From Mendelssohn to Saariaho ─ Sisters, Wives, Suffragettes 9 June

Conductor Cathrine Winnes bridges a significant gap in music history with this concert, which is part of a larger project in partnership with Swedish Television, SVT. A large number of women composers, from Fanny Mendelssohn to Kaija Saariaho, will be given a voice by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who will be performing a series of works that for years were disregarded, only because the composers were women.

Of course women were allowed to compose music! At least as long as they stuck to charming chamber pieces to be performed in the drawing room for the pleasure of their lace-making friends. But writing for the orchestra? No, that was just a vulgar attempt at aping men. It was thought that women lacked the type of intense passion that was required.

This concert will include music by composer Ethel Smyth, the suffragette who threw rocks through the windows of the bourgeoisie for the right to vote and express herself; we also meet the genius that was Lili Boulanger, younger sister of the influential Nadia. Not to mention the Mendelssohn sister who, in spite of her prodigious talent, was overshadowed by her brother. Mrs Schumann’s career comes across as something of an exception for its time, but only really took off after her the death of her husband. The programme also includes the forgotten Norwegian composer, Signe Lund, whose political sympathies were with the Third Reich and who was later punished by sending her into a life-long exile without piano or access to music.

The concert is part of a larger project that will result in four TV documentaries and a concert in which conductor and host Cathrine Winnes bridges a significant gap in music history. With humour, charm and encyclopaedic knowledge she plays her way through history – against the odds and half-choked by corset and crinoline!

SWEDISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Participants

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

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.

Cathrine Winnes, conductor

Ingrid Andsnes, piano

Terés Löf, piano

Terés Löf is one of our most appreciated Swedish pianists. In the spring of 2001, she performed her diploma concert with an acclaimed performance of Brahms’ first piano concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and since then she has been active as a soloist and chamber musician in Sweden and internationally. Löf studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm for Esther Bodin and Staffan Scheja. As a soloist, she has performed with all Swedish symphony orchestras and made many recordings for SR and SVT. Last time she visited the Radio Symphony Orchestra was in 2019, when she played Clara Schumann’s piano concerto in a concert that was also broadcast on SVT. Terés Löf has participated in many festivals, including Musik vid Siljan and Gotland Chamber Music Festival. Together with cellist Kati Raitinen and violinist Klara Hellgren, Terés Löf is part of the trio Trio Nova. This autumn, Terés will tour Sweden with the program ”Presence” for solo piano, where she has collected the works that have meant the most to her throughout her career.

Ella Petersson, host

Ella Petersson is the head of music and language at the Swedish Radio P2. Prior to this, Petersson has been the musical editor at SVT, in charge of the classical music and music documentaries, and a well-known host for several TV and radio shows.