STRAVINSKY´S THE FIREBIRD
Conductor Anja Bihlmaier leads the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert that opens with French nineteenth century composer Mel Bonis’ Trois femmes de légende, musical portraits of Ophelia, Salome, and Cleopatra. Via Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Aram Khachaturian’s waltz from Masquerade, the concert ends with music from Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird, composed for The Ballets Russes in Paris in 1910.
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.
Anja Bihlmaier har varit chefsdirigent för Residentie Orkest sedan augusti 2021 och utsågs till huvudgästdirigent för BBC Philharmonic i september 2024.
Under säsongen 2024/2025 dirigerar Bihlmaier Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie, WDR Cologne, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Göteborgs symfoniker, Seattle och Toronto symphony orchestra, Spanish National och Orquesta da Galicia. Hon kommer även att återvända till National Symphony i Dublin för att framföra Mahlers symfoni nr 9 och tar Residentie Orkest till Bonn för starten av ett treårigt residens på Beethovenfest. I juni 2025 kommer hon även att dirigera Bernard Foccroulles Cassandra på Staatsoper Berlin.
Efter sin BBC Proms-debut 2023 återvände hon 2024 tillsammans med BBC Philharmonic men också med Glyndebournes produktion av Carmen efter att ha gjort framträdanden på festivalen under hela augusti. Under säsongen 2023/2024 har Bihlmaier debuterat med London Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, HR Sinfonie Orchester, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sydney och Melbournes symphony orchestra och vid Salzburg Mozartwoche.
Bihlmaier har en bred repertoar som inkluderar musik från Haydn, Mahler, Strauss, B.A. Zimmermann till Sibelius, Bartók, Dvořák, Sjostakovitj, Debussy, Britten, Galina Ustvolskaya och Unsuk Chin.
Efter att ha studerat vid Freiburg Hochschule für Musik med Scott Sandmeier, belönades Bihlmaier med ett stipendium för studier vid Salzburg Mozarteum och fortsatte att studera med Dennis Russell Davies och Jorge Rotter. Hon antogs därför till Deutsche Dirigentenforum och fick där ett stipendium från Brahmsgesellschaft Baden-Baden.
Programme
I. Salomé
II. Ophélie
III. Le songe de Cléopâtre
At the beginning of the 1900s, Sergei Diaghilev worked variedly to promote and encourage new and radical Russian culture. This work included establishing the Ballets Russes in Paris, for which the young and still unknown Igor Stravinsky had orchestrated music by Chopin. It wasn’t long before he was commissioned to write new music for a Russian folk tale, which was to become Stravinsky’s big breakthrough.
The first of Stravinsky’s Russian ballets, The Firebird, was dedicated to Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov, a friend of the same age, and son of composer Nikolai, who had been like a second father to Stravinsky, and also taught him orchestration.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s influence can be more than discerned in the background of the music. Not least Stravinsky’s treatment of the orchestra should have garnered appreciation. Stravinsky’s use of musical motifs and structure show clear impressions from his role model. Some of the folk song tunes in The Firebird can also be found in Rimsky-Korsakov’s earlier work.
At night, the radiant firebird dances into the immortal Koschei’s enchanted garden, stalked by Prince Ivan. The prince manages to catch the bird after a duel, but sets it free again in return for a magical feather. In the garden, the prince watches 13 princesses dancing, and falls instantly in love with one of them. He reveals himself and is invited to participate in the princesses’ Khorovod, a Russian folk dance.
When dawn breaks, the princesses disappear into Koschei’s palace. Ivan forces the gate open to free his beloved, but is captured by Koschei’s monstruous subjects. The wizard threatens to turn the prince to stone, but Ivan raises the magical feather in despair, and the firebird comes to his rescue. It forces Koschei and all his subjects to dance an infernal dance to the point of exhaustion, and the egg that hides Koschei’s immortality is broken in pieces. The wizard dies, the spell is broken and the prisoners are freed.
Ann-Marie Nilsson
Approximate concert length: 1 hour 10 mins without intermission
Can’t get enough of Stravinsky? Don’t miss the Bonus concerto 5 November:
WILLIAM PAASO (2001–)
Symphony no 2 ½ – first performance 5’
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897)
Arr: B. Tommy Andersson
Symphony no 3 F major 5’
III. Poco allegretto
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)
Octet for wind instruments 16’
Laura Michelin flute
Niklas Andersson clarinet
Henrik Blixt bassoon
Maj Widding bassoon
Keitaro Takada trumpet
Max Asselborn trumpet
Håkan Björkman trombone
Martha Eikemo Andersen trombone
Tickets
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