Klas Torstensson’s magnificent opera The Expedition tells the story of Andrée’s ill-fated Arctic journey – a subject that has fascinated Torstensson since his early teens. We hear Intermezzo and Epilogue from the opera – two sections that vividly reflect the contrasts in his music. The beautiful epilogue, a kind of aria based on letters and diary entries, comes strikingly close to Puccini in its lyrical depth.

Composer Festival – The Expedition

Stockholm City Hall

The second concert in the Composer Festival dedicated to Klas Torstensson features two works from the trilogy A Cycle of the North, which consists of the orchestral pieces The Mainland, The Polar Sea, and The Heaven. “A child’s feet on a sun-warmed path; a solitary man (perhaps the polar explorer, engineer Andrée from my opera The Expedition?) on an endless frozen sea; a steep road upward – perhaps to the sky.”

Composer Festival – The Heaven

Konserthuset Stockholm

Volcanic forces, but also the most tender and heartbreakingly emotional music – Klas Torstensson moves between extremes. Born in Sweden but long based in the Netherlands, he is a composer with significant international reach. This year’s Composer Festival focuses primarily on his work from the past two decades, but also includes music from the early 1970s, making the festival a wide-ranging retrospective.

Klas Torstensson

Events

Past events

Nov 8, 2025

Composer Festival – The Expedition · Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Nov 7, 2025

Composer Festival – The Heaven · Konserthuset Stockholm

About

Klas Torstensson hasn't added a bio