Fortissimo Autumn 2019

Anders Hillborg
Forthcoming
performances
Bach Materia
2.10.19, Ayr Town Hall; 3.10.19,
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; 4.10.19,
City Halls, Glasgow, UK: Pekka
Kuusisto/Scottish Chamber Orchestra
26.3.20, Stillwater; 27-29.3.20,
Ordway Center for the Performing
Arts, St Paul; 14.5.20, St Paul, MN;
16.5.20, Lincoln Center, New York
City, NY, USA: Pekka Kuusisto/The
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Rap Notes
4-5.10.19, Filharmonii Narodowej,
Warsaw, Poland: Eva Vesin/Orkiestra
Symfoniczna Filharmonii Narodowej/
Andrzej Boreyko
Mouyayoum
5.10.19, Berwaldhallen, Stockholm,
Sweden: Swedish Radio Choir/
Andrew Manze
The Breathing of the
World
World premiere
12.10.19, Saint James’s Church,
Stockholm, Sweden: Theo Hillborg/
Filip Graden/St Jacobs Chamber
Choir/Gary Graden
Exquisite Corpse
22.11.19, National Concert Hall,
Dublin, Ireland: RTÉ National
Symphony Orchestra/Anja Bihlmaier
Tampere Raw
16.12.19, Wigmore Hall, London, UK:
Martin Fröst/Roland Pöntinen
new orchestral work/
King Tide
World premiere
3.2.20, Centro Cultural Miguel
Delibes, Valladolid, Spain: Orquesta
Sinfónica de Castilla y León/Andrew
Gourlay
Opening Fanfare/
Brass Quintet/
Kongsgaard
Variations/The
Peacock Moment/
Tampere Raw/Duet/
Duo/Six Pieces for
Wind Quintet
22.2.20, Milton Court, Guildhall
School of Music and Drama, London:
GSMD Students
The Breathing
of the World*/
Mouyayoum/O
Dessa Ögon/Cradle
Song/Lilla Sus Grav/
Stella Maris
*UK premiere
22.2.20, St Giles Cripplegate,
London, UK: Theo Hillborg/BBC
Singers/Ragnar Rasmussen
new work*/Eleven
Gates/Beast
Sampler/Peacock
Tales (Millennium
Version)*/Violin
Concerto No.1*
*UK premieres
22.2.20, Barbican Hall, London, UK:
Martin Fröst/Carolin Widmann/BBC
Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
Anders Hillborg
Major BBC SO focus
After giving the UK premieres of both Sirens and the
Violin Concerto No.2 in 2017, the BBC Symphony
Orchestra will return to Hillborg’s music in February
2020 for one of their ‘Total Immersion’ days. They will be
joined by musicians from the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, as well as the BBC Singers under Ragnar
Rasmussen. The latter will place Hillborg’s rich body of
choral music alongside works by Messiaen, Sanström,
Stucky and Salonen before presenting the UK premiere
a new work for choir and saxophone (see below). The
day will culminate in an orchestral concert conducted by
Sakari Oramo which will include the UK premieres of a
new orchestral work and the Violin Concerto No.1 with
Carolin Widmann.
Composed in the early 90s, the Violin Concerto No.1 is
a pivotal work in Hillborg’s development as a composer.
Written in the wake of his highly experimental Clang
& Fury and Celestial Mechanics – both of which employ
complex and unconventional tuning systems – the
concerto displays a more pragmatic approach, though
the drama it sets up is far from conventional, with a very
fluid soloist-orchestra relationship. Esa-Pekka Salonen,
who recorded it with Anna Lindal and the Swedish Radio
Symphony Orchestra for Ondine, has described it as one
of Hillborg’s best pieces.
The Breathing of the World
Hillborg has composed a new work for mixed choir,
soprano saxophone and cello, entitled The Breathing of
the World. The 10-minute piece was commissioned by
conductor Gary Graden who will conduct its premiere
in Stockholm on 12 October 2019 with soloists Theo
Hillborg and Filip Graden. The text for the work, which
will also be performed at the BBC’s Total Immersion
day, is Hillborg’s own: a lyrical celebration of nature with
melancholic undertones reflecting on the state of our
planet.
Conversations with Bach
Hillborg seems to have an intuitive knack for getting the
most out of his soloists, be it Martin Fröst in the now
iconic Clarinet Concerto ‘Peacock Tales’, Lisa Batiashvili
in the Violin Concerto No.2, or Pekka Kuusisto in Bach
Materia, an inventive and witty companion piece to Bach’s
Third Brandenburg Concerto. The 19/20 season will
see Kuusisto tour the latter work with both the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.
A zany 15-minute work, Bach Materia contains numerous
opportunities for the soloist to improvise. This spirit fits
well with the Bach, the central Adagio of which consists
of just two chords upon which the soloist elaborates.
Bach Materia has received over 20 performances since its
premiere in March 2017, and a recording with Kuusisto
and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra will soon be released
on BIS.
Revisiting: Exquisite Corpse
Back in February, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and
Alan Gilbert gave four performances of Hillborg’s thrilling
orchestral piece Exquisite Corpse. The 14-minute work took
its name from the surrealist parlour game where multiple
artists would contribute sections to a drawing, with the
bizarre finished composite image only revealed at the end
of the process.
Familiar musical objects melt and buckle in what one
critic described as the sonic equivalent of one of Dali’s
paintings: material from Hillborg’s own work butts up
against a chord from Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a salute to
Ligeti and, towards the end, a passage from Sibelius’s
Seventh Symphony, barely visible through a mist of strings.
Like the Sibelius Symphony (with which it makes an ideal
partner in concert programmes), Exquisite Corpse was
commissioned by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
who recorded it with Gilbert for one of Hillborg’s several
portrait discs on the BIS label.
In November Exquisite Corpse will be performed in Dublin
by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Anja
Bihlmaier.
Looking ahead
February 2020 sees the premiere of a new orchestral work
by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León conducted
by Andrew Gourlay. The 15-minute piece has been cocommissioned
by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and
Helsinki Philharmonic.
Hillborg will then compose concertos for Nicolas Altstaedt
(cello) and Lawrence Power (viola) before embarking on a
substantial new work for large ensemble.
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PHOTO: ANDERS HILLBORG © MATS LUNDQVIST