Composer

“To be or not to be?” This timeless question, which tormented Hamlet, continues to captivate minds. Ophelia, too, sought an answer, though hers ended tragically, culminating in one of literature’s most haunting scenes of madness. Shakespeare’s play—and Ophelia’s florid drowning—have inspired countless works of art, but it is the ambiguity of her mental state, coupled with her astonishing transition from speech to song, that has particularly intrigued composers.

Ophelia's Madness

Grand Théâtre de Québec

Among the most nimble ensembles in contemporary music today, the adventurous JACK Quartet visits with a kaleidoscopic program of new and recent works by living composers. The group is known for the fierce commitment and virtuosity it brings to a range of innovative and idiosyncratic repertoire—in a landscape where each piece and each composer challenges the players with novel techniques, sounds, and approaches to their music making.

EPSG:4326

JACK Quartet

University of California, Berkeley

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

Kay and Gerta's journey to the Snow Queen and into the depths of the human soul.

The Snow Queen

Semperoper Dresden

If you want to do justice to the broad spectrum of Jonathan Stockhammer's musical work and his cross-genre curiosity, you have to leave the usual pigeonholes and classifications behind. Born in Los Angeles, the conductor who consistently pushes musicals limits devotes himself to the classical and contemporary repertoire with the same passion. This is the driving force behind his work: to understand and appreciate music in its universality. He loves opera, ballet and modern dance theatre, experimental premieres and unconventional concert formats that break down encrusted structures in favour of new listening experiences. Thanks to his astonishing talent for explaining music and understanding the audience not only as a resonating space but as a dialogue partner, he makes music newly understandable, newly experienceable.

Portrait concert by Capell-Compositrice Unsuk Chin

Festspielhaus Hellerau

Mahler’s playful Fourth Symphony begins under pure blue skies and ends in a child’s dream of heaven.

Mahler’s Fourth

Southbank Centre

A jangle of sleighbells, a flurry of birdsong … in music, sometimes the simplest things are the most powerful. Mahler’s playful Fourth Symphony begins under pure blue skies and ends in a child’s dream of heaven. Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you paints its pictures in the purest shades of light, and this Shakespeare song-cycle with a haunting difference has already become one of the 21st century’s best-loved classics. Edward Gardner unites these wondrous worlds tonight – plus, of course, the pristine voice of soprano Jennifer France.

“God, what beauty!”. Once upon a time in Finland, Sibelius saw a flight of swans and felt his imagination take wing. That’s the story behind the unforgettable horn theme that crowns his Fifth Symphony: music as astonishing, and as inevitable, as nature itself. Those vaulting horns are a spine-tingling way to end the season. So what could be more natural than Ryan Wigglesworth inviting Stefan Dohr, a legend among living horn players, to perform another Scandinavian masterpiece: the playful, utterly original concerto that our Composer in Association (and master-storyteller) Hans Abrahamsen wrote especially for him. Ludwig van Beethoven ties it all together, with wit, splendour and irrepressible life-force. You’d expect no less.


Closing Night: Sibelius' Fifth Symphony

Glasgow City Hall

Beethoven may be centre stage, but Shakespeare is once more in the wings for an extraordinary programme conducted by Elena Schwarz.

Ophelia, Hamlet’s doomed lover, narrates Hans Abrahamsen’s prize-winning song
cycle Let me tell you. With a vivid and virtuosic role, Jennifer France becomes an empowered and defiant heroine worthy of a Scandi drama. Roman General Coriolanus appears in tonight’s curtain raiser; fortunately, Beethoven’s version is more child friendly than Shakespeare’s. Coriolan is also the starting point of Unsuk Chin’s miniature for orchestra, subito con forza. Powerful and impulsive, Unsuk Chin pulls no punches in her homage to Beethoven, surely something he would have approved of!

Let me tell you

The Bridgewater Hall

Hans Abrahamsen's work Schnee has become Athela's bid for a Christmas concert.

Hans Abrahamsen, Schnee

The concert church

Joy, warmth and irrepressible energy: Sirocco is a great storm of music from across the world, played with heart and virtuosity.

Manchester Collective & Abel Selaocoe: Sirocco

Experience the extraordinary range and vitality of Academy alumna Augusta Read Thomas, one of the most performed composers of her generation. Described by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as ‘one of the most recognisable and widely loved figures in American music’, she is celebrated across these two concerts.

Composer In Residence: Augusta Read Thomas

Royal Academy of Music

Join us for an enchanting evening of contemporary music at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, 6th October 2024, at 6pm, featuring the captivating works of Kaija Saariaho and Hans Abrahamsen. This special "Music of Today" concert, part of the Nordic Soundscapes series, is a celebration of the leading Nordic composers of recent decades, offering a unique opportunity to experience the compelling compositions of Saariaho and Abrahamsen, free of charge, though a ticket is required.

Under the baton of Chloe Rooke, making her Philharmonia debut, and featuring the exquisite soprano Ella Taylor, acclaimed for their "gorgeous voice" by BBC Music Magazine, the evening promises to be a memorable one. The programme includes Saariaho's "Semafor," one of her last pieces, inspired by the playful sculptures of Finnish artist Ernst Mether-Borgström, and Abrahamsen's "Two Inger Christensen Songs," crystalline settings of poems by the renowned Danish poet, capturing a timeless connection with the natural world.

This concert not only showcases the talents of emerging artists alongside established musicians but also marks a welcome return for Ella Taylor, who first performed with us in an unconventional venue, a multi-storey car park in Peckham. Now, they grace the stage with a small ensemble of Philharmonia players for an evening that promises to be as innovative as it is inspiring.

Priority booking is available for Friends of the Philharmonia, with general booking opening at 10am on Tuesday, 23rd April. Secure your seat for this free event and immerse yourself in the modern sounds of the Nordic landscape. For more information and to book your tickets, contact the Philharmonia Box Office at 0800 652 6717, Monday to Friday, 10am – 5pm. Don't miss this early evening concert, a perfect prelude to the broader explorations of Nordic Soundscapes.

Music of Today: Kaija Saariaho and Hans Abrahamsen

Royal Festival Hall

The Philharmonia Orchestra spotlights the compelling music of two of the leading Nordic composers of recent decades, in this free early evening concert.

Music of Today: Kaija Saariaho & Hans Abrahamsen

Few composers captured life’s struggles as vividly as Tchaikovsky. ‘This is Fate,’ wrote the composer in 1877 as he grappled with the opening notes of his Symphony No. 4. ‘It hangs above your head like the sword of Damocles.’ By the symphony’s final pages, Tchaikovsky had wrested hope from despair. John Storgårds conducts his BBC Philharmonic in this full-blooded symphony, after the delicate, white luminosity of Hans Abrahamsen’s Horn Concerto and the brusque drama of Sibelius’s symphonic fantasia Pohjola’s Daughter, based on a tale from Finnish folk epic the Kalevala, in which the ancient bard Väinämöinen attempts to woo the beautiful Daughter of the North. The Prom opens with Schumann’s much-overlooked dramatic overture for his opera on the medieval legend of St Genevieve of Brabant, Genoveva.

Prom 25: Storgårds conducts Tchaikovsky’s Fourth

Royal Albert Hall

In 2024, we invite you to a new concert series that blends music across national borders and styles, performed by the conservatory's Ensemble X with vocal, string, wind, piano, and percussion students.

X Concert II

The Studio Hall

“My heartfelt homage to Tchaikovsky’s wonderful talent”. Audiences in the 1920s were astonished when the modernist firebrand Stravinsky started adapting Tchaikovsky. In fact, Stravinsky adored Tchaikovsky’s music, and his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss puts Tchaikovsky’s music under a very modern – but utterly captivating – spell. But then, under the baton of our Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, there’s wonder in every note of this ravishing concert. You’d expect no less, when the phenomenal pianist Stephen Hough works his very personal alchemy on Rachmaninov’s hugely-popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. But the music of Hans Abrahamsen’s fairy-tale opera The Snow Queen might be a little less familiar. Believe us – it’s pure enchantment.

Hough Plays Rachmaninov

City Halls

We cover a wide range of new and older music. The two wind quintets almost stand as exemplary of two generations of
Danish music: the elegant, neoclassical and impressionistic style of Jersild and a straightforward and raw, modernist simplicity of Abrahamsen.

Mozart's Spring

Southern Danish Conservatory of Music

Want to bring a moment of calm to your Sunday lunchtime? This will be an hour-long, free event for all ages, inspired by nature. Grab a drink from one of Brindleyplace's local cafes, and feel free to drop in and out as you please!

Cherry Blossom Concert 2024

Oozells Square

BCMG's wind trio perform a select programme of music fitting for such a venue, from Coventry's own Brian Ferneyhough, alongside pieces from Hans Abrahamsen, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and BCMG oboist Melinda Maxwell.

Light, Air, Space

Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens

Coventry Cathedral

Composed during a period of emotional upheaval, Schumann’s Second Symphony traces a defiantly joyous journey toward radiant hope. And pianist Tamara Stefanovich dazzles in Hans Abrahamsen’s transfixing Left, Alone, a work of fire and ice in which the soloist relies on the virtuosity of their left hand.

Musical Fortitude: Schumann's Second Symphony

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Grieg is perhaps – next to Sibelius – the best-known classical composer from the Nordic countries.

Nordic Sounds

AXIOM

Lincoln Center

The Juilliard School

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s acclaimed new orchestral work ARCHORA and Hans Abrahamsen’s horn concerto are both performed here for the first time in Sweden, the latter featuring the orchestra’s principal hornist Chris Parkes. Acclaimed Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen concludes the concert with Jean Sibelius’ beloved fifth symphony.

Composer

Hans Abrahamsen

Events

Past events

Apr 16, 2026

Ophelia's Madness · Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

Mar 15, 2026

JACK Quartet · Cal Performances

About

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