Göteborgs Konserthus Brahms med Ruth Reinhardt

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Haydn Variations Op 56 Like Beethoven, Brahms was very interested in the variation form and stands out as one of the foremost composers in this area. The theme for the Haydn Variations is Chorale St Antoni followed by eight variations and a grand finale. A good friend of Brahms, Karl Ferdinand Pohl, had brought some pieces of unknown music to Brahms in 1870, including field scores or divertimenti for brass band. One partita contained the Antonius Chorale, which Brahms fell in love with and noted in his sketchbook. At first it was believed to have been composed by Haydn, but researchers are increasingly leaning towards the possibility that it was one of Haydn's students, probably Ignatz Pleyel, who composed the partita. The theme is based on a hymn that pilgrims used to sing on St. Anthony's Day. The Brahms work is available in two versions, one for two pianos and one for orchestra. Brahms entered the orchestral version in his catalog first, but it was the piano version that first appeared in print. The duo version was first performed by Brahms himself and Clara Schumann. The orchestral version was first performed in November 1873 by the Vienna Philharmonic under Brahms. LENNART DEHN

Bohuslav Martinu (1890–1959) Toccata e due canzoni Bohuslav Martinu was born 193 steps up to the room just below the spire of St. James's Church in the small Bohemian town of Policka where his father worked as a church warden. At the age of seven he started playing the violin and at the age of 16 he was able to go to Prague for advanced studies. But he was more attracted by concerts, libraries and antiquarian shops - and was banned from further studies. Only as a 30-year-old did he end up in Josef Suk's demanding composition class. With a minimal scholarship in his pocket, he went to Paris in 1923 and ended up in the carousel around Stravinsky and the composer group Les Six. Fleeing Nazism, he ended up in the United States in 1941. Like Dvorák 50 years earlier, Martinu was already well known in the New World, and here he got the first permanent job of his life. At the age of 52, he began here a unique and impressive series of six symphonies - they came in close succession, one a year. But in April 1946, he took part as a teacher at a summer course a couple of miles outside Tanglewood. He then worked on Toccata e due Canzoni. One night he went out on the terrace to get some air, and on his way back in he fell handlessly three meters onto a concrete floor. He was unconscious for the next two days, and remained in the hospital for five weeks. He suffered permanent memory loss and damage to the auditory nerve. Only in September was he able to take a few steps, but had difficulty bending his neck. For the rest of his life, he had reduced hearing in his right ear, had frequent headaches and suffered from a grinding tinnitus. In October was he able to continue composing. He had intended the two Canzoni to be "light, happy, very simple songs", but circumstances made the second Canzone darker than he originally intended. In the manuscript one notices nothing of what happened, because he wrote the second Canzone again from the beginning. Martinu liked to compose in a neo-baroque style with Concerto grosso, Frescobaldi, Corelli and English madrigals as models. The piece was first performed by Paul Sacher and his chamber orchestra in Basel in January 1947. STIG JACOBSSON

Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) Nobilissima Visione, suite Einleitung und Rondo Marsch und Pastorale Passacaglia The dynamic leader of the Russian Ballet in Paris, Michail Djagilev, commissioned a ballet by Paul Hindemith in 1929, but unfortunately the well-known choreographer died a few months later without Hindemith having started any work. But perhaps the thoughts of the ballet he would try to interest his successor Léonide Massine in almost ten years later, a ballet about Franciscus of Assisi (1182–1226), were already raised. Massine was hesitant about the idea, but Hindemith took him to the church of Santa Croce in Florence, where the medieval artist Giotto painted frescoes from the life of the holy man. They were deeply moved. Hindemith's ballet was named Nobilissima Visione. It is called a 'choreographic legend', and should not be seen as a church work, but as a symbol of something universal. The ballet was given six scenes with eleven parts and the premiere took place with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo on 21 July 1938 in Covent Garden in London. Massine himself danced the title role and Hindemith conducted. The success was moderate, but the following year it could be seen in the United States, then under the name St Francis. In order to make the music accessible to the concert audience as well, Hindemith compiled a concert suite in three movements that same year in which he uses five episodes from the ballet, but not in chronological order. The suite begins with an Introduction where we find Franciscus in deep meditation in seclusion in the mountains near Assisi. The music is very sparsely orchestrated, but transitions into a more colorful Rondo. The second movement opens with a march depicting the brutal soldiers robbing wealthy travelers, while the contrasting Pastoral describes the three allegorical women Chastity, Humility and Poverty. Finally, we hear the Passacaglia that also ends the entire ballet, where a six-bar theme is varied twenty times. It develops into a hymn inspired by Franciscus' own Song of the Sun. The orchestral suite was first performed on 13 September 1938 in Venice. Stig Jacobsson

The Gothenburg Symphony, called "one of the world's most formidable orchestras" by the Guardian, has toured the USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East and performed at major music centres and festivals throughout the world. Chief conductor is Santtu-Matias Rouvali who started his tenure in 2017. Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach are principal guest conductors since 2019. Already at the orchestra's very first years, the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed principal conductor, contributing strongly to the Nordic profile of the orchestra by inviting his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to conduct their own works. Subsequent holders of the post include Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. During Neeme Järvi's tenure (1982-2004), the orchestra became a major international force. In 1997 it was appointed the National Orchestra of Sweden. During his celebrated tenure as music director (2007-2012), Gustavo Dudamel took the Orchestra to major music centres and festivals in Europe, making acclaimed appearances at BBC Proms and Vienna Musikverein. The list of prominent guest conductors has included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan, Myung-Whun Chung, Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra also runs extensive concert projects for children, and regularly releases digital live concerts free on gsoplay.se. The orchestra has been involved in many prestigious recording projects, the latest one the complete Sibelius Symphonies with Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Alpha Classics. Earlier, the orchestra has issued over 100 recordings on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Farao Classics and several other labels. The Gothenburg Symphony is owned by the Region Västra Götaland.

Ruth Reinhardt has earned a reputation for her musical intelligence and programmatic sense of imagination. During the 2022-23 season, Reinhardt makes his US debut with the New York Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Louisville Orchestra and Rhode Island Philharmonic. European engagements include debuts with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, RSB Berlin, the Gothenburg Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic. She also returns to Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, among others. In recent seasons, Ruth Reinhardt has led symphony orchestras in cities such as San Francisco, Detroit, Houston and Baltimore. In Europe, she has been a guest at, among others, the Orchester National de Radio France, the Tonkünstler Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm. From 2016 to 2018, she was assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony. Ruth Reinhardt received her Masters in Conducting from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Alan Gilbert. Born in Saarbrücken, Germany in 1988, she began studying the violin at an early age. She attended the Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) and studied violin with Rudolf Koelman. She has participated in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Marin Alsop, and James Ross. Reinhardt was a Dudamel Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2017-18.