CHAMBER MUSIC: FOUR PREMIERES BY MARIA LITHELL FLYG November 15

Maria Lithell Flyg found inspiration in the work of four women poets when she composed her four songs, which are also included on an album that is to be released in autumn 2022. She gives voice to the rumbling volcano in Greta Sundberg’s “Bestigning”, the breathless silence on a starlit night as evoked by Edith Södergran in “Stjärnor”, the passion in Karin Boye’s “Du är min renaste tröst” and the fragility of life in Wisława Szymborska’s “Nära ögat” (“Wszelki wypadek”). All four songs will be performed for the first time together with the neo-classical cello piece Exhale in which the cellist and composer Johanna Sjunnesson has borrowed fragments and segments from Bach’s Prelude in G. Several composers, including Paganini, have found inspiration in Beethoven’s Gassenhauertrio in which the theme of the third movement in turn has borrowed elements from an opera by Joseph Weigl that people often whistled on the streets (Gasser) of Vienna.

2022/2023

Participants

Lisa Carlioth, soprano

Niklas Andersson, clarinet

Johanna Sjunnesson, cello

Since 1999, Johanna Sjunnesson has been a cellist with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and she also comfortably ventures beyond the boundaries of orchestral music. As a soloist, she has performed at Berwaldhallen, the Concert Hall, Cirkus, and the Blue Hall, as well as at the Grammis Gala and the Polar Music Prize Banquet, where she has performed her own compositions.

In her own compositions, Johanna is inspired by various genres, from baroque and classical music to ambient and electronica. Her music has been played on both radio and television, and in the fall of 2023, an album featuring music for solo cello and another in ambient style, recorded with Iceland-based Mikael Lind, will be released. Lind also participated in the EP ”Celistial” released in 2021, where Johanna interprets music by Marin Marais, Henry Purcell, and Johann Sebastian Bach, among others.

Johanna Sjunnesson studied at the Royal College of Music with Elemér Lavotha, as well as abroad through several major scholarships.

Martin Sturfält, piano

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.