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Fröst, Salonen and Nordin

During the performance of Emerging from Currents and Waves, the roles of Martin Fröst and Esa-Pekka Salonen will be expanded through the use of Jesper Nordin’s invention, the Gestrument (Gesture Instrument), a digital composition tool and motion-based instrument. In addition to being the soloist and conductor respectively, they will control the virtual orchestra and the interactive lighting installation that is suspended above the stage. Using advanced technology and stage design, everything that happens electronically is visualized in real time. The concert will be livestreamed on the web.

When you stand very close to something that is transforming, or when you are in the middle of a process, you are rarely able to predict where it will lead. You might be able to imagine some of the implications, but you will not know for sure until afterwards. The emergence of social media, virtual reality and artificial intelligence is changing not only our culture, but our entire society, and those of us who exist in the midst of that process have limited possibilities to predict the outcome.

The amazing thing about art is that you can ask questions and conjure up visions at the same time. Where is art heading? Can the seemingly endless possibilities of technology also be a bridge to the depth of tradition? In what ways will art, artistic expression and the opportunities for practising it, be affected by new technology? Will the potential birth of artificial intelligence be as large an evolutionary leap as life emerging from the oceans?

This is what Jesper Nordin himself writes about Emerging from Currents and Waves, which is part of a larger collaboration between Nordin, Fröst and Salonen where they explore the interaction between man, music and technology in a variety of contexts.

The innovative composition and improvisation tool, Gestrument, was originally invented by Jesper Nordin for his own composing. When universities and conservatories around the world became interested in it, he developed an app that anyone can download and use. What is particular about the software is that it exists in the boundary between an instrument and a composition, and likewise between what and how much we can control in a digital environment, and what we relinquish once we have established the rules.

The software is pre-set using what Nordin himself calls the “musical DNA”: rhythms, scales, melodies and sounds. Based on those parameters, the Gestrument can then be played, like an instrument. In parts of the piece, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will be recorded in real time, sampled, and then played back using motion sensors – also controlled from the podium by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In addition to the coupling of acoustic and digital instruments, there is also a profound encounter between different art forms. Martin Fröst’s movements, when he plays the Gestrument, have been developed by a choreographer and with the help of a stage designer and a visual programmer, everything that happens electronically is portrayed in real time in the interactive installation.

Emerging from Currents and Waves is a work commissioned by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, IRCAM and the French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and was written specially by Jesper Nordin for Martin Fröst and Esa-Pekka Salonen.


SWEDISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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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.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is known the world over as both a composer and a conductor. His restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is currently the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, where he works alongside eight Collaborative Partners from a variety of disciplines, ranging from composers to roboticists. He is the Conductor Laureate of three world-renowned orchestras: the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Music Director from 1985 until 1995; the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009; and the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he was Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor from 2008 until 2021. Salonen also co-founded the annual Baltic Sea Festival, and served as its Artistic Director from 2003 until 2018.

Since joining the San Francisco Symphony, Salonen has worked to expand and embrace the possibilities of the orchestra, looking toward the future of classical music and its audience. Salonen’s 2023/24 season includes world premieres of Jesper Nordin’s violin concerto Convergences with Pekka Kuusisto, Anders Hillborg’s Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax, and Jens Ibsen’s Drowned in Light, all of them with the San Francisco Symphony.

From 2015 to 2018, Salonen was Composer in Residence at the New York Philharmonic. He was the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Composer in Residence of the 2022/23 season. In October 2023, he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere of a short new work composed in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The 2023/24 season also sees Salonen lead his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, with Olivier Latry appearing as a soloist with both orchestras.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has received numerous major awards, including the UNESCO Rostrum for the work Floof, the Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto, and the Nemmers Composition Prize. He has been awarded the royal Swedish medal Litteris et Artibus, the Pro Finlandia medal and Commander 1st Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland, and Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2020, he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

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Martin Fröst, klarinettist och dirigent, bördig från Uppsala och utbildad vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan och musikhögskolan i Hannover, är en av vår tids största musiker. Hans internationella renommé låter sig nästan inte beskrivas. En kritiker i New York Times menade att Martin Fröst äger ”en virtuositet och musikalitet som ingen annan klarinettist – kanske ingen annan instrumentalist – som jag kan påminna mig”. 2014 erhöll han Léonie Sonning Music Price. Namn ur listan över tidigare mottagare vittnar om prisets tyngd: Leonard Bernstein, Birgit Nilsson, Daniel Barenboim.

Genom åren har han gjort sig känd för att ständigt söka nya vägar inte bara för sitt eget musicerande, utan också genom att utmana gränserna för hur vi tar till oss klassisk musik och hur den klassiska musikarenan fungerar. Ett exempel är de bejublade temakonserterna med Kungliga Filharmonikerna; Dollhouse, Genesis, Retrotopia och Xodus (2013–2022), ett slags multimedieprojekt med musik, koreografi och ljusdesign, och där Martin Fröst framträdde både som klarinettist, dirigent, textförfattare och ”ceremonimästare”. Repertoaren spann genom hela världshistorien, från flertusenåriga notfragment till den allra senaste nutida musiken, vilket kan sägas vara typiskt för hur Martin Fröst fungerar som musiker. Det handlar om att fånga musikens innersta väsen, oavsett om det är klarinetten som är verktyget, eller dirigentpinnen, och oavsett från vilken tid musiken kommer.

Martin Fröst framträder numera både som dirigent och klarinettsolist – ibland i båda rollerna samtidigt, som när han framför Mozarts klarinettkonsert – med världens främsta orkestrar: Concertgebouworkestern i Amsterdam, New Yorks och Los Angeles filharmoniska orkestrar, Gewandhausorkestern i Leipzig, London Philharmonic, med många flera.

Sedan 2019 är han chefsdirigent för Svenska Kammarorkestern. Ett projekt har handlat om att under en fyraårsperiod göra turnéer (med tåg!) och följa Mozart i spåren på hans resor genom Europa. Han driver även stiftelsen Martin Fröst Foundation, med målet att ge barn och unga världen över utbildning i musik, tillgång till instrument och möjlighet att utveckla den klassiska konsertformen för framtida generationer.

 

Magnus Holmander har en uttalad passion för nutida musik, vilket lett till en lång rad samarbeten med flera av landets mest namnkunniga kompositörer. Förutom den nu aktuelle Jacob Mühlrad kan nämnas Rolf Martinsson, Anders Hillborg och Andrea Tarrodi.

Han är ständigt nyfiken på att hitta nya uttryck, sammanhang och sätt att spela. Ofta handlar det om att experimentera med ny teknik, som i föreställningen Music in Motion där han kopplade klarinetten till en sensor som kände av rörelser, vilket gav ljudeffekter, exempelvis loopar, så att han kunde ”spela med sig själv”. I performanceföreställningen The Extended Clarinet tillsammans med pianisten David Huang och ljusdesignern Lovisa Ivenholt användes klarinetten inte bara för att frambringa toner, utan också för att med sin rörelse skapa olika ljuseffekter.

En röd tråd i Magnus Holmanders musikerskap är förkärleken för att blanda klarinettspelet med andra konstformer. Den mest otippade kombinationen är när han blandar klarinettspel med trollerikonster! På sin hemsida presenterar han sig med orden Musician and Magician. Uppvuxen med både far och farfar som skickliga amatörillusionister, hade han också själv redan som liten under uppväxten i Askim ett stort intresse för trolleri, parallellt med musiken. Det har sedan fallit sig naturligt att skapa egna trick som involverar klarinetten på olika sätt. Både musik och trolleri, har han sagt, handlar ju ytterst om upplevelser.

Sitt genombrott fick Magnus Holmander 2013. Han studerade då fortfarande på Kungliga Musikhögskolan (Hermann Stefánsson och Emil Jonasson var hans lärare) och blev inbjuden av sin äldre klarinettkollega Martin Fröst att medverka i föreställningen Dollhouse på Konserthuset i Stockholm. Sedan dess har han gått från klarhet till klarhet. Martin Fröst har kallat honom ”en av de mest fullfjädrade klarinettisterna vi har i Sverige idag”.

Han har vunnit en mängd utmärkelser. Nämnas kan European Concert Hall Organisation som 2019 utsåg honom till ”Rising Star”, vilket ledde till framträdanden på en rad stora konserthus i Europa: Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie, Royal Festival Hall, Kölner Philharmonie med flera.

Programme

Approximate timings

When he was awarded the Grand Christ Johnson Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Jesper Nordin was described as “a sound magician, who explores and expands the acoustic space with originality and an uncompromising curiosity”. His works are performed by the world’s foremost ensembles, such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Dutch Asko|Schönberg, Ensemble l’Itinéraire in Paris and many others. Elektro-acoustic elements frequently play a prominent role in his music and he is also the creator of the “Gestrument”, an app-based composing and improvisation tool. Nordin has been presented with many awards for his music, which has been recorded on Swedish Radio’s own record label, as well as on Phono Suecia.

Concert length: 1 h 20 min

No bus to Berwaldhallen from Stockholm City –
Busline 69 is shortened and runs Karlaplan – Kaknästornet / Blockhusudden. For more information, please visit www.sl.se/en/

FESTIVAL OFFER (Östersjöklippet)
With the Baltic Sea Festival Offer (Östersjöklippet), you get three different levels at a discount – 10, 15 and 20% off the regular fare depending on whether you buy three, four or five different concerts at the same time.
TO ‘ÖSTERSJÖKLIPPET’

Here you can see the entire festival program