the Swedish Musikvår – a musician – and kompositördriven sexdagarsfestival – is not so thoroughly blue and yellow as the name indicates. Nor is it about exclusively new works. For Sunday’s feature, the ”Lantern Lectures” composed around the turn of the millennium, bar two Nederlandsbaserade swedes responsibility: Klas Torstensson (b. 1951) and Christian Karlsen (f 1985).
Both are closely associated with the rich Dutch ensemblekulturen where the contemporary, baroque and prog/indie worked for a long time in the same circles and the opposition to bourgeois institutionsmusik. The composer Torstensson is a resident in Holland since 1973, in the Hague started the conductor Karlsen 2008 New European Ensemble, which today concludes the festival with music by the legendary Sofia Gubaidulina.
Also, Norrbotten NEO, the Swedish contemporary-musikensemblen with the national mission, are an international bunch. In any case, when they extend themselves to the sinfonietta by means of freelancing from the continent. Music at the elite level no matter the genre really feel no boundaries by the EU, and with today’s tough competition will be the Swedish symphony orchestras increasingly multinational.
would not go a long way to convey Klas Torstenssons demanding the ”Lantern Lectures”, ie, the four ”lectures of light patterns” that make up the spin-off from ”the Expedition” – his great opera on the storting), which Andrée. A as intense as the expansive art of the virtuoso chamber ensemble; in all, 75 high-voltage minutes for the Norrbotten NEO.
There are powerful forces Klas Torstensson put in motion; the eruptive ljudblock in a relentlessly driving dynamics. As a refined choreography of the acoustical bodies – hard, rough, hollow, sparkling – which admittedly drags the listener out towards the arctic fantasy realm. Fascinating how Torstensson can get the wind to whiz over the wide white stretches with only ordinary instruments.
It is very large klangkonst, this, and an absolutely outstanding performance by the NEO-gang from Piteå.
