Party and finale

The spring season at Norrlandsoperan ends with a real music festival where a variety of musical expressions from different corners of the world share the attention. On the desk we find, in honor of the concert and well anticipated, the house’s own Eduardo Strausser.

The evening begins with Jessie Montgomery’s Records from a Vanishing City, a tribute to the eclectic soundscape she was surrounded by in the bohemian East Village neighborhood of New York as a child in the 80s and 90s.

Montgomery’s bittersweet sermon is followed by a 17-minute solo concert for maracas and orchestra by Venezuelan Ricardo Lorenz. Lorenz is known for his ability to chisel out of the Latin American musical tradition art music that is both timeless and specifically his own. As a maracas soloist, we hear the orchestra’s own percussionist Maximilliano Polo.

The second part of the program begins with a popular short piece by Andrea Tarrodi Camelopardalis, inspired by the giraffe’s zodiac sign, a constellation of celestial bodies visible from the southern part of the African continent. Sonoral, dreamy, with a cinematic touch as so often in Tarrodi’s compositions.

Then the party continues with Dimitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, known as his “classical”. It is first and foremost short, only 27 minutes, and distinctly chamber musical. As always, it is a solemn moment to spend time with Shostakovich. Whatever the form, it is musical art that never ceases to surprise. Not knowing what to expect is the only thing expected.