TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR
Multi-award winning pianist Martin Sturfält and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra show how a simple tune can become something dreamy, majestic, sad or even unrecognisable in the hands of a master like Ernst von Dohnányi. Dvořák’s Symphoni No. 7 is often lauded as one of his foremost works: from the transformation from darkness to light in the opening, by way of a bittersweet adagio to the triumphant finale. Interpreted by Conductor Giedrė Šlekytė, who last performed at Berwaldhallen during the Baltic Sea Festival in 2018.
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.
Giedrė Šlekytė is an internationally engaged conductor who has worked with orchestras such as Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Lithanian National Symphony Orchestra. She has conducted several of Sweden’s foremost orchetras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
She was 1st Kapellmeister at Stadttheater Klagenfurt 2016–2018 where she was lauded for productions of operas such as La Traviata, Don Giovanni and The Abduction from the Seraglio. For the 2019–2020 season, she is engaged to do Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore at Oper Leipzig and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius. In 2015, she was a prize winner of the International Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. She has also been nominated for the Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and as Newcomer of the Year at the International Opera Awards.
Her first appearance in Berwaldhallen was during 2018’s Baltic Sea Festival where she conducted, among other works, Raminta Šerkšnytė’s oratorio Songs of Sunset and Dawn.
Pianist Martin Sturfält has established himself as a prominent interpreter of both new and old Swedish music. He has made critically acclaimed recordings of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s piano music and, together with the Helsingborg symphonic orchestra and Andrew Manze, the two piano concertos by Adolf Wiklund. As a soloist, Sturfält is a recurrent visitor to both Swedish and international symphony orchestras while also being a dedicated chamber musician.
Sturfält has collaborated with among others, Hebert Blomstedt, Sir Mark Elder, Thomas Dausgaard, and Alexander Vedernikov. He has played with orchestras including the Hallé orchestra, New London Sinfonia and all of the Swedish symphonic orchestras. Sturfält has given solo- and chamber music concerts at Musikaliska and Konserthuset in Stockholm, Wigmore Hall, Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall I London, Concergegouw in Amsterdam and at the Palais des Beux-Arts in Brussels.
Martin Sturfält has won first prize in several international competitions, including the Yamaha-competitions in Sweden 1999 and in England 2002, the John Ogdon Prize in London 2004 and the Terence Judd Award in Manchester 2005.
Approximate concert length: 1 h 15 min (no intermission)
Tickets
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