Mozart Blomstedt

The great Swedish conductor, Herbert Blomstedt, returns to Oslo! This time he will lead a work from the summit of Swedish symphonic works: Stenhammar’s outstanding Symphony No. 2, which is imbued with the power, richness and the overwhelming effect of the symphonies of Nielsen and Sibelius, or even Brahms or Bruckner. Blomstedt is not only a master of Nordic music, but also an elegant classicist of international renown, and together with our own dazzling soloists Elise Båtnes and Catherine Bullock, he presents Mozart’s deeply felt and wonderfully sonorous Sinfonia Concertante.

After Grieg, Sibelius and Nielsen, many feel that it is finally Wilhelm Stenhammar’s (1871-1927) turn to achieve the international recognition he deserves. The jewel in the crown of his rich list of works is his Symphony No. 2 (1915) — the sole symphony he completed and himself stood by. Here is everything from Nordic melancholy — shadows of Sibelius and Nielsen — but most of all an almost physical musical vitality and power which seems to burst out of the Nordic region in the direction of Europe — here we can discern both Brahms and Bruckner in the background, and even Bach might have been moved by the powerful fugues in the finale. This counts among the finest offerings in the Nordic musical repertoire.

Another work with a unique sound, and which boasts a much happier and longer performance history than Stenhammar’s second, is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) Sinfonia Concertante (1779), written for violin, viola and orchestra. The rich sound of the viola as a solo instrument makes the work one of the favourites of Mozart enthusiasts, maybe also because the master in the melancholy second movement reveals an unusually dark and self-scrutinising aspect of himself. The outer movements, on the other hand, are filled with the usual bubbling, playful and bewitching Mozart we all love.

(Text: Thomas Erma Møller; Translation (from Norwegian): Sarah Osa; In photo: Herbert Blomstedt; Photo: Fred-Olav Vatne/Oslo-Filharmonien)