Göteborgs Konserthus Classical AW: French Summer

Helena Munktell has characterized Bränningar, op 19, as a symphonic picture, and the work was called Sur les brisants at its first performances in Monte Carlo in 1898 and 1902. It is said to have been conceived during a stay on the Riviera in the early 1890s and is thus one of the earliest of the many painterly sea depictions in Swedish music. The piece is based on two short motifs. The first is just a rapidly falling chromatic figure with the tritone interval as a frame, and the second is a haunting, also falling, minor-keyed melody. On this modest material, the composer has formed an intensely dramatic sequence with constant character and color changes, where the unexpected harmonic shifts contribute not least. The orchestral movement is also strikingly imaginative, and Munktell skillfully utilizes several of the instrument combinations that her teacher Vincent d'Indy recommended, especially with regard to the woodwinds. Munktell often made continuous minor changes to her larger works, and this is also said to have happened in the score for Bränningar. It was thus a final version of the piece that was used when the Royal Academy of Music paid tribute to her memory with a performance of it at its anniversary in 1919 and which was printed shortly afterwards.

As a composer, Joseph Canteloube is primarily remembered for his lifelong work of collecting, arranging and preserving French folk songs. In the early 20th century, he documented traditional melodies from his home region of Auvergne in central France, as well as from neighboring areas, and arranged them for voice and orchestra in the famous suite Chants d’Auvergne. Through this work, Canteloube secured a musical heritage that was in danger of being lost in an era marked by urbanization, social change and two world wars. The 27 Occitan songs in total, whose texts span several centuries, depict life in the countryside. With roots in oral tradition, the music is characterized by rhythmic vitality, colorful melodies and a close connection between man and landscape. It tells the story of shepherds, nature, love and everyday situations. The most famous is Baïlèro. Canteloube did not strive for folkloric authenticity, however, but instead created personal, artistic interpretations of the melodies. Subtle harmonies and rich orchestration, often with touches of French impressionism, give the songs a new expression. The result is music that combines folk simplicity with elegant refinement, where the solo voice is allowed to move between playfulness, sincerity and poetic stillness. Chants d’Auvergne has thus become a tribute to the culture, nature and timeless power of the French countryside.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Suite No 2 from Daphnis et Chloé It is difficult to capture this orchestral suite in a few words, which after more than 100 years strikes an audience with enormous richness of color and virtuosity. A music that is only remarkable at the time of its creation. 1913 is the year that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is played for the first time, and Anton Webern's 6 orchestral works are performed in Vienna. Two concerts whose musical revolution was for a long time overshadowed by the scuffles that arose during the concerts. Ravel's suite was already embraced during the composer's lifetime, but its musical revolution in harmony and orchestration is no lesser. This suite, which is part of a ballet set to the Greek tale of Daphnis and Chloé, to which Diaghilev's famous dance company danced, bears all the characteristics that made Ravel's music immortal. The examples are countless, but the level of subtle genius is present already in the opening of the work, when the sun rises in the impressionistic orchestral scree. Not least listen to how this is embodied in the string section. The timbre, which is like a fund for the moving wind motifs, is in fact the sunrise's most sonorous transformation; how the strings in a slow procession during the opening bars raise the chords, from desk to desk, from section to section, and in that way - sifted through the sound of the strings - sweetly let the overtones from the strings go from the dark to the clear. Esaias Järnegard

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.

Ludovic Morlot is Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra since 2021. He was Music Director of the Seattle Symphony from 2011 to 2019 and has been Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019. He was also a founding member of the China National Youth Orchestra from 2017 to 2021, touring Europe with them in 2019. In the 2025-2026 season, Morlot is touring with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra to Stuttgart, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Düsseldorf. He returns to the BBC Philharmonic for projects such as The Rite of Spring at Aviva Factory, John Adams Harmonielehre in Blackpool and Cassandra Miller's Viola Concerto at Bridgewater Hall. He returns to Seattle Opera for a production of Carmen following a successful run there with Die Rheingold, Die Walküre and Samson et Dalila. Highlights of last season included debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Dallas Opera in Pelléas et Mélisande, as well as return visits to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. Morlot has previously appeared with the Berliner Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic and Budapest Festival, as well as many of the leading North American orchestras. He has a particularly strong connection to Boston, having been Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Conductor at Tanglewood and then Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony. He now makes his debut with the Gothenburg Symphony.

Swedish mezzo-soprano Rebecka Wallroth has gained attention in Sweden and internationally. Starting with the 2025-2026 season, she is part of the soloist ensemble at the Berlin State Opera, where her roles include Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Meg Page in Falstaff and Carlotta in Die schweigsame Frau. She began the season at the National Theatre in Prague, where she played Idamante in Idomeneo. In the summer of 2026, she will again be a guest at the Verbier Festival, this time as Dorabella in Così fan tutte. During the two previous seasons, she was a member of the Berlin State Opera's opera studio. Rebecka Wallroth studied at the University of Arts and Music in Vienna, where her roles included Olga in Eugene Onegin, Idamante in Idomeneo, Unulfo in Handel's Rodelinda and Agnes in Die verkaufte Braut at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn. In 2023, she played Lilly in the premiere of The Ghost Factory by Daniel Nelson at the Vadstena Academy in Sweden. Rebecka Wallroth was awarded a finalist prize in the 2023 Queen Sonja International Singing Competition, and was the winner of both the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition and the Karl Staud Music Prize in 2022, as well as the second prize in the 2022 Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition. In 2018, she won the music competition Dalasolist. She has received several scholarships, including the Anders Wall Confidencen scholarship, the Joel Berglund scholarship from the Royal Swedish Opera's soloists, and awards from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She is awarded the 2026 Mogren Award in Music.