Göteborgs Konserthus Christmas Gala with Lise Davidsen

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) Midwinter Op 24, rhapsody for choir and orchestra In the Gothenburg Symphony's rich Stenhammar tradition, the Rhapsody Midwinter is a hidden gem. Stenhammar wrote this wintry equivalent to Midsommarvaka (Midsummer's Wake) in Italy in 1907. He brought the piece home to Gothenburg when he settled down as the artistic director of the Orchestra Society of Gothenburg. Midwinter was first performed in the spring of 1908 and was conducted by Stenhammar on several occasions in the coming years. According to an old program sheet, Stenhammar is said to have built the piece on old fiddler songs that he recorded after the Mora fiddler Hins-Anders. This also includes the old chorale Den signade dag as it was traditionally sung in the Christmas carol in Mora in Dalecarlia.

The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1905 and currently consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra is based in Gothenburg Concert Hall – a gem of functionalism on Götaplatsen square that has enchanted music lovers since 1935. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra’s Chief Conductor from 1907 until 1922. He gave the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to collaborate with the orchestra. Under the leadership of Chief Conductor Neeme Järvi between 1982 and 2004, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra undertook a number of international tours and made a hundred or so album recordings while establishing itself as one of Europe’s foremost orchestras. In 1997 the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra received the title of the National Orchestra of Sweden. Since season 2017-2018 Santtu-Matias Rouvali is Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Since season 2019-2020 Barbara Hannigan is Principal Guest Conductor. Christoph Eschenbach was also Principal Guest Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony in the years 2019-2022 – together they formed a strong three-leaf clover consisting of three completely different types of artists. We are also extremely proud to be an official partner of soprano Barbara Hannigan’s mentor initiative Equilibrium, with focus on young singers and musicians who are just beginning their careers. Sten Cranner is the orchestra’s CEO and Artistic Director, while Gustavo Dudamel holds the title of Honorary Conductor and Neeme Järvi that of Principal Conductor Emeritus. Region Västra Götaland is owner of the orchestra. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Christian Eggen, born in 1957 in Drøbak, began his conducting career in 1981, when he had already established a successful career as a pianist. He quickly became one of the Nordic countries' most prominent conductors, particularly acclaimed for his performances of contemporary music. He is artistic director of the Oslo Sinfonietta and the Cikada ensemble. He has collaborated with leading contemporary music ensembles and with composers such as John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, James Dillon, Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg. He is also a composer and has been awarded the Norwegian Music Critics Prize, the Spellemann Prize, the Lindeman Prize and the Oslo City Artist Prize.

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, hailed by The Economist as "opera's newest star", has taken the classical music world by storm. "It's been a long time since a singer has generated as much buzz," Gramophone wrote in the review of her debut album for Decca in 2019. In recent seasons, Lise Davidsen has debuted in a number of major roles: as the Marschallin in Die Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera, as Giorgetta in Il Tabarro at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and as Elisabetta in Don Carlo at Royal Opera House. She has also appeared at the Wiener Staatsoper, at the Maggio Musicale in Florence under the direction of Zubin Mehta and with the Orchestra de Paris and a number of the world's leading orchestras. She has been Artist in Focus at the Barbican in London and has debuted with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko. In the summer of 2022, she made a triumphant return to the Bayreuth Festival in the role of Sieglinde in the long-awaited new Ring Tetralogy. When she first appeared in Bayreuth in 2019, she was hailed as "a voice of a century". Lise Davidsen was born in Stokke in 1987 and graduated from the Opera Academy in Copenhagen in 2014 after studying for Susanna Eken. In 2015, her breakthrough came when she won Operalia's Birgit Nilsson Award and the Queen Sonja competition. In 2018, she was named Young Artist of the Year Award at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Her discography includes, among other things, a recording of Grieg's songs together with Norwegian Leif Ove Andsnes, complete recordings of Friskytten and Fidelio as well as solo recordings for Decca. The concert is Lise Davidsen's debut with the Gothenburg Symphony.

The choir was founded in 1917 by cousins Elsa and Wilhelm Stenhammar. Elsa Stenhammar was one of the driving forces in turn-of-the-century choir life in Gothenburg and became the choir's first rehearser. On December 8, 1917, the choir debuted in Beethoven's Choir Fantasy with Wilhelm Stenhammar as soloist at the grand piano. As the country's oldest symphonic choir, they were able to celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2017 with a big celebratory concert where Mozart and Brahms as well as Stenhammar, Elfrida Andrée and Björn & Benny were on the program. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir is a non-profit association that is linked to the Gothenburg Symphony. The choir participates in concerts and performances under both the orchestra's and its own auspices. The music is mixed and the repertoire extensive. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir has participated in concerts in, among other places, the Royal Albert Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England, as well as participated with the Gothenburg Symphony in the annual music festival in the Canary Islands and on a tour to China.