Gehrmans is happy to present the series "Musik till Kronprincessparets bröllop" (music to the Crown Princess Couples weeding). The Crown Princess Couple got married in Stockholm Cathedral on Saturday 19 June, 2010. The series contents eight editions with music for this very special occasion.
between July 10 and August 1 we are on vacation. Our telephones are closed during this time, and we are unable to answer e-mails. The web store will be open the whole time, but deliveries will have to wait until we are back.
We hope that you will have a wonderful summer!
Schnelzer's Hit at Proms
Albert Schnelzer’s successful concert opener A Freak in Burbank will be performed at the Proms on 23 August in Royal Albert Hall. Under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard the Swedish Chamber Orchestra will give the UK premiere of the work, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. The concert will be preceded by a Proms Intro at the Royal College of Music, where Thomas Dausgaard and Albert Schnelzer will discuss the concert programme with BBC’s Martin Handley.
A Freak in Burbank was inspired by a biography on American film director Tim Burton. It was premiered in 2008 and has since been performed more than 20 times by nine different orchestras with six different conductors.
Also at the Royal College of Music in London Schnelzer's chamber music will be presented at a portrait concert featuring the Tippett Quartet, the percussion group Oduo and other performers on 24 August.
Interview with the Swedish composer Fredrik Sixten. Sixten writes churchmusic for choir, organ, orchestra and more. He is well-known for his skillfully written vocal music, and for his contributions to the development of Swedish church music. "My music is probably charactarized by recognition, but at the same time my ability lies in creating new combinations of things that have already been given."
San Francisco Symphony Chorus with conducter Ragnar Bohlin performed the world premier of Fredrik Sixten's "Let there be" for choir and percussion on 11th april at Davies Symphony Hall. Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic, writes in his review at SFGate:
"...Sixten's "Let There Be," an eight-minute plea for universal brotherhood scored for chorus and percussion, opened the concert in a ripe and inviting account. The piece is saddled with a thin, sanctimonious text by poet Maria Küchen, but Sixten's music - stirring and broad-beamed without seeming pompous - carries the day.
Particularly impressive is the way the accompaniment, with timpani predominating, establishes a harmonic foundation above which the choral melodies curl and soar eloquently..."
Rolf Martinsson’s Open Mind has been chosen as concert opening piece by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic for their Toshiba Grand Concerts Tour in Japan on 24 February to 4 March. Open Mind will receive its Japanese premiere in Fukuoka, which will be followed by performances in Sendai, Hyogo and two concerts in Suntory Hall, Tokyo. The concerts tour will be conducted by Finnish Sakari Oramo. Open Mind was commissioned by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and opened the Baltic Sea Festival in 2005, where the premiere was conducted by Manfred Honeck. The piece has been performed often both in Sweden and abroad, e.g. in England, Germany, Finland and Estonia, and will receive its 36th performance during the Japanese tour.
Staern on Grammy Award Winning CD
We are glad and proud to announce that Benjamin Staern’s The Deep Violoncello of the Night is included on the Swedish Grammy Award winning CD “Unheard of Again” featuring the chamber ensemble Sonanza and alto Anna Larsson. The CD was recorded in connection with Sonanza’s 25th anniversary and contains newly written Swedish music by seven composers; Benjamin Staern, Henrik Strindberg, Karin Rehnqvist, Djuro Zivkovic, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Pär Frid and Mattias Lysell.
We congratulate Sonanza and Phono Suecia to the Swedish Grammy Award for the Best Classical Album 2009!
On 25 November Anders Eliasson’s Concerto for Violin, Viola and Chamber Orchestra was premiered in a full Finlandia Hall in Helsinki.The soloists, Ulf Wallin and Lars Anders Tomter, and the phenomenal Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra under Juha Kangas received standing ovations after the performance.
Wallin and Tomter will give the Swedish premiere of the work in Örebro Concert Hall on 28 January. The Swedish Chamber Orchestra will perform under the baton of Nikolaj Znaider.
Broström's Lucernaris on Film
Dieter Stöpfgeshoff has procuced a TV-film from the rehearsals and the world premiere of Tobias Broström’s trumpet concerto Lucernaris in May 2009. Now you can watch a video clip from the film featuring Tobias Broström, Håkan Hardenberger, conductor Robin Ticciati and the Gävle Symphony Orchestra.
Lucernaris represented Sweden at the ”the 56th International Rostrum of Composers” where it placed among the top-10 recommended works. Håkan Hardenberger will perform the concerto again with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra on 29 January 2010 in Tallinn.
The Boston Choral Ensemble » (Miguel Felipe, conductor) presents the first complete North American performance of Thomas Jennefelt’s Villarosa Sequences. This seven-movement symphony for voices combines the meditative qualities of minimalist tone clusters with the drama of vibrant melodic lines to craft a unique choral experience that is at once peaceful and exhilarating.
Performance dates in Boston are: Friday, November 20th, 2009 Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Tobias Broström's orchestral work Transit Underground was on the programme of the 18th International Review of Composers in Belgrade. The festival took place on 13 and 18 November and the theme of the year was "Echoes of Space".
Transit Underground was performed by the Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra during the final concert on 18 November in presence of the composer.
Watch the video interview with Daniel Börtz, made in connection with the premiere of the opera Goya.
Eric Ericson Award 2009
Gehrmans is collaborator with EEA 2009. During one week in october twelve young conductors from all around the world met some of Sweden’s foremost choirs in this honourable competition. The final was 25th October and the winner is Kjetil Almenning from Norway. Gehrmans wishes Kjetil good luck!
Eric Ericson was attending the final and congratulated the winner himself. The whole day ended with Eric Ericson conducting Kung Liljekonvalje whith the whole audience as choir. The day after the final Eric Ericson had his 91st birthday. Gehrmans congratulates!
In the opera GoyaDaniel Börtz and the librettist Magnus Florin have been inspired by the Spanish master and his journey through court drawing rooms and battlefields and his revealing and equivocal portraits of persons in authority, alternating with paintings of the horrors of war. Here you meet an ample gallery of characters that Goya met throughout his long life, a throng of kings, dukes and duchesses, politicians, inquisitors and Goya’s own family enters the stage.
The Göteborg Opera will give a total of nine performances this autumn: 26.9, 30.9, 4.10, 8.10, 11.10, 14.10, 17.10, 25.10 and 7.11.
More information about Goya and sound samples from the rehearsals on the Göteborg Opera website.
Read more about Daniel Börtz, Goya and the Musical Drama in Highlights No 3/2009.
The Brodsky Quartet premiered Albert Schnelzer’s String Quartet No 2 during the Nordland Music Festival on 6 August. The work is entitled Emperor Akbar and like in his first symphony Schnelzer has been inspired by a book by Salman Rushdie. Emperor Akbar, or Akbar the Great, lived 1542-1605 and is one of the main characters in Rushdie’s latest novel The Enchantress of Florence. In the novel a mixed personality appears that proclaims freedom of speech and democracy but also makes use of extreme violence if necessary. The string quartet literally begins with the emperor decapitating a young rebel. Then rhythmical and violent passages are alternated with more contemplative scenes.
The premiere which was one of the highlights of the festival was broadcasted live on the Norwegian Radio (NRK), and can be heard on NRK Nettradio. (Nordland musikkfestuke (06.08.09))
On 15 October Brodsky will give anothher performance of the work at Cadogan Hall in London.
Review:
A new work destined for London was the String Quartet No 2 by the young Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer. He celebrates the spectres of Shostakovich, Berg, Ravel — yet speaks with a confident and passionately lyrical voice all his own. Hilary Finch/The Times
Tobias Broström's trumpet concerto Lucernaris was placed among the top ten recommended works at the 56th International Rostrum of Composers in Paris on 8 - 12 June. 29 national radio networks from four continents participated in the Rostrum presenting 56 works composed within the five years preceding the Rostrum.
Lucernaris was premiered on 8 May in Gävle by Håkan Hardenberger and the Gävle Symphony Orchestra under Robin Ticciati.
Read more about Tobias Broström and Lucernaris in the latest issue of Highlights No. 2/2009.
Quo vadis? is the title of Anders Eliasson's new, large work for orchestra, mixed choir and tenor soloist. It was premiered on 15 May in the Berwald Hall in Stockholm by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Johannes Gustavsson, and tenor Michael Weinius. The one-hour-work is in one movement and is built on seven ancient texts from different cultures:
"It's all going back to diffent old religious traditions like the Assyrian, Greek and Babylonian. It's complicated materia, but above all I want to emphasize what people have in common. It should not be dogmatic. Every soul should ask oneself: Where am I going?. Everyone gets desoriented from time to time", Eliasson says in an interview for Dagens Nyheter.
The world premiere was followed by a recording on the German label CPO.
Read more about Quo vadis in Christoph Schlüren's article in Highlights No 3/2008.
Warm Reception for Martinsson's Songs
Anne Sofie von Otter premiered Rolf Martinsson’s Orchestral Songs at the New Danish Radio Concert Hall in Copenhagen on 12 March. The song cycle is based on 10 poems by the American lyric poet Emily Dickinson, and is divided into three parts: Songs of Nature, Songs of Love and Songs of Life. It is a lyrical, romantic and very singable work, with exotic instrumentation, which has characterised Martinsson´s successful orchestral works from the last few years.
The world premiere in Copenhagen was followed by the Swedish premiere at the Malmö Concert Hall (13/3) and the British premiere at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester (15/3). Vassily Sinaisky conducted the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.
The premiere tour got a warm reception as shown by the reviews below:
"...Never before have I experienced such a miraculously well-fitting musical costume on a singer's voice..." Svenska Dagbladet/Carl-Gunnar Åhlén
"They are highly well-composed and striking songs...as long as von Otter sings Martinsson's song cycle it is a "born classic"..." Jyllandsposten/Jens Cornelius
"The new work would have been a revelation to those who expect new music always to be difficult. Rolf Martinsson creates sounds that are genuinely beautiful..." The Manchester Evening News/Robert Beale
Trombonemania with Landgren & Lindberg
Now you can watch the movie about Fredrik Högberg’s Konzert für zwei Posaunen, “Tromboni buffa per orchestra di fiato e due trombone featura the Rudolphini Brothers Nisso & Chrisso". For the first time together: Nils Landgren and Christian Lindberg, accompanied by the Swedish Wind Ensemble.
Enjoy all the wild pranks and Högberg’s fabulous music. Meet the Rudolphini Brothers “Nisso & Chrisso” on their musical journey between funky beats, Italian opera, Tarantella, jazz ballad and winding solo passages. On top of it, Landgren and Lindberg execute some spectacular trombone tricks…
For more information about the concerto please visit the promotional website: Double Concerto.
Ola Håkansson, former member of Ola & The Janglers, is the lead singer of celebrated eighties band ”Secret Service” who had tremendous success all the way from its formation in 1979 and throughout the first years of the 1980’s. Backing up the musicians off stage is composer Tim Norell and lyricist Björn Håkansson. With hits such as ”Oh Susie”, ”Dancing in Madness”, ”Flash in the night” and ”L.A. Good bye” Secret Service played an important role in making Swedish music known abroad in the “post ABBA-era”.
According to newsletter “Musikindustrin” keyboard player and song-writer Tim Norell has found a number of previously unreleased songs in a cardboard box when moving house. The former band members now plan on compiling this to a new album.
In the mean time Gehrmans have a few copies left of Secret Service’s sought after “Greatest hits” sheet music album. Every song includes lyrics, music, chords and piano arrangement.
On the 3rd of March the piano folio "Piano Passion – 10 Hot Tunes" got its UK launch at the ISA Music Festival. The festival which featured both choir and piano music was held at Fairfield Halls, one of south Londons' premier concert halls. 1500 people in the audience had a chance to hear the author of the book, Swedish born pianist Johan Hugosson, accompany the choirs, as well as listen to three of his students performing songs from the book.
The book, which was recently released on the Swedish market, contains 10 hot tunes by Johan Hugosson in the styles of blues, jazz, ballads, samba and reagge/pop. The tunes can be performed either as solo-pieces without background accompaniment, or together with the included play-along CD. Handy tips and educational explanations is also included for every song.
Emil Berglund, project manager at Gehrmans Musikförlag, comments:
-Piano Passion is one of those piano books that lives up to its name. Johan told me about the passion and dedication his student showed in the rehearsals leading up to this concert. Being up on stage in a large venue like this takes a lot of courage as a young performer. The fact that they had chosen repertoire from Piano Passion also shows that this music works on the concert stage as well as at home.
For demo songs from the play-along CD as well as extracts from the music, please visit the Piano Passion web site.
Press quote:
“Piano Passion is a music folio which I warmly recommend for pianists and piano students; young as old. The book contains 10 short pieces, all of them melodic, catchy and full of atmosphere. In short – very good! Every song has a short explanatory instruction, and Hugosson proves to be an excellent tutor. Highest mark to this collection!” KARIN MOBERG, BTJ
Tobias Broström’s Violin Concerto was premiered on 12 February at a packed Gävle Concert Hall. The concerto is written for Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo who made a glowing performance with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and Mats Rondin on the podium.
Since the autumn 2006 Broström is Composer-in-Residence with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra. His next commission for the orchestra is a Trumpet Concerto for Håkan Hardenberger which will be premiered on 8 May under Robin Ticcati.
Reviews:
"A real hit…Is this the best Broström work so far? I believe so; the meeting with Gomyo’s fiery temperament suited him perfectly." Gävle Dagblad,14 februari 2009 /Camilla Dal
"Exciting, as always…An amazing soloist in an amazingly thrilling work." Arbetarbladet, 14 februari 2009 / Bodil Proos
Works for choir
Our new catalogue for international use is now available. You can download the catalogue, see link below. You can also send us an email » and we will send you a printed version free of charge.
The great conductor and pedagogue Eric Ericson celebrated his 90th birthday in october last year. We were many singing Kung Liljekonvalje » conducted by Eric himself at the celebration concert. In connection with the birthday celebrations the Swedish label Caprice records » released two CDs and and a DVD.
The CDs are previous unreleased recordings from the golden age of Eric Ericsons Chamber Choir and The Swedish Radio Choir. The DVD was recorded in 1977 and we see Eric in different pdagogical situations at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Among his students we meet Stefan Parkman, Thomas Jennefelt and Ann-Sofie von Otter on this DVD.
Gehrmans' complete hire catalogue including stage works and orchestral works published by Gehrmans Musikförlag, Nordiska Musikförlaget, Warner/Chappell Music Scandinavia and Körlings Förlag, is now available. You can find it as a pdf document under Downloads. Orders for the printed catalogue can be placed at hire@gehrmans.se ».
Music Publishers' Award to Sandström
Sven-David Sandström has been awarded the Swedish Music Publishers´ Prize “Lifetime Achievement” for his work as a composer for more than 40 years. He received the award at a gala in Berns Salonger in Stockholm, on 7 November from the hands of the minister of culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth.
The explanatory statement reads as follows: Many composers know the craft of musical composition, but few are as virtuosic in their composing as he is. Few dare to test the extreme limits of the classical genres, but he dares. Many are productive, but few leave to posterity so much music with both breadth and depth. And wherever he turns, he gets an artistically important role – his latest position is professor of composition at Bloomington in the USA.
Photo: Peter Hallbom
Six motets by Sven-David Sandström
After the model of J. S. Bach, the composer has now completed the cycle of motets. The style and tonal language is definately Sandström’s very personal, but scoring, choice of and disposition of the texts is adapted in the outer form of the great old master. Motets No. 4 – 6 had their first performances during the autumn 2008.
Why is it so hard to keep in tune when singing in a choir? Why does the chord sound false? What are melodic and harmonic intonations? What are large and small whole tones? Are not all semitones equal in size? How does one differentiate between F sharp and G flat? Can the piano be put to a wrong use?
Choral Intonation gives answers to such questions – and contains in addition other practical tips on how one can get the choir to intonate with awareness.
This is a book for choirs that would like to
begin and end on the same pitch
sing more purely than the piano
utilize intonation as a means of musical expression
P-G Alldahl is professor of ear training at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. A Swedish version of this book, Intonation i körsång, is also available.
In the midst of life, when it is more beautiful, mature and hopeful than ever, yes even then death can make itself felt.
When my dear friend Patrik Runeke first became seriously ill, and then died only 37 years old, feelings and thoughts concerning what life and death are really about overwhelmed me. I felt a pressing need to express this in text and music. It was only natural for me to turn to the author Bengt Pohjanen, with whom I had collaborated earlier, to ask him to formulate:
words of anger and of gratitude,
words of guilt and of forgiveness,
words of consolation, of love and hope.
These words of Bengt’s, in combination with the classical texts from the Latin Requiem Mass, form a kind of testament to mankind’s yearning for unity and perfection. In the final movement, In Paradisum, this yearning is borne forth to the God whom Bengt describes as being: Wisdom deep and loving. Stronger than death. – Fredrik Sixten
Text: Requiem mass and Bengt Pohjanen. For soli (S, B), choir and orchestra. Language: Latin, Swedish/English (translation by John Hearne).
Gehrmans Musikförlag is the leading music publisher in Sweden. Alfvén, Larsson, Lidholm, Lindberg, Sandström and many other important composer's works are represented in Gehrmans' catalogue. Apart from having a lot of choir works - even from other publishers - we also have Scandinavian orchestral-/chamber music and educational material.
These are the works presented in International Choral Music Bulletin, April 2008
The International Eduard Tubin Society and the publisher Gehrmans Musikförlag have now started the publication of Eduard Tubin’s Complete Works (ETCW). The work consists of 34 volumes divided into seven series, according to genre and setting of the works included.
As of February 27, Gehrmans has got a new e-mail newsletter: Composer News. Now you can keep up to date with the latest news about some of the major Scandinavian composers! Read about performances, premieres etc.
This first issue is entirely dedicated to Rolf Martinsson, and in March we will present Lars-Erik Larsson and the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Piano Passion is a brand new material by Johan Hugosson.
In this book you will find 3 blues tunes, 2 jazz tunes, 3 ballads (one of which is in country/western style), one samba and one reggae/pop song. The pieces are meant to be performed either as solo pieces without the included CD, or as concert pieces together with the CD.
Of course playing strictly in time with the CD isn’t that easy to begin with, but once this is overcome it is a lot of fun to play along with professional accompaniment. It also enhances the feeling for the beat.
Johan Hugosson, born in 1973 in Lund, Sweden, is a concert pianist educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and Royal College of Music in London. He lives in London and performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. Johan has a wide musical background in many genres from rock music to renaissance. He also teaches the piano and composes music, often for children. To get in touch with Johan visit his home page: www.johanhugosson.com
Listen to Highlights!
Highlights is available for download at our website. From now on you can also listen to sound samples of music featured in the magazine.
In-depth material and sound samples from Finnish Fennica Gehrman can be found at: Fennica Gehrman
Gehrmans acquires important music works
Gehrmans Musikförlag has, effective immediately, acquired the classical music publishing catalogue of Warner/Chappell Music Scandinavia, including orchestral, chamber and choir music from the catalogue of Nordiska Musikförlaget. The acquired catalogue has been administrated by Gehrmans since autumn 2002 and it includes works by an impressive number of composers; the most prominent in their genres: Hugo Alfvén, Hilding Rosenberg, Allan Petterson, Ingvar Lidholm, Erland von Koch, Nils Lindberg, Gösta Nystroem, Sven-David Sandström, Anders Eliasson, Eduard Tubin and more.
Gehrmans affiliate company in Finland, Fennica Gehrman OyAb has, at the same time acquired the classical music publishing catalogue of Warner/Chappell Music Finland Oy with Finnish and Estonian music mainly originating in the former Musik Fazer catalogue. It is a valuable cultural treasure created during a period of more than 100 years with works by for example Jean Sibelius, Selim Palmgren, Armas Järnefelt, Leevi Madetoja, Aarre Merikanto, Yrjö Kilpinen, Uuno Klami, Erik Bergman, Einar Englund, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Joonas Kokkonen and Paavo Heininen. In the younger generation of composers Edition Fazer represents names such as Kalevi Aho, Kimmo Hakola, Mikko Heiniö and Olli Kortekangas and also the Estonian composers Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür.
Kettil Skarby, MD of Gehrmans, and John Eric Westö, chairman of Fennica Gehrman, comment: "By this acquisition we secure our long-term work for a culturally important music treasure with its roots here in the Nordic territory. We know this material well and all these works will be excellent complement to our own catalogue. This will give us the volume necessary today for a music publishing company to work professionally also on an international market."
Per Jonsson, MD of WCM Scandinavia, comments: "Gehrmans and its Finnish affiliate Fennica Gehrman are the natural home for this classical music publishing catalogue considering that they have been administrating it on our behalf for almost five years now. This is a strategic move on our part, one that enables us to focus on our core business of popular music and nurturing talented local writers."
Eric Ericson was attending the final and congratulated the winner himself. The whole day ended with Eric Ericson conducting 