Three Scandinavian composers, three stops on an existential journey: Jean Sibelius opens with the "Scene with Cranes" from his incidental music to Järnefelt's "Kuolema" ("Death"). Here, the image of nature and the motif of death merge into a quiet vision of transition, in which the cranes appear as a peaceful escort between this world and the next. Wilhelm Stenhammar's concert overture "Excelsior!", in contrast, sparkles with vitality: a youthful manifesto, untamed and full of the spirit of optimism. Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," for which Edvard Grieg wrote his world-famous incidental music, extends the spectrum further—a life parable of self-realization and escape from responsibility, all the way to love and redemption.

EPSG:4326

Saturday Concert No. 2

Volkshaus Jena

The 2nd Symphony Concert, entitled "Northern Lights," focuses on composers from Scandinavia: Sweden and Denmark are represented in the program with Wilhelm Stenhammar and Carl Nielsen.  


Stenhammar's overture "Excelsior" [German: sublimity, height] is brimming with optimism, never settling, but always striving higher, even to the point of ecstasy.


The first part of the concert begins with a work by this year's Louis Spohr Music Prize winner Carola Bauckholt. "Aus dem Geröll" is a work for percussion and orchestra. Premiered in 2023, Dirk Rothbrust will play the percussion solo today, as he did then.

2nd Symphony Concert: Northern Lights

Staatstheater Braunschweig

Composer Mats Larsson Gothe has had significant success in recent years, including with the opera Löftet ("The Promise") at the Royal Swedish Opera. Already in 2016, he was the focus of Konserthuset’s Composer Weekend Festival. Here, we hear the world premiere of a new cello concerto, featuring internationally renowned Torleif Thedéen as the cello soloist. "The cello concerto for Torleif captures everything that a cello can convey: longing, dreams, pain, and melancholy – but also anger and resignation. I have used the full range of expression", Mats Larsson Gothe explains.

Stenhammar's second symphony

Stockholm City Hall

Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto is a classic among classics, constantly featured on concert programmes worldwide, and probably available in hundreds of recordings. Grieg was 25 when he composed the music, and the fact that it was his first work with an orchestra is astonishing. Taking on his compatriot's superhit is none other than Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the world's leading pianists.

Grieg’s Piano Concerto

MSO offers atmospheric music for the Christmas holidays. Hear the lively dance between piccolo flute and strings in Vivaldi's enchanting Piccola Concerto – a work that bursts with Baroque vitality and Vivaldi's masterful artistry. In Midwinter, Wilhelm Stenhammar combines the coldness of the winter landscape with festive folk music-inspired melodies.

Symphonic Christmas – Vivaldi & The Nutcracker

Malmö Concert Hall

The rising star tenor won first prize at the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and was shortlisted in the Young Singer category at the 2023 International Opera Awards.

Sunday Afternoon Song

Wigmore Hall

‘Finland Awakes!’ was Sibelius’s original name for Finlandia – a soul-shaking song of hope and liberation from a nation struggling to break from Russian rule. Freedom was in the air, and across Scandinavia composers turned to poetry, folklore and the untamed beauty of the natural environment to create music that sang of their dreams and aspirations.

Sibelius: Songs of Love and Freedom

Southbank Centre

Staffan Scheja, acclaimed Swedish pianist, will perform a special concert at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. His program includes two fantasies from op. 11 (B minor/E minor) by Wilhelm Stenhammar, Fantasy op.17 by Robert Schumann, and Handel-variations op. 24 by Johannes Brahms.

Staffan Scheja Plays Stenhammar, Schumann, and Brahms

American conductor Alan Gilbert and frequent BSO guest Garrick Ohlsson premiere Justin Dello Joio’s piano concerto Oceans Apart, written for Ohlsson. Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar’s wide-ranging 1911 Serenade has a satisfyingly symphonic scope. French composer Lili Boulanger’s impressionistic 1918 depiction of a spring morning and Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s celebratory Carnival Overture, from 1891, complete the program.

Alan Gilbert conducts Boulanger, Dello Joio, Dvořák, and Stenhammar with Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Boston Symphony Hall

Join us for an extraordinary musical experience as Herbert Blomstedt and Martin Sturfält grace the stage with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks for two special concerts at the Munich Residence, Herkulessaal. These performances are scheduled for Thursday, December 9, 2021, and Friday, December 10, 2021, both commencing at 8:00 pm.

The evening's program promises a journey through the late-romantic era with Wilhelm Stenhammar's "Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, op. 23," a masterpiece full of soaring melodies, riveting drama, and harrowing intensity. Following an interval, the concert will continue with Ludwig van Beethoven's iconic "Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, op. 55 Eroica," a work that perfectly complements the dramatic scheme of the concert.

Under the baton of the highly esteemed maestro Herbert Blomstedt, and featuring the talented Martin Sturfält on piano, these concerts are a testament to Blomstedt's unbroken commitment to showcasing the works of his Swedish countryman, Stenhammar. At 94, Blomstedt continues his mission with the same fervor he had when he decided to focus on Stenhammar's compositions upon turning 85.

Don't miss this opportunity to witness a grand late-romantic opus performed by world-class musicians in one of Munich's most prestigious venues. For tickets and further information, visit the BRticket-Webshop at shop.br-ticket.de.

Herbert Blomstedt & Martin Sturfält

Munich Residence

The evening begins with Swedish Wilhelm Stenhammar's orchestral work Excelsior! The music is magnificent, dramatic and moving. Stenhammar uses the full potential of the orchestra to create a sense of upward movement and triumph.

The Nordic composers

Aalborg Central Waterfront

Week two of the Nordic Soundscapes festival takes us back to Sibelius, this time with his maiden voyage as a composer of symphonies. Turns out, he was more than ready to take the plunge. We also return to Denmark, with a deeply moving song cycle by Hans Abrahamsen that tells the story of Hamlet’s Ophelia from her perspective.

Søndergård Conducts Sibelius

Orchestra Hall

Grieg’s beloved and unabashedly Romantic Piano Concerto, performed by Yeol Eum Son, dances and dazzles and reflects a time of personal happiness in the composer’s life. A combination of beguiling melodies and bravura fire, it found inspiration in the rhythmic patterns of Norwegian folk dances. Maestro Danzmayr also leads Stenhammar’s Second Symphony, a Romantic Swedish jewel not heard nearly often enough. Plus, Sibelius’ stirring The Swan of Tuonela joins this Nordic musical banquet, inspired by scenes from Finnish mythology.

Sibelius & Grieg

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Willamette University

Swedish conductor Tobias Ringborg brings two northern European composers to Nuremberg: Wilhelm Stenhammar and Jean Sibelius were contemporaries, and the somewhat younger Stenhammar was heavily influenced by Sibelius in his later years. Yet in his 2nd Piano Concerto, Stenhammar is more in line with the tradition of German Late Romanticism and creates a simultaneously virtuosic and forceful work. Sibelius' 2nd Symphony was created a few years prior and, with its catchy themes, moving rhythms and full orchestral sound, became one of the most popular pieces of Finnish music in the world.

Si­be­li­us - Sten­ham­mar

Meistersingerhalle

The DSO’s Northern Lights Festival continues with compositions from Sweden and Denmark. Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing makes her DSO debut with an ethereal concerto by Anders Hillborg. Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund, a Norwegian native, also leads the orchestra in the dramatic interplay of contrasts in Nielsen’s Fifth.

Northern Lights Festival | Excelsior! and Nielsen

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Towards the end of the 19th century, Spanish motifs became popular in music - the most famous result is perhaps Bizet's Carmen . With his Spanish accent, Édouard Lalo also had a special feeling for Spain. We hear this in his exuberant and virtuoso violin concerto. Here, dramatic parts meet rhythmic flamenco motifs. Everything is mixed into an exuberant southern fiesta. The highly sought-after violinist Clara-Jumi Kang performs the concerto on a Stradivarius from 1702.

Symphony Spanish

Louis de Geer konsert & kongress

In Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland vividly and colourfully depicts a spring day in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. This ballet score portrays a pioneer community in the early 1900s, following a young man as he marries and settles down to build a home.

Appalachian Spring

Ensemble Caplet consists of harp, flute and strings. Together with singers from the Gothenburg Symphony Vocal Ensemble, they fill the summer evening with achingly beautiful notes of love and the season.

Wilhelm Stenhammar

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 16, 2026

The Nordic composers · Aalborg Symfoniorkester

16 - 17 Jan, 2026

Søndergård Conducts Sibelius · Minnesota Orchestra

Jan 29 - Feb 1, 2026

Sibelius & Grieg · Oregon Symphony

Mar 13, 2026

Sibelius - Stenhammar · Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg

18 - 19 Apr, 2026

Northern Lights Festival | Excelsior! and Nielsen · Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Nov 22, 2025

Saturday Concert No. 2 · Jenaer Philharmonie

19 - 20 Oct, 2025

2nd Symphony Concert: Northern Lights · Staatstheater Braunschweig

About