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NO MAN’S LAND

For the sixth consecutive year, Berwaldhallen is collaborating with Orvar Säfström and Underscore Productions. This year’s long-awaited film concert is all about the fantastic heroines whose great exploits and musical motifs are etched in our memories. A memorable event for film music lovers featuring Alien, Star Wars: Rogue One, Lord of the Rings, Terminator and Princess Mononoke.

The concert is streamed on Berwaldhallen Play and broadcast on Swedish Radio P2 October 2nd 2020.

”There was a queen who resided over the sea, whose like no one knew of anywhere, exceedingly beautiful and great in physical strength.” That’s how Brunhild, a shieldmaiden and a queen, is described in the medieval Germanic epic poem Nibelungenlied which inspired Richard Wagner to the opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. In Wagner’s operas, Brünnhilde is a Valkyrie, a mighty figure who takes those who die in battle to the domain of the gods.

The famous Ride of the Valkyries from the second part of Wagner’s opera cycle, Die Walküre, opens this concert with music for the heroines of the silver screen. The Ride has both inspired film composers and been used itself in films, perhaps most memorably in Apocalypse Now. Joe Hisaishi imitates Wagner’s heroic music in the film Ponyo, but his soundtrack to Prinsess Mononoke is sombre and melancholic, fitting to the film’s warning message about humanity’s destructive effect on nature.

Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are both colourful and daring characters with extended life in printed comics before they made it big in cinemas, most recently portrayed by Gal Gadot and Brie Larson, respectively. Rupert Gregson-Williams’ music for Wonder Woman includes the theme written by Hans Zimmer for Gal Gadot’s introduction as Wonder Woman in the film Batman v. Superman. Both films also feature renowned cellist Tina Guo, herself a film music regular.

When Pınar Toprak set out to write a theme for the character Captain Marvel, she wanted it to be recognisable after the first two notes. Heroes are often connected to the perfect fifth, a two-note motif or interval often played by the French Horns. In director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Hans Zimmer tied the minor third to the lead character. Toprak leaps into Captain Marvel’s theme with the more uncommon minor seventh interval.

Even though it has been twenty years since actress Sigourney Weaver last portrayed her on screen, the one role she is most often associated with is Colonel Ellen Ripley. The Alien films have all featured different composers. This concert features music from the first three, composed in order by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Elliot Goldsmith.

Another iconic heroine of the silver screen is Sarah Connor of the Terminator films. In Terminator 2, she fights alongside her son John and the android T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to prevent a nuclear disaster. Like the character Sarah Connor, Brad Fiedel’s rhythmically charged main theme is also among the most memorable in recent times.

Characters that haven’t reached the stardom of Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conor – or Buffy Summers and Katniss Everdeen, for that matter – are nonetheless worth mentioning in a concert like this one. Mad Max: Fury Road centres not so much on the titular Max, as on Charlize Theron’s character Imperator Furiosa, who rebels against the sadistic dictator in whose army she used to serve.

Finally, the intergalactic diva Plavalaguna of The Fifth Element secretly guards four magical artefacts, but is probably best remembered for her vocal number in said film: The aria Il dolce suono from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor that crosses into 90’s-flavoured electro pop by the film’s composer Éric Serra. It is performed here in an orchestral version with the concert’s own prima donna: Sabina Zweiacker. She has appeared several times already in Berwaldhallen in acclaimed performances like The Dragonborn Comes from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that have made her a worldwide celebrity.

Text: David Saulesco

Header image used by kind permission of 20th Century Fox.


SWEDISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA dot 2020/2021
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Participants

 

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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.

Med dubbla utbildningar i klassisk sång och komposition från Musikhögskolan i Malmö och solistdiplom i dirigering från Musikkonservatoriet i Köpenhamn har Christoffer Nobin både bredd och ett stort djup i sitt musikerskap. Redan under sina dirigentstudier kontrakterades han av Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester och assisterade framstående dirigenter som Paavo Järvi. Han samarbetar med alla de stora svenska och danska symfoniorkestrarna och operahusen och har engagerats av Londons Symfoniorkester, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie i Bremen, Metropolitan Opera i New York City, bland annat. Han har komponerat flera operor och musikaler och haft ledande positioner på NorrlandsOperan och hos Östgöta Blåsarsymfoniker. Hans bearbetning av Mozarts opera La clemenza di Tito har använts av Wiener Staatsoper och Barbican i London.

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Sabina Zweiacker är utbildad vid Musikhögskolan i Malmö och är sedan flera år känd över hela världen för sin medverkan i Orvar Säfströms konsertproduktioner med musik ur filmer och datorspel. Hon gjorde 2014 en av huvudrollerna i Christoffer Nobins barnopera Hion om natten med Norrköpings Symfoniorkester. Hon är lika hemma i film- och spelmusikens fantastiska värld som i de stora repertoarverken som Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem.

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Orvar Säfström var under flera år programledare för bland annat Filmkrönikan i SVT. Han har mottagit Svenska Videobranschens hederspris och dessutom utnämnts till Årets Spelare av SVEROK för sitt arbete med att uppmärksamma spelkulturen. Sedan 2006 producerar han bejublade och kritikerrosade konserter med musik ur film, tv-serier och datorspel i Sverige och Europa. Som författare och förläggare ligger han även bakom flera böcker om svensk spelhistoria och den rika svenska spelkulturen.

Approximate duration: 1 hr 30 mins