Slottsskogen The National Day Concert 2024

Hugo Alfvén's Festspel was commissioned for the opening of the Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm in 1908. The project occupied Alfvén's thoughts for some time without him being able to come up with a reasonable solution. He has said that he began to fear that he would not get anything done at all in time. But during a visit to the writer Verner von Heidenstam, inspiration suddenly appeared, and clattering fanfares and the festive polonaise rhythm resounded inside the composer. A day later, the entire piece was written down in good time before the theater opening. Tor Aulin conducted at Dramaten on 18 February 1908. Over time, the work has become official music for solemn occasions.

Bo Linde (1933-1970) Suite Boulogne Op 32 Bo Linde was a composer and music critic from Gävle. Most famous are his violin concerto and cello concerto. He was more traditionally oriented than his contemporary modernist colleagues, and became popular for his entertaining and moving music. The suite has its name from the Boulognerskogen park in Gävle (which has a namesake in Paris). We hear the two marches that begin and end the work.

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) The Bartered Bride Brudköpet is wild and beautiful music for a comic opera (with a raucous and difficult overture that challenged many orchestras). It is Czech Bedrich Smetana's most famous opera and could be seen at the Gothenburg Opera in 2022. He is otherwise best known for the piece Moldau from the symphonic poem Ma Vlast. He lived and worked for six years in Gothenburg in the 1850s. The story in Bartered Bride is about a messy marriage arrangement, but ends happily.

Eight movements, a mysterious visitor and a hastily deceased composer. Rarely has a work been more mythologized than Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626. A requiem is a Catholic death mass, which is set to music after the texts of the Latin service, the first line of which reads: "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine" (Giv them, O Lord, the eternal rest). Mozart's Requiem consists of eight movements, but how these actually came about has puzzled people for centuries. Lacrimosa means "weeping" and was one of the parts completed by colleague Süssmayr after Mozart's death. The work was delivered to the client in 1792.

Helena Munktell (1852 – 1919) Suite Dalécarlienne Op 22 Helena Munktell, born at Grycksbo manor, has been noticed in recent years. For example, her vocal pieces, violin sonatas and the opera In Florence have been recorded on disc. She studied in Paris like many other Swedish colleagues, including for the composer Vincent d'Indy. She wrote four symphonic works, a series of songs and choral works and was the first woman to compose an opera. The Dala suite had its premiere in Paris in 1910 and depicts the beautiful Swedish Dalarna, where the church boats pull up on Siljan and the fiddlers arrive. In 1916, the work had its Swedish premiere in Stockholm. Helena Munktell was one of the founders of the Association of Swedish Composers in 1918.

Carolina Wahlström (1859-1941) Under blue and yellow flag Nina Wahlström, as she is called, was born Nina Skårman and is something as unusual as a female military march composer. She was born in 1859 in Skara. She has written 10 marches, around 30 piano pieces and songs. Damernas Musikblad wrote that her marches Under blue and yellow flag and Lefve armén "have made a big impact and are often played by military orchestras".

Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874) Jernbanegalop Where are we going? Many people recognize the music from På Spåret, which is played during the filmed train journeys in the TV programme. What not everyone knows is that before that we hear in the piece how the steam puffs and the locomotive slowly starts up, before it picks up speed and rolls away on the track. The piece is called in Danish "Københavns Jernbanedampgalop" and was written for the inauguration of the section Copenhagen - Roskilde in 1847. Hans Christian Lumbye is a Danish favourite, known for party music such as waltzes, polkas and mazurkas. He is therefore called the Strauss of the North. Of course, the Champagne gallop, which starts with a "pop", is also famous.

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) Sverige, from Ett Folk Op 22 A competition had been announced to find a new national anthem. Wilhelm Stenhammar wrote music for Verner von Heidenstam's poem Ett folk. The year was 1905 and national romanticism was at its peak. No national anthem was ever chosen, but the song Sweden became a classic, and is performed both in choir and as a solo song. The tenor Jussi Björling has recorded an immortal version.

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.

Fredrik Burstedt has worked with many professional orchestras in Sweden and throughout the Nordics, including Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted the Staatskapelle Weimar, Nürnberg Sinfoniker and I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan. In opera, Fredrik Burstedt has conducted Janaçeck's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Gothenburg Opera, Bizet's Carmen and Martinu's The Greek Passion at the Värmland Opera, Lehar's The Merry Widow and Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Royal Opera and Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe at the Norrland Opera. He has led premieres of, among others, Jonas Bolin's Tristessa at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, which was named one of the five most important opera events in the world, as well as The Silver Bird by Mats Larsson-Gothe, The War of Love by Paula by Malmborg-Ward and The Norrmalmstorg Drama by Albert Schnelzer. Fredrik Burstedt is a former concertmaster and violinist and began his conducting studies with Jorma Panula. He received additional tuition from Daniel Harding, Stefan Solyom and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He was awarded the Royal Opera's Sixten Ehrling Prize for young conductors and the Royal Academy of Music's prestigious Herbert Blomstedt Scholarship. In 2017, he was awarded a Grammy for his portrait album of the composer Mats Larsson Gothe, in which he conducted the Västerås Sinfonietta and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.

The choir was founded in 1917 by cousins Elsa and Wilhelm Stenhammar. Elsa Stenhammar was one of the driving forces in turn-of-the-century choir life in Gothenburg and became the choir's first rehearser. On December 8, 1917, the choir debuted in Beethoven's Choir Fantasy with Wilhelm Stenhammar as soloist at the grand piano. As the country's oldest symphonic choir, they were able to celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2017 with a big celebratory concert where Mozart and Brahms as well as Stenhammar, Elfrida Andrée and Björn & Benny were on the program. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir is a non-profit association that is linked to the Gothenburg Symphony. The choir participates in concerts and performances under both the orchestra's and its own auspices. The music is mixed and the repertoire extensive. The Gothenburg Symphony Choir has participated in concerts in, among other places, the Royal Albert Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England, as well as participated with the Gothenburg Symphony in the annual music festival in the Canary Islands and on a tour to China.

Katie Thomas is British (Welsh) choral conductor. She directs and coaches professional choirs and non-professional choruses throughout the UK and Europe. In 2023 Katie Thomas was appointed Chorus Director of Gothenburg Symphony Choir and Conductor of the professional-voice Gothenburg Symphony Vocal Ensemble. Dividing time between Sweden and her London base, she maintains her longstanding position as Vocal Coach and Assistant Chorus Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus in addition to freelance work in the UK. Previous engagements include Guest Conductor BBC Singers, Guest Chorus Master MDR Rundfunkchor (Leipzig) and Associate Conductor of 250-voice Barts Choir of London, whilst forthcoming highlights involve collaborations with Vocalconsort Berlin and Le Foyer des Artistes. Katie Thomas is a visiting conductor to the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the choirs of the Royal College of Music. She is a tutor in choral conducting technique for the Association of British Choral Directors and adjudicates at choral festivals worldwide for INTERKULTUR. As a soprano, Katie Thomas was a member of professional choirs including The Monteverdi Choir, Polyphony and the Academy of Ancient Music, touring major international concert venues including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna and Carnegie Hall New York. With London Voices, she has recorded numerous film and video-game soundtracks, chiefly at Abbey Road Studios, as well as broadcasting extensively on tv and national radio. In 2020, Katie Thomas was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for distinguished service to the music profession, and for significant contribution in the field of conducting and choral music.