Göteborgs Konserthus School Concert: The monster doesn’t breath

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Organ Concerto Andante · Allegro giocoso · Andante moderato · Allegro molto agitato · Très calme, lent · Largo In the summer of 1938, Francis Poulenc composed his original organ concerto, a synthesis of joy and gravity, of intellectualism and sensitivity, of surreal dreams and religious ecstasy. In the 1920s, Poulenc belonged to the influential group of Parisian composers known as Les Six (The Six). Reacting against the old Romantic tradition, they presented fresh, often sarcastically entertaining music instead. Poulenc often combined charming superficiality with pensive religiosity in his music, and his organ concerto is an example of this. It is composed in one movement, but has six short and contrasting sections. The piece begins with a sonorous organ recitative, accompanied by timpani and pizzicato in the double basses – and the rest of the strings soon follow. An interlude on the organ leads to the light and breezy second passage, in which the strings carry the main theme while the organ presents scale runs. The music reaches a peak and then leads into the longest section, Andante moderato, in which a well-designed counterpoint culminates in several dense, intense chords. We are quickly swept up in a restless Allegro. Poulenc noted the simple organ melody that follows here as “very soft and clear”. In the concluding Largo, the soloist returns with the recitative from the introduction. The premiere of the concerto was performed by Maurice Duruflé in 1941. Stig Jacobsson

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.

Katarina Andreasson is a conductor and violinist. At the age of 22, she became principal concertmaster in the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and later in the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra. Since 1996, she has been principal concertmaster of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in Örebro. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 2007, Katarina Andreasson made her international debut with the BBC Orchestra in Belfast. Today, she regularly conducts orchestras in Sweden, and a selection of them are the Gothenburg Symphony, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. She has also conducted in Poland, Ukraine and Denmark. As a violin soloist, Katarina Andreasson made her international debut in London in 1997, when she played Howard Blake's violin concerto The Leeds in the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Some of her most noted performances are Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Peteris Vask's Distant Light and Weill's Der neue Orpheus together with Nina Stemme.

Tommy Jonsson is a Swedish organist and musician. He is a trained organist at the University of Theater and Music in Gothenburg. Tommy Jonsson has had assignments as accompanist and arranger at the Gothenburg Symphony, the Gothenburg Opera, Folkteatern and Stadsteatern in Gothenburg. Today he is an organist in the Church of Sweden, and participates in parallel stage productions as an arranger, musical director and musician.