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Harding in Beethoven, Berlioz and Sibelius

Jean Sibelius only wrote one solo concerto, his Violin Concerto, which is lauded for its originality and virtuoso style, a large-scale work that challenges and accentuates both orchestra and soloist. French master Hector Berlioz contributes with captivating and romantic music from his opera, The Trojans at Carthage, as well as the dramatic choral symphony, Romeo and Juliet. The concert finishes in style with Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, which has been called the greatest symphony of all time.

As a child, Hector Berlioz was captivated by the Aeneid, Vergil’s story of the Trojan War and the love between the beautiful Queen Dido of Carthage and the founder of Rome, Aeneas. Berlioz worked on the opera The Trojans between 1856 and 1858. The finished opera was considered far too long and was broken up into parts. To Berlioz’s disappointment, only the second part, the Trojans in Carthage, was performed during his lifetime. The Pantomime The Royal Hunt and Storm begin the fourth act of The Trojans. Here, Dido, dressed as Diana, the goddess of the hunt, and Aeneas seek shelter in a cave where their love is awakened.

Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor is considered to be the best in its genre. In his youth, Sibelius was a talented violinist and even had an audition with the Vienna Philharmonics in 1891. The violin concerto was composed just over a year after his breakthrough with the second symphony and was performed by the Czech violinist Victor Nováček in Helsinki in 1903. After a thorough reworking, it was performed again in Berlin two years later with no less than Richard Strauss conducting. The passionate and temperamental concerto has all the characteristics of the romantic, virtuoso violin concerto, and testifies to Sibelius’s extensive knowledge of the technical, expressive potential of the violin.

Berlioz belonged in several respects to the more wilful romantics. Some of his great vocal works cross genres and are difficult to classify using traditional measures. This includes The Damnation of Faust, a ‘dramatic legend’ that is not infrequently performed on stage, but also the ‘dramatic symphony’ Romeo and Juliet from 1839. The latter work is divided into seven movements and consists of a series of instrumental and vocal numbers for major orchestras, choirs and soloists. The vocal passages comment on the events in the loosely connected scenes from Shakespeare’s drama. This is a suite from Romeo and Juliet, performed with the vocal elements left out.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major, Eroica, was composed in 1803 and can be said to represent the break between Viennese classicism and romanticism. None of Beethoven’s symphonies, with the exception of the ninth, is as shrouded in myth, interpreted and politically exploited as the Eroica, which in a way is the starting point for the more subjective sounds of the nascent romanticism.  Even the first movement, with its vast thematic adaptation, blew apart all the supposed limits of measurement and balance of its time. Beethoven composed the symphony as a tribute to Napoleon, but when Napoleon appointed himself Emperor of the French, Beethoven removed his name from the title page. The work was instead dedicated to “il sovvenire di un grande Uomo”, the memory of a great man – who could also be Beethoven himself.

Text: Henry Larsson


SWEDISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA dot 2018/2019
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Participants

 

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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.

Concert lenght: 3 h 20 min (two intermissions)