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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.

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.