Göteborgs Konserthus Nagano conducts Schubert

Of the modern music pioneers in Vienna during the first decades of the 20th century, Anton Webern is one of the most remarkable. His output is not very large, nor did it attract attention in public music life. Webern studied composition with Arnold Schönberg and music history at the University of Vienna. After his studies, he worked as a conductor at small theaters but soon got bigger assignments, including for the International Society for Contemporary Music and the BBC in London. Starting from the expressionism of the 1920s (poets like Stefan George, the visual artists around Kadinsky and his Der blaue Reiter), Webern strove for the hardly possible formulation of a musical-expressive thought. The sound, the rhythm, yes, the individual note had for him an inherent form value with a tendency towards movement and development. Among his important works is a symphony, a concerto for nine instruments, a string quartet, Variations for orchestra as well as songs and cantatas. His Passacaglia for orchestra is his first work, composed in 1908. The short piece is made up of variations on a theme of eight measures, and each variation is dominated in character and expression by a new movement motif that is contrasted against the sometimes only hintedly repeated theme. With its late-romantic expressionism and its inescapable crescendo, the passacaglia is bursting with emotion. Webern's life came to a tragic end. He had withdrawn from the crazyness in the final stages of the World War to a small town near Salzburg. One evening in September 1945, he stood outside the door to smoke a cigarette, oblivious to the curfew after sunset. A shot from an American occupation force soldier fatally struck him.

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) SYMPHONY NO 9, "Great" Andante. Allegro, ma non troppo Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro vivace Allegro vivace Franz Schubert was 31 years old. During his lifetime he had 472 compositions printed. Upwards of half of everything he drew down. Beautifully so, one might think. Until you see what was printed: 56 four-hand pieces, 13 two-hand pieces, 193 dances set for piano, 22 choral songs (out of just over 100). And so 181 songs (= just under a third). Almost all ambitious chamber music is missing, all opera attempts - and all symphonies. With more. Publishers only took the hopefully profitable music. Of course. The Great C Major Symphony was written by Schubert in 1825-1826. He dedicated it to the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna in the autumn of 1827, but they did not venture on this monster. Franz himself was a playing member of this association, but his ability to speak for himself was downright lousy. In fact, he avoided the public eye all his short life and socialized mostly in closed, beautiful-spirited circles. His thick C major score remained in the large library of "Musikvännerna". He died in the fall of 1828. Big brother Ferdinand tried to put order in his music packs he had left behind. He made his own transcription of the C major symphony. In 1839 he was visited by Robert Schumann, a true Schubert enthusiast. He is amazed when he is shown seven symphonies. He ensures - eleven years after Schubert's death - that Mendelssohn receives the C major symphony. He also amazes and hastily performs a performance on March 21 in Leipzig at a subscription concert. He soon receives a thank you from the happy brother Ferdinand who has heard of great success; applause between movements. "You, doctor, have erected a column of honor for the departed. You have freed the ignorant from the blindfold, those who only saw the deceased as a song composer." Schumann gets the opportunity to watch a rehearsal for the second performance in Leipzig late in the autumn of the same year. He writes to his beloved Clara: "Today I have been blissful. At the rehearsal a symphony by Schubert was played. Oh, if you had been there! I cannot describe it. The instruments are like human voices, the whole thing is beyond all bounds spiritual. I became happy; the only thing I could wish for was that you were my wife and that I too could write such symphonies." Later he elaborates eloquently in his own journal about the find; his magazine is there to promote the new, "romantic" music. It was indeed needed in 1839: "He who does not know this symphony does not know much about Schubert... It takes us to a region where we cannot remember being before. Here, in addition to masterful technique, there is life in every fiber, color with the finest shifts, meaning over the whole, sharpness in every detail. Over all: the romanticism that one knows from other Franz Schubert. And then this heavenly length, like a thick novel by Jean Paul in four volumes... In the second movement there is a place where a horn calls from afar, as if from another sphere, it seems to me. Everything listens, as if a heavenly guest crept about the orchestra." Spreading the gospel of this symphony in Europe proved difficult. It was too long. Already Mendelssohn struck out several repetitions. Orchestra musicians here and there refused to play this senselessly tiresome music; it includes long parts with eternally repeated accompaniment figures in the violin parts. (I've heard complaining musicians even in our century…) Schubert's instrumental stuff in general got an astonishingly long sleep. Ingemar von Heijne

The Gothenburg Symphony, called "one of the world's most formidable orchestras" by the Guardian, has toured the USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East and performed at major music centres and festivals throughout the world. Chief conductor is Santtu-Matias Rouvali who started his tenure in 2017. Barbara Hannigan and Christoph Eschenbach are principal guest conductors since 2019. Already at the orchestra's very first years, the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed principal conductor, contributing strongly to the Nordic profile of the orchestra by inviting his colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to conduct their own works. Subsequent holders of the post include Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. During Neeme Järvi's tenure (1982-2004), the orchestra became a major international force. In 1997 it was appointed the National Orchestra of Sweden. During his celebrated tenure as music director (2007-2012), Gustavo Dudamel took the Orchestra to major music centres and festivals in Europe, making acclaimed appearances at BBC Proms and Vienna Musikverein. The list of prominent guest conductors has included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan, Myung-Whun Chung, Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra also runs extensive concert projects for children, and regularly releases digital live concerts free on gsoplay.se. The orchestra has been involved in many prestigious recording projects, the latest one the complete Sibelius Symphonies with Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Alpha Classics. Earlier, the orchestra has issued over 100 recordings on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Farao Classics and several other labels. The Gothenburg Symphony is owned by the Region Västra Götaland.

American Kent Nagano has been artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015. He was 2006-2020 chief conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and 2013-2019 he was first guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Together with them, Nagano carried out projects such as a tour to China and the performance of Sibelius' seven symphonies in celebration of the composer's 150th birthday. With the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano performed symphonies by Mahler and Beethoven, operas by Wagner and concert series with music by Dutilleux and Boulez. As a guest conductor, Kent Nagano has appeared with several of the world's leading orchestras. Among them are the Munich Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. An important period in Kent Nagano's career was his time as artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000-2006. He was then appointed the orchestra's honorary conductor. Kent Nagano has also been chief conductor of the Los Angeles Opera. He spent his first professional time in Boston working at the opera and as assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Kent Nagano's success in the US led to European appointments: artistic director of the National Opera of Lyon (1988-1998) and of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester (1991-2000). Kent Nagano has made a large number of recordings with the orchestras in Montreal and Berlin. Together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded Richard Strauss' Alpensymfonie, Ein Heldenleben and Tod und Verklärung on two CDs (Farao Classics) and vocal works by Hillborg, Gefors and Boldemann with Anne Sofie von Otter as soloist (DG). A critically acclaimed edition was Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, which was recorded live with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Choir and soloists (BIS).

The mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus is educated at Trinity College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. In 1995 she won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She has worked with leading conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Antonio Pappano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Möst and Ivor Bolton. Among her opera engagements are appearances at the Metropolitan, Covent Garden, the Gothenburg Opera, the opera houses in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Barcelona as well as Glyndebourne's gala. As a concert singer, she has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg, the Vienna Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as appearing at the BBC Proms and the festivals in Edinburgh and Salzburg. She has also given concerts at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center and La Monnaie as well as at international festivals. Katarina Karnéus belongs to the soloist ensemble at Gothenburg Opera. She was appointed court singer in 2018.