Harding Interprets Boulanger
Time and time again, music by women composers rewrites the map of music history. Lili Boulanger and Valborg Aulin were both successful during their lifetime, and now we get to meet their music in a concert full of French melancholy and Swedish choral poetry. Music director Daniel Harding leads the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Choir, the youth choir Jeune Choir de Paris, and several eminent vocal soloists.
After the concert, world renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle will take to the podium and lead the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra through Jean Sibelius’s masterful fifth symphony.
Bonus!
Sir Simon Rattle conducts The Swedish Radio Orchestra in Sibelius's fifth symphony.
Participants
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a multiple-award-winning ensemble renowned for its high artistic standard and stylistic breadth, as well as collaborations with the world’s finest composers, conductors, and soloists. It regularly tours all over Europe and the world and has an extensive and acclaimed recording catalogue.
Daniel Harding has been Music Director of the SRSO since 2007, and since 2019 also its Artistic Director. His tenure will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. Two of the orchestra’s former chief conductors, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa-Pekka Salonen, have since been named Conductors Laureate, and continue to perform regularly with the orchestra.
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, and is a cornerstone of Swedish public service broadcasting. Its concerts are heard weekly on the Swedish classical radio P2 and regularly on national public television SVT. Several concerts are also streamed on-demand on Berwaldhallen Play and broadcast globally through the EBU.
32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.
The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.
Daniel Harding is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom in 2022 he celebrated his 15-year anniversary. In the 2014/2015 season, he devised and curated the celebrated Interplay Festival, featuring concerts and related inspirational talks with renowned artists and academics. As Artistic Director, he continues this type of influential programming. Harding is also Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years, and Music Director of Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area in China. The 2024/2025 season will be his first as Music Director at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Harding is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. A renowned opera conductor, he has led acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, the Anima Mundi festival of Pisa, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Harding tours regularly with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing at prestigious venues all over Europe and the world, and has recorded several acclaimed and award-winning albums with the orchestra. His tenure as Music and Artistic Director will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. “It is increasingly rare that the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra not only lasts for more than a decade, but keeps growing,” he says about working with the orchestra.
In 2002, Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and in 2017 nominated to the position Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2012, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021, he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Daniel Harding grew up in Oxford, England, and played trumpet before taking up conducting in his late teens. He is also, since 2016, a qualified airline pilot.
Sir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He first gained prominence with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, in the 1980’s and 90’s, where he served as Principal Conductor and later Music Director. In the early 2000’s, Sir Simon became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, a role he held for over 15 years, before moving to the London Symphony Orchestra as Music Director. He currently serves as Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, and is also a Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as Founding Patron of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Sir Simon has made over 70 recordings, receiving numerous international awards, including a Grammy for Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. His recordings feature works by Berlioz, Ravel, Mahler, and Beethoven. He regularly tours and conducts leading orchestras around the world, such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with recent opera highlights including Der Rosenkavalier and Wozzeck.
Passionate about music education, Sir Simon pioneered the Zukunft@Bphil education program with the Berliner Philharmoniker and helped establish the LSO East London Academy to nurture young talent. He was named International UNICEF Ambassador and has received numerous honours, including a knighthood, the Order of Merit, and the Freedom of the City of London.
His current season includes tours in the US and Europe, and appearances with several major orchestras and festivals.
Rebecka Wallroth, born 1999 in Stockholm, is a lyric Mezzosoprano currently studying Bachelor at Unviersität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. In 2022, she took Second Prize in Wihelm Stenhammar International Music Competition and First Prize in Ferruccio Tagliavini Singing Competition, where she also got the Karl Böhm Prize for the best Mozart interpretation.
In September 2022, she was finalist in DEBUT international singing competition and in November, she won First Prize in the Hans Staud Musikpreis in Vienna. Next Autumn, Rebecka will join the international opera studio at Staatsopern unter den Linden, Berlin.
In the 2022/23 season, Rebecka sings Olga (Eugen Onegin) and Idamante (Idomeneo) in Schlosstheater Schönbrunn. This december, she will be soloist with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras christmas concerts.
Last season Rebecka sang Unulfo (Rodelinda) and Agnes (Verkaufte Braut) in Schlossteather Schönbrunn, Vienna. During the summer, she participated in the Confidencen Opera and Music Festival Academy and did Lied concerts with nordic romances and songs.
Rebecka has participated in masterclasses with Katarina Karneus, Ann Hallenberg, Elin Rombo, Matti Hirvonen, Jeremy Carpenter etc. Before she started at MDW she studied with Anita Soldh at Musikkonservatoriet in Falun, Sweden. Her repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary music, including Opera, Lied and Oratorios.
This year 2022, she was selected the reciever of the Joel Berglund scholarship at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. Rebecka has also received Scholarships from the Swedish Royal Academy of Music, Sandrews Foundation and Anny Felbermayer Fund. In 2018 she won Dalasolist and sang with Dalasinfoniettan under the direction of Cecilia Rydinger Ahlin.
Den brittiske tenoren Andrew Staples har framträtt med dirigenter som Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding och Yannick Nézet-Séguin och orkestrar som Berlinerfilharmonikerna, Bayerska radions symfoniorkester, London Symphony Orchestra och Wienerfilharmonikerna. Han har gjort flera hyllade framträdanden i Berwaldhallen, exempelvis i Bachs Matteuspassion med Alan Gilbert 2019, i Elgars Gerontius dröm med Daniel Harding hösten 2019, i Mozarts Don Giovanni sommaren 2020 och i Bachs Johannespassion våren 2021.
Som operasångare gjorde Staples 2019 en uppmärksammad debut vid Metropolitan i New York som Andres i Bergs Wozzeck. En månad senare rönte han nya framgångar när han på kort varsel hoppade in i Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde med Gustavo Dudamel och New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Staples gästar regelbundet Royal Opera House i London där han bland annat sjungit Tamino i Trollflöjten, Flammand i Capriccio, Narraboth i Salome och Artabanes i Artaxerxes.
Under säsongen 2023/24 har Staples gästat bland annat Orchestre de Paris, Gürzenich Orchester, San Francisco Symphony, Müncher Philharmoniker, Stavanger Symphony och Orquesta de Valencia. Tillsammans med Les Siècles och Francois-Xavier Roth har han under våren 2024 turnerat Europa, samt gjort inspelningar av Das Lied von der Erde och har dessutom framträtt i flera konsertanta versioner av bland annat Mozarts Idomeneo, Beethovens Fidelio och Strauss Ariadne.
Andrew Staples har spelat in flera stora dramatiska verk på skiva, däribland John Adams opera Doctor Atomic, Edward Elgars Gerontius dröm och Bohuslav Martinůs oratorium Gilgamesheposet. Staples är även verksam som regissör och har bland annat gjort uppsättningar av Così fan tutte och La bohème i London, Händels Dido and Aeneas på en dansklubb i Berlin med Kiez Oper, samt en produktion för Choir of London där Brittens körklassiker Hymn to St Cecilia interfolieras med verk av palestinska flyktingar.
Chief conductor of the Jeune Choeur de Paris, he started a collaboration with the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart in 2013 (including a recording of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé), and also works regularly with the Chœur de Radio-France and the Choeur Accentus since 2014, for tours, radio performances, recordings, preparations and A Cappella concerts. He collaborates with many personalities, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniele Gatti, Louis Langrée, Stéphane Denève, Daniel Harding, Laurence Equilbey, L. G. Alarcon… He has also conducted the WDR Rundfunkchor in 2016. In July 2016, he has prepared both the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart and the NDR Chor for Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette. In 2017, he has participate to the opening of the Seine Musical conducting the choir accentus and in 2018, he starts a collaboration with the Croatian Radio Choir. Korovitch works for many festivals: the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Recontres Musicales d’Evian, the Festival de Radio-France in Montpellier or the festival Mozart in New York.
Programme
I. Min lycka varade så kort
II. Lysen stjernor
Approximate concert length: 2 hours 5 minutes with intermission
”For the best part of the last twenty years I have been telling Simon what a jewel of an orchestra we have at the Swedish Radio.
No orchestra has meant more to me than SRSO, and no conductor more than Simon.
That, in my last season as Music Director, I get to enjoy a musical encounter between them will be a moment of pure joy.”– Daniel Harding
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