The Swedish Society of Composers is organizing a showcase for new music at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on January 13, in collaboration with New Music Scotland. Gageego! will perform works by seven Swedish composers.
The purpose of the event is to promote the contemporary Swedish repertoire and create new contact areas in Great Britain. A total of ten works will be performed in three public concerts at The New Auditorium, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 13 January 2024.
The selection has been made by a jury consisting of Albert Schnelzer, Paulina Sundin and Anders Jonhäll.
Gageego! will perform seven of the works:
Programme
Henrik Denerin from collide (2021) Ylva Fred Motor Music (2021) Madeleine Isaksson Capsuled time (2021) Alfred Jimenez with Voice (2022) Mika Pelo from Abandoned (2022) Marie Samuelsson Lejonet (The Lion) (2023) Benjamin Staern from Hilma Scenes (2020)
These works are divided among Gageego!’s two concerts this day. The first starts at 16:00 and the second at 20:00.
Gageego! participating during the Göteborg International Organ Festival is a tradition. This year, the concert is dedicated to the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who passed away this summer.
After her breakthrough in the 1980s, Saariaho came to be regarded as one of today’s most respected composers. In a survey this year, the BBC asked 174 composers to state which living colleague they had the most respect for. Saariaho topped the list.
Much of her music is inspired by the sounds and sights of nature; Finnish lakes and summer forests meant more to her creation than the strict serialism that dominated her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. She has since commented on the limitations of the then popular mathematical structures:
– You were not allowed to use pulse, or tonally oriented harmonies, or melodies. I don’t want to write music through negations. Everything is allowed as long as it is done in good taste.
A grand Gageego!
To do the repertoire justice is Gageego! augmented by a number of eminent musicians. Tonight’s crew:
Fredrik Burstedt conductor
Jan Lehtola organ
Anna Maria Friman-Henriksen soprano
Charlotta Grahn Wetter violin 1
Helena Frankmar violin 2
Laura Groenestein-Hendriks viola
Johan Stern cello
Thomas Allin double bass
Anders Jonhäll flute
Mårten Landström piano
Erik Groenestein-Hendriks harp
Martin Ödlund percussion
Linus Andersson electronics
Programme
Chamber Music and music for soprano, cello and organ
NoaNoa (1992), flute and electronics
Offrande (2014), cello and organ
Changing Light (2005), soprano and flute
Spins and Spells (1997), cello
Kolme preludia (Three preludes) (1981), soprano and organ
Lichtbogen (1986) – for flute, percussion, harp, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass and electronics
Follow along with the score and listen when Gageego! premieres Days Distant Days by Aaron Holloway-Nahum.
The first tempo instruction reads “playful, quirky”. It changes already the next beat to “suddenly downshifting”. The odd time signatures succeed each other at breakneck speed and concentration is required to keep up.
Thanks to composer Aaron Holloway-Nahum publishing the score, synchronized with Gageego!’s live recording, everyone can try to follow the many twists and turns on Scorefol.io.
Gageego! is participating this year too! Don’t miss this festival for contemporary music, arranged in a small village in a scenic area in the southern part of Västra Götaland, Sweden.
Gageego! will be performning music by Emil Nilsson, Richard Barrett, Simon Steen-Andersen, Kaija Saariaho and Wolfgang Rihm.
Tickets are sold at the venue right before the concert.
