Musical landscapes

If Anders Hillborg’s cello concerto were a postcard, the recipient would certainly be pleasantly surprised. The picture on the front cover would be of the magical kind, where the landscape is constantly changing shape. He lets the music, with the strings and the cellist – here with soloist Amalie Stalheim in the lead – move between stillness and emotional storms, and finally lands in a longing loneliness.   

Many Umeå residents are already familiar with Anna-Lena Laurin’s musical views. The Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra has premiered her work The Painter, for trumpet, jazz trio and orchestra. Anna-Lena began her career as a jazz pianist and singer, and as a composer she is known for her ability to fuse the tonal language of jazz and art music. This evening we get the chance to reflect on the passage of time, through her Time of Changes from 2018.

We begin the evening with a work by a third Swedish great, Andrea Tarrodi, born in 1981. In 2024, she was praised for her children’s opera Lost at the Royal Swedish Opera and the year before that, she was current with Piteå Chamber Opera’s short opera Sylvia about Sylvia Plath. The evening’s music, Fragments of Enlightenment from 2022, with its stubborn striving towards the light, can be interpreted as a portrayal of the human need for escapism.  

Even though we appreciate our Swedish views, it’s still nice to dream away sometimes. Speaking of which, the Norwegian landscapes aren’t that bad either, as you can see in the picture above.