Moonlight, spring nights, shores and September skies. Wilhelm Stenhammar’s music embraces both the Nordic landscape and the full range of human emotion – melancholy and longing, stillness and drama.
In autumn 2027, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra brings together some of Sweden’s leading musical forces around Stenhammar’s music. Over ten weeks, you can experience his entire musical world, as every work he composed is performed in concerts across Gothenburg.
The programme for the jubilee will be announced on 23 April 2027
Ten jubilee weeks
From September 2027, Gothenburg will be filled with Stenhammar’s music, with nearly 40 concerts over ten weeks. At the heart of the jubilee is the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, joined by some of Sweden’s leading orchestras, choirs, conductors and string quartets.
Guests at the Gothenburg Concert Hall include the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Swedish Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir. The jubilee concludes on 20 November, exactly one hundred years after Stenhammar’s death.
Everything Stenhammar wrote
The programme includes his best-known and much-loved works, such as his two symphonies, Serenade and The Song, alongside music that is rarely heard in the concert hall. One of the highlights of the autumn will be Stenhammar’s opera Tirfing, performed in concert by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with soloists and choir. At the Göteborg Opera, Gildet på Solhaug will also take to the stage.
Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) left behind a rich musical world. His orchestral works are relatively few, but there are many works for choir and orchestra, and much more to discover: chamber music, choral music, works for piano and around a hundred songs for voice and piano. Music that feels close to us – melodic and beautiful, yet also searching, complex and full of contrasts.
Stenhammar and Gothenburg
Stenhammar’s story is closely intertwined with Gothenburg. For 15 years, he was chief conductor of the Göteborg Orchestra Association, which later became the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and he left a lasting mark on the city’s musical life. He invited composers and conductors to Gothenburg, introduced audiences to new music from Europe and helped shape the orchestra that is today the National Orchestra of Sweden.
The man behind the music
The Stenhammar Jubilee invites you to discover Stenhammar’s entire musical world – but also the man behind the music. An artist who set himself exacting standards, constantly searching and questioning, with a strong sense of integrity and a profound belief in the importance of art. A hundred years may separate us, but much of what it means to be human remains the same – longing, doubt, love, loneliness and the search for meaning.
Perhaps that is also why Stenhammar’s music still feels so close to us. It tells us something about what it means to be human, then as now.
The programme for the jubilee will be announced on 23 April 2027
Step into the music
Get to know the music of Wilhelm Stenhammar.
A truly wonderful experience
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra consists of 109 musicians who are driven by their love of music and a desire to provide you with a truly wonderful experience that will live long in the memory. It is this passion and ambition that makes the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Sweden, one of the world’s foremost orchestras.