Vara Konserthus Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra plays in Vara Konserthus

With the successful premiere of the opera Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, Claude Debussy established himself seriously as a composer, and after the breakthrough he worked faster and with increased confidence. The Sea (La Mer) was composed between 1903 and 1905, and is among his most audience-friendly orchestral works. Despite the subtitle Three Symphonic Sketches, it is more like a symphony in its structure, but at the same time is a little too unorthodox to be called that, as it deviates from convention in the details. Debussy's stated preference for Asian pentatonic scales, rather than the conventional Western scales, also adds an extra layer of "shimmer" to the sound. CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) The Sea In the first movement, From dawn to noon on the sea, Debussy allows the main theme to develop towards a powerful finale, after first being born out of indistinct tonality. With a complicated orchestration at the bottom, where the strings are sometimes divided into up to fifteen parts, together with the horns, the harp and the woodwind, he creates an effective sound world that flows with rich harmonies. The third movement, Dialogue between wind and waves, is a symbolic and powerful musical dialogue between vague and distinct moods. In between we have a scherzo, Play of the Waves, where Debussy shows us a masterful test of free form. The theme material and instrumentation alternates playfully, and is somewhat reminiscent of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. All three movements have the changeability of the sea as a metaphor for music in constant motion, something Debussy returns to in later compositions. ANDREAS KONVICKA

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. 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. 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 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.

Anja Bihlmaier's strong musical instinct, abundant charisma and natural leadership have propelled her to the forefront of newly established conductors, both on the symphonic and operatic stages. In 2021, she assumed the position of chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. Since the 2020-2021 season, Anja Bihlmaier is also the first guest conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Anja Bihlmaier is well known to the music audience in Gothenburg. She has conducted at the University of Stage and Music, at the Gothenburg Opera and the Gothenburg Symphony. With the Gothenburg Symphony, she has appeared in front of 20,000 Gothenburg citizens in Slottsskogen in 2018 and in the Scandinavium Arena at the Side by Side Music camp final in 2019. She is demanden throughout Europe and in recent years she has worked with orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Royal Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. As an opera conductor, after several years with the theaters in Hannover, Chemnitz and Kassel, she has, among other things, conducted Gounod's Faust in Trondheim. She has regularly visited the Volksoper Wien, where she has conducted Carmen, Laderlappen, The Wedding of Figaro and Henry Mason's celebrated new production of The Magic Flute.