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

Johanna Sjunnesson har sedan 1999 sin hemvist som cellist i Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester och rör sig även vant bortom orkestermusikens gränser. Som solist har hon framträtt i Berwaldhallen, på Konserthuset, Cirkus och i Blå hallen, på Grammisgalan och Polarprisbanketten, där hon framträtt med egenkomponerad musik.

I sina egna kompositioner inspireras Johanna av olika genrer, från från barock och klassisk musik till ambient och electronica. Hennes musik har spelats i både radio och tv, och hösten 2023 släpps en skiva med musik för solocello och en i ambient-stil inspelad med Islandsbaserade Mikael Lind. Lind medverkar även på EP:n Celistial släppt 2021, där Johanna tolkar musik av bland andra Marin Marais, Henry Purcell och Johann Sebastian Bach.

Johanna Sjunnesson studerade vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan för Elemér Lavotha, samt utomlands genom flera stora stipendier.

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.