Harding meets Cargill
Two wood doves appear in the concert, both foreboding ruin and sorrow. In Dvořák’s beautiful but tragic symphonic poem Die Waldtaube as well as in the song Lied der Waldtaube from Schoenberg’s majestic Gurre-Lieder.
Waldweben by Richard Wagner could most accurately be described as a pastoral symphonic poem, a moment of rest and reflection in the second act of the opera, Siegfried. The young hero, Siegfried, has gone looking for the dragon Fafner’s cave to end his life, but Fafner is not at home. Siegfried lies down to wait under a tree and, gradually, becomes ever more aware of the sounds emanating from the forest. He is enjoying the chirping of the birds and the gentle rustle of the leaves. A tiny idyll, where Wagner left his eponymous hero as he ceased work on Der Ring Des Nibelungen for twelve years in order to compose Tristan and Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
I wonder whether it is the somewhat fateful cooing of the dove that has led to that bird becoming a symbol of the bearer of bad news. In Schoenberg’s enormous cantata, Gurre-Lieder, the first part consists of a grand love duet between King Waldemar and his mistress Tove, and it is only towards the end of the scene that the wood dove turns up singing. In a dark ballade, the dove recounts how Queen Helvig murders Tove and of Waldemar’s great sorrow. In Lied der Waldtaube, we hear Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill who is known for her nuanced interpretations of demanding roles, such as Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, the final part of Der Ring Des Nibelungen.
Late in his career, Dvořák turned his hand to writing symphonic poems. It resulted in five pieces that are all more modern and more expressive than his symphonies, for example. Inspiration frequently came from his countryman, Karel Jaromír Erben, whose texts had been the source of symphonic poems by a number of composers. The cycle of poems entitled Kytice (Bouquet), contains dark stories with supernatural elements, which fascinated Dvořák. Die Waldtaube (The Wood Dove) – yet another dove – is a terrifying story of a woman who fatally poisons her husband. After a brief period, she remarries, and everything seems rosy. However, the idyllic atmosphere is disturbed by a dove that sits on her murdered husband’s grave and, day after day, sings a mournful song. The woman’s guilt gradually grows and eventually, she commits suicide by throwing herself in the river.
Text: Thomas Roth
Christian Gerhaher has canceled his participation due to illness. If you have bought tickets/have subscription to the concert, you will be contacted by the ticket office shortly.
Har du köpt biljett/abonnemang till denna konsert så kommer du bli kontaktad av biljettkontoret inom kort.
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.
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.
Performing Mendelssohn’s Elias with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and receiving the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2002 were two early high points in the career of Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill. Since then, she has performed with a number of philharmonic orchestras, including in Boston, Philadelphia, Seoul, Rotterdam, Berlin and London. She has worked with prominent conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Bernard Haitink, Robin Ticciati and Valery Gergiev. On the operatic stage, Cargill has appeared as Waltraute in Ragnarök at Deutsche Oper, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at the English National Opera and as Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri at the Scottish Opera.
Concert length: 2 h 10 min incl. intermission
More concerts
Nils Landgren's Christmas With My Friends
A heart-warming concert full of Christmas spirit with Nils Landgren and his partners in music.
Stockholm Strauss Orchestra
New Year’s Concert with the Stockholm Strauss Orchestra – Delightfully Sparkling!
EPIPHANY CONCERT 2025
Ring out the old and sing in the new with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir, conductor Chloe Rooke and soloists Rebecka Wallroth and Joachim Bäckström. Your hosts for the evening will be Karin Birgersson and Johan Korssell from Swedish Radio P2.