Music for the State of the World

The concert will be broadcasted in Swedish Radio P2 and livestreamed at Berwaldhallen Play.

The subtitle to Richard Strauss’ final opera, Capriccio, is “ein Konversationsstück für Musik”, a Conversation Piece for Music. Its theme is whether poetry or music is most important in, for instance, an opera, a subject that composers and writers throughout history has had quite different views on. In the opera, composer Flamand and poet Olivier both vie for the hand of beautiful Countess Madeleine, trying to trump each other in artistic quality and importance. Ultimately however, they join forces and set upon creating a new opera – together. Capriccio opens with this piece for string sextet, in the opera a birthday present from Flamand to the Countess, a work that has since become an appreciated stand-alone concert piece.

Aaron Copland’s work list is much broader than just the “American”-sounding works like Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man. In his youth, he studied in Paris under influential teacher and composer Nadia Boulanger. She required her pupils to learn both contemporary and traditional forms. Under her instruction, Copland wrote these four motets, which he later rather reluctantly published: “I think of these as student pieces that show some influence of Mussorgsky, whom I admired. While they have a certain curiosity value – perhaps people want to know what I was doing as a student – the style is not yet really mine.”

Another student of Nadia Boulanger’s was the Polish violinist and composer Grażyna Bacewicz. She was primarily engaged as a violinist but also composed actively throughout her career. She wrote three trios for various instrument combinations, of which this one is the last, written in 1965. The first two movements are dreamlike and still, with the suitably poetic titles Moderato generoso and Andantino melancolico. The third and final movement, Giocoso, immediately ups the ante with an expressively curious, bouncy oboe part against colourful sounds in harp and percussion.

Jocelyn Hagen wrote Hands for mixed choir on commission for a large, international choral symposium, where it would be premiered by Swedish Vocal Art Ensemble and conductor Jan Yngwe. Finding a suitable text, however, was a struggle. “What text could I choose that would represent all the musicians attending the conference? Choosing a text in English didn’t feel right to me. It felt too limited.” Ultimately, she decided to write a vocalise, a song without words. Inspiration struck when she walked hand in hand with a close friend she hadn’t seen in a long time. “This is what the piece needs to be about: a simple gesture, the act of uniting, coming together.” From a single soloist, gradually all singers unite in musical communion.

Carl Nielsen’s jovial, highly acclaimed and well-written Wind Quintet was written after a happy and quite unexpected coincidence. During a phone call in the autumn of 1921, Nielsen overheard members of the Royal Danish Wind Quintet rehearsing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante. He was immediately taken by the skilful musicians and soon started composing the quintet, which premiered in Copenhagen the following year. According to Nielsen himself, he has “attempted to render the characters of the various instruments” in this conversation between five instruments. The third movement offers a series of variations on a chorale melody that Nielsen wrote several years before, to the text Min Jesus, lad mit hjerte få or “My Jesus, make my heart to love thee”.

Samuel Barber only wrote one string quartet. He began composing in 1935, finished and premiered the work the year after, but not until 1943 – after several rewrites, particularly of the third movement – was Barber completely satisfied. On September 19, 1936, Barber wrote Orlando Cole, cellist in the ensemble set to premiere his work: “I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today – it is a knockout!” Barber arranged that slow movement for string orchestra the same year as he first finished the quartet. And what a “knockout” it was; the bittersweet Adagio for Strings is arguably his best-known work, described as “full of pathos and cathartic passion”. Here it will be performed in its original form, with a string quartet.

Charles Ives started working as a church organist at the age of 14, also composing music for church services. During his studies at Yale University, he was further influenced by the choral style of his mentor Horatio Parker. His setting of Psalm 67, God be merciful unto us, has an identifiably Ives-esque sound with layers of chords in a gently dissonant, welcoming harmonic weave. In Elizabeth Kimble’s choral work The Peace of Wild Things, the text by poet and environmental activist Wendell Berry describes a feeling shared by many in these times. “When despair for the world grows in me” are words that could be said by almost anyone. And just as comfort and hope can be found in faith, it can also be found in nature: “I come into the peace of wild things, who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. For a time, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

David Saulesco