Dmitry Matvienko
Eldbjørg Hemsing Hjalmar Borgstrøm
Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Hjalmar Borgstrøm (1864–1925) was one of Kristiania’s (today’s Oslo) most prominent music personalities at the start of the 20th century. He was a highly respected music critic, and with symphonic poems inspired by late German romanticism, he became one of the critical composers of his time. 

Borgstrøm wrote his Violin Concerto in G Major in 1914. It was premiered at the event celebrating the Constitution’s 100th anniversary and only performed a few times in the next hundred years. Lately, Eldbjørn Hemsing has contributed to re-establishing the concerto in the classical repertoire and recorded it in 2018. 

In 1865, Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) completed his music studies, he got his first job as a music teacher and his music was performed in public for the first time. The following year, his confidence was high enough for him to take on his biggest challenge yet: writing a symphony.

“No other work cost so much toil and so much suffering,” said his brother Modest about the project. During the summer of 1866, Pyotr worked day and night, suffering from trouble sleeping, hallucinations and such intense headaches that he thought he was going to die. Since then he never worked at night again.

The melancholic but lively Symphony No. 1 in G minor with the subtitle Winter Daydreams was finished later that year and premiered in 1868. The first movement, “Dreams of a Winter Journey”, paints frozen landscapes with Tchaikovsky’s unmistakable brush.