NOSPR / Hermus / Fröst / Inextinguishable Tales - NOSPR

‘Music is life and, like it, inextinguishable,’ wrote Carl Nielsen in the preface to his score of Symphony No 4. The composer leaves little room for ambiguity as he translates this written credo immediately into sound through an explosive opening, which affirms existence with almost manic intensity. Yet the work is far from one-dimensional – after all, it depicts the many shades and textures of life itself. Across its four uninterrupted movements, the music remains in constant motion, evolving and changing direction, each narrative turn offering a fresh perspective on the will to live. In the end, that thirst for life triumphs with a burst of truly elemental force, reflected nowhere more memorably than in the turbulent timpani battle of the finale.

Shapes, styles, and emotional states undergo even more daring transformations in Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales, a clarinet concerto that dazzles with a variety of colours, entirely befitting its title. From the very opening, we find ourselves drawn into the trap set by the composition, for the soloist simultaneously plays the part of a seducer, a hero, and a narrator of this story. Whom are we meant to follow? The virtuoso instrumentalist is both a masked dancer and a mime illuminated by the spotlight. He steps onto the stage as though it were an opera house and proceeds with a compelling narrative without words – all the more compelling when delivered by Martin Fröst, to whom the piece is dedicated.

Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Suite, an orchestral version of four piano miniatures from Op 54, invites us to become our own guides. The composer provides hints, but the details remain ours to imagine. Under what night sky does the Notturno take place? What sort of dwarfs stride so energetically through the final March? For anyone who still thinks of Scandinavian music as exclusively cool, lyrical, and reserved, this programme offers evidence to the contrary.

Piotr Mika („Ruch Muzyczny”)

Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes

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