Harding meets Widmann x 2 25-26 April

The siblings, Carolin and Jörg Widmann, are frequently also colleagues – composer Jörg has written several pieces for his younger sister, award-winning violinist Carolin, and his Violin Concerto No. 2 is also dedicated to her. Benjamin Britten dedicated his song cycle, Nocturne, to Alma Mahler with whom he corresponded for many years. The lyrics are taken from all the great writers and Alma was very fond of the piece.

Music director Daniel Harding has recovered after he took ill earlier this week. The rehearsal has therefore been partly led by the young conductor of Finnegan Downie Dear, who also conducts Sibelius Valet Triste at the week’s concerts.

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As a composer, it is not a bad thing to have a skilled musician in the family. As a 16-year-old clarinettist, Jörg Widmann started writing down his improvisations in order to remember them. Since then, he has dedicated his time as a composer, alongside his career as a clarinettist and conductor, to exploring non-traditional approaches to music and instruments – preferably together with his younger sister, violinist Carolin Widmann. ”Having Carolin there to conduct my wildest experiments is wonderful,” he said in an interview.

The Widmann siblings were born into a family of amateur musicians in Munich. Both have an impressive CV each, with numerous awards and engagements worldwide. Jörg Widmann’s newly written Violin Concerto no 2, dedicated to Carolin, was premiered in Tokyo in August 2018, conducted by Jörg himself. ”It was a magical evening. Afterwards, I heard that many associated the concerto with Kabuki and Noh performances. I was happy that the piece felt like a drama. Not much happens, but what happens is of great importance.” In Stockholm, Daniel Harding will conduct the performance. ”He is like a brother to me and knows my music really well, so the concerto is in the best possible hands.”

Benjamin Britten wrote his song cycle Nocturne for Alma Mahler. The two met in New York in 1942 and began a correspondence. In 1958, when Britten asked her permission to dedicate his new piece to her, the answer arrived by telegram: “My happiness is great. I cannot feel or think of anything else. My deepest thanks!” Nocturne, written for tenor soloist, flute, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, harp, French horn, timpani and strings, presents eight poems by Shelley, Tennyson, Coleridge, Middleton, Wordsworth, Owen, Keats and Shakespeare. In each part of the through-composed piece, a solo instrument emerges beside the solo vocalist.

Andrew Staples, one of Britain’s most versatile tenors, with everything from Händel and Mozart to Britten and Elgar in his repertoire, is a frequent partner to Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Staples is also a director and a portrait photographer.

Text: Anna Hedelius

SWEDISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

2018/2019

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.

Daniel Harding, music director

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.

Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor

Carolin Widmann, violin

Andrew Staples, tenor

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.