CANCELED - STENHAMMAR 150 YEARS: SONGS NOW AND THEN February 20 & 26

What happens when Wilhelm Stenhammar’s centurial shift meets contemporary choral music? To celebrate Stenhammar’s 150^th birthday, Swedish Radio has commissioned four composers to write new choral arrangements of existing Stenhammar songs. Led by conductor Erik Westberg, the Swedish Radio Choir invites us to a concert from late romanticism to the latest in Swedish choral music. Pianist Martin Sturfält also will interpret some of Stenhammar’s most famous piano pieces.

SWEDISH RADIO CHOIR

2020/2021

Participants

Swedish Radio Choir

32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.

The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.

The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.

Erik Westberg, conductor

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.