The violoncello is often called the instrument that most resembles the human voice. If that is true, we now get the chance to hear a cello speak Swedish during an entire concert! Chrichan Larsson searched inspiration early on from masters like Rostropovich and from contemporary composers in Sweden and abroad – he himself also writes music.…

Olivier Messiaen (1908–92) wrote his great suite for solo piano Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus in 1944 while Paris was liberated from the Germans. The title can be translated Twenty Views of the Child Jesus but literally means Twenty Looks at the Child Jesus, and most of the twenty movements are called something with Regard:…

On the actual birthday we celebrate César Franck, Belgium’s greatest composer, sometimes also counted as French because he lived in Paris for more than fifty years. Tale Olsson, violin, Erik Wahlgren, cello and Bengt Forsberg, piano, play his opus 1, a piano trio, but we also hear them two at a time and Bengt as…

Known and unknown Christmas songs are interspersed with music by, among others, Bach, Reger and Kurt Noack, as well as the beloved Koppången. The performers are the soprano Sofie Asplund, the baritone Jeremy Carpenter, the pianist Bengt Forsberg and the organist Mats G. Eriksson on the organ of Allhelgonakyrkan. As in previous years, our host…

Are we in a Stockholm drawing-room in 1830? The solo clarinetist in the Royal Swedish Orchestra, Staffan Mårtensson, and the soprano Jessica Elevant are guests of pianist Bengt Forsberg, and there is even a string quartet here! Bernhard Crusell’s aria with obligate clarinet from his opera “Den lilla slavinnan”, Carl Maria von Weber’s clarinet quintet,…