Göteborgs Konserthus Pekka Kuusisto & Anne Sofie von Otter

Anything can happen when Principal Guest Conductor and violinist Pekka Kuusisto takes the stage. This time, he welcomes favourite mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for a musical journey of discovery focused on man and nature.

Anything can happen when Principal Guest Conductor and violinist Pekka Kuusisto takes the stage. This time, he welcomes favourite mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for a musical journey of discovery focused on man and nature.

In the Swedish vocal work So We Will Vanish from 2021, Anne Sofie von Otter collaborated with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, known from the worlds of opera and ballet. Looking to the treetops, the songs contemplate the ephemerality of nature and the fate we all share – returning to the earth.

To begin, we hear American composer Ellen Reid pay tribute to the power of the female body and its ability to create new life. This tone poem was born in 2024 during Reid’s work with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

The concert concludes with Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4, entitled “the Inextinguishable”, which gives hope of eternal life.

World-renowned Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto is the new Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra for the 2025–2026 season. As a violinist, he has become known as a charismatic and genre-crossing musician who offers audiences something extraordinary from the podium.

Introduction to the concert

Take a seat in the Great Hall one hour before the concert begins and learn more about the music you will soon experience! You will get the stories behind the music, knowledge of the composers and own reflections about the classical pieces. The introduction last for about 30 minutes, it is free and free seating in the hall. Welcome!