Göteborgs Konserthus Spring celebration to song

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) SYMPHONY NO 9, "Great" Andante. Allegro, ma non troppo Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro vivace Allegro vivace The Great C Major Symphony was written by Schubert in 1825-1826. He dedicated it to the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna in the autumn of 1827, but they did not venture on this monster. Franz himself was a playing member of this association, but his ability to speak for himself was downright lousy. In fact, he avoided the public eye all his short life and socialized mostly in closed, beautiful-spirited circles. His thick C major score remained in the large library of the Musikverein. He died in the fall of 1828. Big brother Ferdinand tried to put order in his music packs he had left behind. He made his own transcription of the C major symphony. In 1839 he was visited by Robert Schumann, a true Schubert enthusiast. He is amazed when he is shown seven symphonies. He ensures - eleven years after Schubert's death - that Mendelssohn receives the C major symphony. He also amazes and hastily performs a performance on March 21 in Leipzig at a subscription concert. He soon receives a thank you from the happy brother Ferdinand who has heard of great success; applause between movements. "You, doctor, have erected a column of honor for the departed. You have freed the ignorant from the blindfold, those who only saw the deceased as a song composer." Fellow composer Robert Schumann gets the opportunity to watch a rehearsal for the second performance in Leipzig late in the autumn of the same year. He writes to his beloved Clara: "Today I have been blissful. At the rehearsal a symphony by Schubert was played. Oh, if you had been there! I cannot describe it. The instruments are like human voices, the whole thing is beyond all bounds spiritual. I became happy; the only thing I could wish for was that you were my wife and that I too could write such symphonies." Ingemar von Heijne 2014 (excerpt)

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.

Joel Sandelson was the winner of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award 2021. Before that, he worked for two seasons as assistant conductor at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and has worked closely with conductors such as Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Roger Norrington and Lahav Shani. He has also founded and directed the London-based orchestra for period instruments called Wond'rous Machine. Joel Sandelson studied music at Cambridge University and is originally a cellist. As a conductor, he has had successful debuts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Dresdner Philharmonie, Camerata Salzburg, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de València and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. This season he conducts, among other things, premieres by composers Hannah Kendall and Joanna Marsh.

Soprano Kathrin Lorenzen was the 2024 winner of the Soloist Prize awarded by the Swedish Royal Academy of Music, the first singer in 16 years to be awarded 1st prize. In 2023 she won 1st prize in the International Telemann Competition and in 2024 2nd prize in the Mirjam Helin International Voice Competition. Kathrin Lorenzen was born in Flensburg, Germany in 1994 and began church music studies at HMT Leipzig. After further organ and vocal studies at HfM Saar, she moved to Stockholm in 2021 for employment in the Swedish Radio choir. She has studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm under professor Bo Rosenkull. She has a strong passion for chamber music and collaborates, among other things, with pianist Oskar Ekberg.