Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Photograph by Marco Borggreve

Norrköping Season Overviews

Notes from Michael…

Season 2015-2016

Season 2014-2015
This season we explored Paris and its influence on music around the world.

Season 2013-2014
Last season we launched the Anne-Sophie Mutter Nörrkoping Symphony Orchestra Composers Competition. This was an initiative funded by Anne-Sophie Mutter in which young composers from across Europe could send in a 6-8 minute piece for symphony orchestra. From this, we chose 6 finalists and I conducted their music in our main season concerts. The two winners, Jonas Valfridsson and Lisa Streich have each received a commission for one major work with the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra.

Valentina Lisitsa was our Artist-in-residence and performed the first three of the Rachmaninov piano concerti. Alain Lefevre completed the cycle with the lesser known ‘original version’ of Rachmaninov’s Piano concerto no. 4. Alongside our Rachmaninov series, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss by performing many of his great works.

Verdi’s Requiem April 2014. Photo by Mikael Svensson.

Season 2012-2013
Following the success of the 2012 London Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, my first season with Nörrkoping seemed a perfect time to explore the musical culture of Great Britain.

From the nobility of Elgar’s Enigma Variations to the outrageous Eight Songs for a Mad King by Maxwell-Davies, we planned a journey to explore the music of British composers and also to show how British culture has inspired composers from other countries.

Our final two concerts were dedicated to Shakespeare as a cultural icon and how his writings have continued to inspire composers through the centuries – Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Mendelssohn’s Midsummers Night Dream, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet right up to a performance with Rufus Wainwright of his Shakespeare Sonnets for voice and orchestra.