Göteborgs Konserthus Family Concert: A Fragile Hope

Submarea was composed during a few intensive weeks in the summer of 2020. After meeting Joakim Odelberg in Gothenburg that spring, I decided to fully grasp his mission as an underwater filmmaker. Inside I heard a "sibling" to Debussy's "La Mer" - but inverted, so to speak, with the focus on what happens below the surface of the water. In Submarea I often work with an intense web of different voices, something I myself associate with large shoals of fish. In an unfortunately all-too-common scenario in our world's oceans, it could just as easily be a shoal of plastic... With joint efforts, we must work to remove what does not belong in our oceans. Mats Larsson Gothe

When I was asked to participate as a representative of Iceland, I had already started working on a piece that I immediately wanted to use. The tone language is Icelandic in several ways. It is connected to memories of Iceland and to Icelandic music. The piece is dedicated to Jóhann Jóhansson (1969-2018) who was a great Icelandic composer. The music moves quite slowly. I didn't mean to be dramatic, but it's quite dark and heavy in a way. What I associate with Icelandic nature is the incredible power bubbling beneath the surface. We have the volcanic activity and the Atlantic Ocean surrounding us on all sides. Jóhann Jóhansson and I worked together for a few years before he passed away. He was incredibly brave and paved the way for many other Icelandic musicians. I admired him. His memory lives on in this piece. Daníel Bjarnason

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.

Christian Karlsen studied at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and began his career as an assistant to Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has worked with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, orchestras in The Hague and Eindhoven, the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta. He is a regular guest of leading new music ensembles such as ASKO Schönberg Amsterdam, ICE International Contemporary Ensemble (New York), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Norrbotten NEO and BIT20 Bergen. He has also conducted the London Sinfonietta at Festival Presences in Paris. Stage works include Stockhausen's Michaels reise um die Erde at the Dutch Opera, Djuro Zivkovic's Bogoluchie at the Bergen Autunnale, Benjamin Staern's Saiyah and Kaija Saariaho's Nox borealis at the Norrland Opera and Beat Furrer's FAMA with ASKO Schönberg in Amsterdam, as well as concert performances in Schönberg, Amsterdam and Vienna. Karlsen has worked with leading composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Sofia Gubaidulina, Steve Reich, Anders Hillborg and Thomas Adès. He was 2015-2017 artistic director of the Hague festival Dag in de Branding and artistic director of the New European Ensemble 2008-2014 and of the Kaija Saariaho festival in The Hague in 2011. In 2018 he founded Gränslandet – Symfonisk Fest in Stockholm together with pianist David Huang.

Joakim Odelberg from Ljungskile is one of Sweden's most employed and well-regarded conservation filmmakers and photojournalists. He is also a producer and underwater filmmaker. His devotion to nature on land and in the sea has taken him far beyond Sweden's borders. He has lectured throughout Sweden and internationally and participated in the TV program Mitt i Naturen in the years 2014-2018. In 2022, his documentary series One planet, One chance was shown on SVT, where he examines the impact our daily choices and our lifestyle have on the climate, biodiversity and our natural habitat. He has also mapped the impact of plastic on the sea in a documentary for TV4. He is inducted into the prestigious Explorers Club in New York. In 2019, he took the initiative for Nordic - A Fragile Hope together with the Gothenburg Symphony: "It's a dream I've had, to unite the Nordics from the sandy beaches of Denmark to the polar regions in the north".