Göteborgs Konserthus Beethoven with Ava Bahari

Boris Blacher (1903-1975) Violin Sonata Op 18 Surprising, playful and modern – Boris Blacher’s Violin Sonata Op. 18 offers a fascinating journey into the musical landscape of the 20th century. Here, sharpness and elegance meet in a tight and dynamic interplay between violin and piano, where every musical gesture seems to take the work in a new direction. The Violin Sonata was written in 1941, and bears clear traces of the urban and culturally vibrant Berlin where Blacher worked in the shadow of the difficult circumstances of his time. He had Jewish roots, and the Nazis classified his music as “degenerate” (Entartete Musik). The sonata is characterized by a tight and modern expression, which clearly distances itself from the late Romantic aesthetics advocated by the regime. Instead, he drew inspiration from French composers such as Satie and Milhaud, as well as from Stravinsky’s rhythmic expression and the sound world of jazz. The expanded tonality is colored by dissonances and chromaticism with features of Hindemith, while the asymmetrical, rhythmic shifts already hint at the varying rhythms (variable meters) that would later become more central to his music. His son Kolja Blacher has been teaching Ava Bahari. Andreas Konvicka

Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929) Two Romances for Violin and Piano Larghetto Allegro Elfrida Andrée became principal organist in Gothenburg cathedral in 1867, the country's first woman in the position. Her musical contributions in this city are overwhelming. She also worked as a conductor and from 1897 led no less than 800 so-called folk concerts. With chamber music, orchestral suites, organ works and an opera on her list of works, her output is impressive. She liked to compose in a sympathetically fluid and charming style, natural and inspired music.

35 years after Tchaikovsky's death, Stravinsky paid tribute to him by writing a ballet based on some of his songs and piano pieces. It was called La baiser de la Fée, The Fairy's Kiss, and was based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Ice-Maiden. Just as the Ice-Maiden gave the newborn boy eternal life with her kiss, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky believed, had put an eternal stamp on his ballets. Together with the violinist Samuel Dushkin, Stravinsky arranged a suite of the ballet music, Divertimento for violin and piano. It was also arranged for orchestra. The entire work places enormous demands, perhaps above all on the violinist's technical skill. In addition to breakneck passages, flageolet playing and other advanced playing techniques, playing on several strings simultaneously is regularly used. In the opening Andante, a theme from Tchaikovsky's Children's Songs is heard, which gradually fades out in the violin.

In Beethoven's famous Kreutzer Sonata, violin and piano meet in a charged interplay full of contrasts, from dark drama to dazzling virtuosity. A work that grabs you immediately, and holds the listener in an iron grip from the first to the last note. Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, dedicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, is one of Beethoven's most visionary and groundbreaking chamber music works. The sonata, composed in 1803, marks a clear step away from the older tradition where the piano often dominated and the violin had a more supporting role. In Beethoven's work, the instruments instead meet as equal forces, in a dramatic and technically demanding interplay. After a slow and solemn introduction, the first movement bursts forth with powerful energy. This is followed by a varied movement characterized by both lyricism and virtuosity, before concluding with a furious finale. Ironically, Kreutzer himself is said to have never played the sonata, which he considered too difficult and eccentric, but today it is considered one of the most iconic works in the violin repertoire. Andreas Konvicka

The violinist Ava Bahari was Artist in Residence at Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra for 2024-2026. She gave her first solo concert at age eight in the Gothenburg Concert Hall. In 2026, her first album with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra was released with a recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto (Alpha Classics). In 2025/26, Bahari performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Joshua Weilerstein, Hindemith’s Violin Concerto, and Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello in Gothenburg. Elsewhere in 25/26, she made debut appearances with Orchestre de Paris, Hamburger Symphoniker, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, and returned to Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for their season-closing concerts. With the Swedish Chamber Orchestra she gave the world premiere of Annamaria Kowalsky’s Violin Concerto, commissioned specifically for Bahari. Ava Bahari is selected as an ECHO Rising Star for 2026/27, and she has received numerous awards, including top prizes at the Premio Paganini Competition in Genova (2021), Concours International Tibor Varga in Sion (2021) and Aurora Music Competition in Stockholm (2019). She studied Bachelor and Master at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under the guidance of Prof. Kolja Blacher and has also received music and culture scholarships from among others Sten A Olsson's Foundation for Research and Culture. She plays a 1694 Stradivarius Ovcharov on generous loan from Anders Sveaas Almennyttige Fond.

Born in France in 1988, Nathanaël Gouin is trained at the Conservatoire National de Paris, at the Juilliard School in New York as well as at the Hochschule für music in Freiburg (Germany), Nathanaël is currently artist in residence at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo (Belgium) where he is being guided by Maria Joao Pires. In the context of the Partitura project, in Japan, Spain, Germany and other countries he shares stage with various generations of musicians. He also has a duo with violinist Guillaume Chilemme. He is the recipient of several prizes from various international competitions, such as the Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria (1st prize), the Swedish International Duo Competition (1st prize), and the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon (France).