Göteborgs Konserthus Sibelius Violin Concerto

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) Violin Concerto Op 47 The violin concerto was written between the second and third symphonies in the summer of 1903 at the Järnefelt family's farm in Lojo. It was first performed in February 1904 with the composer as conductor and Victor Novácek as soloist. The performance was not a great success and Sibelius found that he was not entirely satisfied with certain sections. He therefore revised the concert in the summer of 1905, and the new premiere was conducted by Richard Strauss himself in Berlin. Over the brooding D minor harmonies of the orchestra, the violin sings a melody that turns out to be the main theme, and it is also taken up by the deep woodwinds before leading to a broad violin cadence. The first movement then develops in a freely treated sonata form, which gives it an almost rhapsodic character. The violin part is brilliant, the music dramatic, the orchestra engaging. This grand movement is also longer than the next two combined. The slow movement begins with a wistful woodwind phrase and it also echoes with the other wind players. Even the violin's song theme is sad and serious. The whole set is characterized by a sublime simplicity. The closing allegro has been called a "polonese for polar bears" and is a rondo with only two themes. The first is presented by the violin and the second by the orchestra. The music is very virtuose and even if the soloist dominates, the orchestral part never becomes uninteresting.

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.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali is Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony since 2017, a position that runs until 2025. He also has a successful international conducting career and has been hailed by The Guardian as "the latest great talent of the Finnish conducting tradition that you just have to listen to". He has toured with the Gothenburg Symphony and pianist Hélène Grimaud in Nordic capitals and with pianist Alice Sara Ott and percussionist Martin Grubinger in Germany. In autumn 2023, he guest-performed with the Gothenburg Symphony and the violinist Arabella Steinbacher in Salzburg and Vienna. Concerts in Gothenburg in the 2023-2024 season included music by Boulanger, Saariaho, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. Santtu-Matias Rouvali also led the Gothenburg Symphony in the European premiere of Julia Wolfe's choral drama Fire in My Mouth as well as sold-out concerts with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto. Santtu-Matias Rouvali also continued his collaborations with top-level orchestras and concert halls across Europe and the US, including the BBC Proms and the New York Philharmonic. He collaborates with soloists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Nemanja Radulovic, Leonidas Kavakos, Bruce Liu, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Vadim Gluzman, Randall Goosby and Vilde Frang. Since 2021, Santtu-Matias Rouvali is also Chief Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. 2013-2023 he was Chief Conductor of the Tampere Symphony Orchestra. Tours with the Gothenburg Symphony in the 2024-2025 season include guest performances in Malmö, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Prague and Dresden. With the Philharmonia he will visit Helsinki, Tallinn, Japan and Spain. He also makes appearances with the Chicago Symphony and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. With the Gothenburg Symphony, Santtu-Matias Rouvali released in January 2024 a recording of Sibelius 4a, the fourth album in his Sibelius cycle (Alpha Classics). In April 2024 he released Beethoven's Triple Concerto in a recording with the Philharmonia, Benjamin Grosvenor, Nicola Benedetti and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Decca). When he is not conducting, he devotes himself to farming and fishing at his farm outside Tampere.

The violinist Ava Bahari was born in 1996 in Gothenburg. She began playing the violin at the age of three and gave her first solo concert at age eight in the Gothenburg Concert Hall. She studied at the Oslo Music Academy's Young Artist Program under the tutelage of Prof. Terje Moe Hansen. From 2011 to 2015, she continued her studies with Prof. Per Enoksson in Gothenburg Symphony. In 2015, Ava Bahari began her Bachelor and Master studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under the guidance of Prof. Kolja Blacher and received her Diploma in May 2024. In 2021, she also completed a degree at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, Italy. Ava Bahari has received numerous awards including 3rd Prize at the Premio Paganini Competition in Genova, 4th Prize at the Concours International Tibor Varga in Sion in 2021, and 1st Prize at the Aurora Music Competition in Stockholm in 2019. Throughout her career, Bahari has had the privilege of being mentored by some of the world's most renowned violinists and pedagogues including Leonidas Kavakos, Mihaela Martin, Pierre Amoyal, Midori Goto and Boris Kuschnir. Bahari has worked with conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Pekka Kuusisto and Ryan Bancroft and performed with esteemed orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and Gävle Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming orchestral debut in the next season includes concerts with The Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Some of her more notable recital performances include a Paganini recital at the Seoul Arts Center, a recital on the "Stauffer" Guarneri del Gesù 1734 in museo del Violino Cremona and a recital in Konzerthaus Berlin. Ava Bahari has also received music and culture scholarships from Sten A Olsson's Foundation for Research and Culture, Royal Society of Science and Knowledge in Gothenburg and the Willinska Foundation. With the Gothenburg Symphony, she made her soloist debut in January 2023 in Schönberg's violin concerto.