Oslo, Den Norske Opera Gothenburg Symphony plays in Oslo

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major was composed in 1878 during a stay at a spa on Lake Geneva in an attempt by the composer to come to terms with a depression that had long crippled his writing. It is the Russian romantic's only violin concerto, yet it is one of the most well-known and beloved in the Western classical repertoire. It is easy to listen to and has a pleasant sound without, for that matter, falling into the predictable. Tchaikovsky was greatly influenced by the German romantic school, which advocated the beauty of music over a strictly formalized composition procedure, which is evident in his letter correspondence from the same period. The fact that it was a violin concert instead of, say, a symphony, was due to a dear visit by a certain Iosif Kotek, Tchaikovsky's composition student as well as violinist. The two were very close and the young man's mere presence at the Swiss spa helped Tchaikovsky out of his lock-up and inspired the well-known notes we know as the Violin Concerto. The concerto opens with an almost 20 minute long, dynamic and ever-changing Allegro moderato where the famous main theme is exposed, followed by a much shorter and wistfully sweet wind movement that is as fine-tuned as it is languid to end with a ten-minute dramatic finale which elegantly ties the piece together thematic flora.

GUSTAV HOLST (1874-1934) Mars, the bringer of War Venus, the bringer of Peace Mercury, the Winged Messenger Jupiter, the bringer of Jollity Saturn, the bringer of Old Age Uranus, the Magician Neptune, the Mystic It's quite possible that Gustav Holst wandered along the English Atlantic coast one late summer evening in the 1910s, looked at the rippled surface of the Bristol Channel, and then turned his gaze from the salt-splattered waves up to the starry sky. "Debussy wrote about the sea. What if I wrote about our solar system, the planets?" Possibly he enumerated the secret spheres hidden in the starry rain; "Mars, Venus, Mercury... of course, music is to be written here!" You can almost see him as he happily bumped the stick against the gravel of the path, smiled and continued his hike. This is pure speculation, but Holst expert Colin Matthews believes that Debussy's La Mer was one of Holst's sources of inspiration when he wrote The Planets. Another was astrology. Holst and his best friend Vaughan Williams had socialist and down-to-earth sympathies and wanted to spread the music to the people, but that did not stop Holst from dreaming away in the world of astrology. He cast horoscopes for his friends throughout his life and called astrology his "favorite vice." Holst knew how to orchestrate. As a 17-year-old, he had read Berlioz's ground-breaking book on the subject and had pocket scores such as Stravinsky's Petrushka with him during his training. He was also an experienced trombonist who had played both with opera companies, in the theater and in entertainment orchestras on the piers of Blackpool and Bristol. As a choir director and teacher, he gained further musical experience, which was added to the thorough training at the Royal College of Music. When the idea for The Planets was born, he had a substantial musical toolbox to work with. And it shows in the inspired orchestral suite: here, brutal modernism meets English folk tone. The strange thing is that, despite these different stylistic elements, he still managed to create a coherent whole - it is the composer Holst's peculiarity that binds the parts together. From the resolute five-bar of Mars (borrowed from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé?), the pastoral of Venus, the light-footed staccatos of Mercury (Berlioz bassoons) and the poignant folk tune of Jupiter, to the rising timbres of Saturn (a kind of eternal lullaby that exclaims in cutting lament as age draws to a close), the fiery spells of Uranus (slinging towards Duka's Sorcerer's Apprentice) and the utterly strange and otherworldly timbres of Neptune, where the mystical chorus fades and disappears into the icy darkness of infinite and eternal space.

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.

Since 2017, Santtu-Matias Rouvali is the chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He also has a successful international career as a conductor and has been hailed by The Guardian as "the Finnish conductor tradition's senesta stortade påvning man bara muste lysna på". Since 2021, Santtu-Matias Rouvali is also the chief conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. He has toured with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and pianist Hélène Grimaud in Nordic capitals as well as with pianist Alice Sara Ott and percussionist Martin Grubinger in Germany. The years 2013-2022 Santtu-Matias Rouvali was chief conductor and artistic director of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. During the 2023-2024 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali will continue to collaborate with orchestras at the top level throughout Europe and the USA, such as the BBC Proms, the New York Philharmonic and many more. He collaborates with soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Arabella Steinbacher, Nemanja Radulovic, Leonidas Kavakos, Bruce Liu, Alice Sara Ott, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Vadim Gluzman, Randall Goosby and Vilde Frang. With the Gothenburg Symphony, he is recording all of Sibelius' symphonies on disc and so far four albums have been released (Alpha Classics). When he is not conducting, he devotes himself to farming and fishing at his farm outside Tampere.

Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos is celebrated for his incomparable technique and captivating artistry. He has developed close relationships with major orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Kavakos also works closely with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Munich Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala as well as the major American orchestras. In recent years, Kavakos has succeeded in building a strong profile as a conductor and has conducted, among others, the New York Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Dallas Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In the 2023-2024 season, Leonidas Kavakos will perform at the opening gala in Carnegie Hall with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti. During the same visit to the USA, he will also perform with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra during the Esa-Pekka Salonen. He will perform a number of concerts in Europe with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Berlin, NDR Hamburg, Bergen Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Boston Symphony. He also conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in London for the first time, as well as the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France. Kavakos will tour with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma and return to China for a series of concerts and performances with the China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony. He will also perform Bach's partitas and sonatas in Europe and Asia, following the release of his critically acclaimed album Bach: Sei Solo in 2022. Kavakos is an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classics. 2022 was the release of Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6 Pastorale and Op.1, No. 3 arranged for trio with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. Additional albums of arrangements of Beethoven symphonies will be released in the future. Leonidas Kavakos was born and raised in a musical family in Athens, where he annually holds masterclasses in violin and chamber music. He plays the Willemotte Stradivarius violin from 1734. Leonidas Kavakos has been a guest of the Gothenburg Symphony on several occasions, most recently in 2013 when he played Beethoven's Triple Concerto.