Müller-Schott and Levon Chilingirian. During his studies at Juilliard, he had the privilege of collaborating with several internationally renowned musical figures, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composers Elliott Carter and John Cage.

Claes Gunnarsson has toured all over the world as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher. He made an early and acclaimed debut as soloist in Dvorák's Cello Concerto with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Shortly afterwards he was appointed principal cellist of the orchestra, a position he has held since 1999. As soloist, Claes has appeared in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls, including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonie, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Singapore Symphony Hall. He has also appeared at leading international festivals such as La Folle Journée in Nantes, Music@Menlo in California, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Affinis in Japan, Yuri Temirkanov's Winter Festival in St. Petersburg and the Qingdao International Cello Festival. Conductors he has collaborated with include Neeme Järvi, Kent Nagano, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Alexander Lazarev, Christian Zacharias and Christopher Warren-Green. As a chamber musician, Claes has collaborated with prominent musicians such as Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolaj Znaider, Christian Zacharias and Hélène Grimaud. Of particular significance is his nearly 25-year collaboration with violinist Sara Trobäck and pianist Per Lundberg in the piano trio Trio Poseidon. The trio has toured extensively both nationally and internationally and made a critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Brahms' Double Concerto together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi for Chandos Records. For Chandos Records, he has also recorded Weinberg's Cello Fantasy and Cello Concerto together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Thord Svedlund. The recording of the cello concerto was awarded the Diapason d'Or award. He is also represented on BIS Records with the premiere recording of Albert Schnelzer's cello concerto. Claes is regularly invited as a guest solo cellist with, among others, the Oslo Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. In parallel with his concert performances, he is active as a teacher at the Academy of Drama and Music at the University of Gothenburg. Claes plays a cello built in 1707 by David Tecchler, generously on loan from the Järnåker Foundation.

Cellist Johan Stern is principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and teaches cello, chamber music and orchestral playing at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the Juilliard School in New York. As a member of Gageego!, the Gothenburg Ensemble for New Music, he has premiered several solo works by our leading Nordic composers. Johan Stern has participated in a number of international festivals and as a soloist and chamber musician has performed with figures such as Bobby McFerrin, Edward Gardner, Petri Sakari, Kristjan Järvi, Daniel Müller-Schott and Levon Chilingirian. During his studies at Juilliard, he had the privilege of collaborating with several internationally renowned musical figures, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composers Elliott Carter and John Cage.

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. The title Principal Guest Conductor is shared by Pekka Kuusisto from 2025. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Mårten Larsson was born in Örebro and trained at the Royal Academy of Music under Alf Nilsson. He has been a leading oboist in Sweden for many years and is solo oboist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Stockholm Sinfonietta. Mårten Larsson teaches at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama and has released albums with music by Johan Helmich Roman, JS Bach and Keith Jarrett, among others.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.

Hans Hernqvist has been percussionist in the Gothenburg Symphony since 1991 and has participated in most productions and recordings as well as in chamber music contexts. After studying at the Malmö Academy of Music and at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Hans worked as an orchestral musician and was employed as a percussionist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic before moving to the Gothenburg Symphony. Hans also teaches percussion and orchestral playing at the University of Gothenburg's School of Theater and Music.

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. The title Principal Guest Conductor is shared by Pekka Kuusisto from 2025. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Erik Risberg was employed as a pianist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2023, also performing on organ, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He regularly performed as a chamber musician, including in a piano duo with Bengt Forsberg. Erik Risberg has also been a valued teacher of musical performance at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama for many years and also gives introductions at the Symphony Orchestra's concerts.