Season Greetings

Dear Readers,

 

The year is nearing its close and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Kristofer

Article in the Daily Telegraph

On tuesday the 27th October, the Daily Telegraph published the following article:

The caring face of music
On October 10, St Petersburg became the first Russian city to take part in the global event known as "Voices for Hospices", with a concert featuring works by Verdi, Bizet and Borodin. The aim of the UK-inspired initiative is to draw attention to the issues of hospice and palliative care. The conductor Kristofer Wahlander also included in the programme the premiere of My Way, his own orchestration of an interlude composed by the Russian diplomat David Mnatsakanyan - Russia's consul general in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

Photos from Charity Gala

Dear Readers,

This weekend I received some great photos from our recent Charity Gala in St. Petersburg. It was a great concert which prompted many invitations, even for one CD-recording.

I hope to be able to upload some video clips from the same concert within the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

Charity Gala in St. Petersburg

Dear Readers,

 

The programme for the Gala-Concert that I am working on in St. Petersburg is finally ready. We have managed to secure the services of some incredible soloists and I am very much looking forwards to this concert.

 

10th October at 19:00

German Cathedral of S:t Peter and Paul, Nevsky-Prospect, St. Petersburg

 

Rimsky – Korsakov – The three wonders from the opera Tsar Saltan

Rimsky – Korsakov – Aria of the Swan – Princess from the opera Tsar Saltan

Bizet – Pearlfishers' duet

Verdi – Prisoners' chorus from Nabucco

Mnatsakanyan (arr: Wahlander) – My Way

Borodin – Ulitay na kryljax vetra from Prince Igor

Puccini – O mio Babbino caro from Gianni Scicchi

Puccini – Te deum from Tosca

Puccini – Nessun Dorma from Turandot

Rodgers/Hammerstein II – You'll never walk alone

 

Soprano: Olga Trifonova

Tenor: Carlos D'Onofrio

Baritone: Carry Persson

 

St. Petersburg State Chamber Chorus (N. Korniev)

St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra

Conductor: Kristofer Wahlander

 

Voices for Hospices 2009

Dear Reader,

Just to let you know that we are planning a large scale Opera Gala in the German Cathedral of St. Peter in St. Petersburg on the 10th October. Some excellent soloists will take part, singing the world's most famous opera arias and choruses.

I'll let you know more as it all develops.

Kristofer

Festival Orchestra Website

Dear reader,

 

You may have noticed that the website of the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra (www.festivalorchestra.com) is down at the moment. This is due to the fact that Lycos Webhosting closed all its business at the end of February. We have found a new service provider but unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the move could not be finalised before the closure of Lycos. We are working on the problem and hope to be able to return with a brand new website within the next few week. In the meantime, you can access the old website here: http://www.kristoferwahlander.com/index4.htm

 

 

Concert with Lund City Orchestra

Dear Reader,

My concert on sunday with Lund City Orchestra was hailed as a great success. It was sold out already two weeks before the concert and the packed hall were waiting with great expectation. The Russian consul general and composer David Mnatsakanyan had driven down to Lund all the way from Gothenburg together with vice consul Evgeny Sysoev. That was a great honour which raised expectations even more.

The soloist was Alexandra Hjortswang who is a London-based young Swedish violinist. She played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto excellently and I am sure she has a bright future ahead of her.

In the second half, it was time for the orchestra and I to perform Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony. It is a symphony which lies very close to my heart and I have performed it many times and also recorded it on CD.

Lund City Orchestra is such a special orchestra as they have something that many orchestras do not have. They give so much of themselves and we gelled extremely well already from the first rehearsal. The fact that all the musicians played their hearts out and indulged in the music without any reservation, led to a concert which was cheered to the rafters. An elderly gentleman came up to me after the concert with tears in his eyes and told me that the City Orchestra had not played that well for the 25 years it had existed. All credits to the principal conductor Roger Andersson for having developed such an excellent and devoted orchestra. Another thing that makes me respect him even more is the fact that he invites guest conductors like me to perform with his orchestra when he could well just conduct all the concerts himself. He is also quick to invite young artists to perform and his choice in Alexandra Hjortswang was ingenious. I wish the other Swedish orchestral directors had the same vision and courage as Roger Andersson.

The well renowned critic Lennart Bromander wrote in the Skanska Dagbladet the following review:

Kristofer Wahlander made, at his first visit in Lund a couple of years ago, a very good impression. He has, for a Swedish conductor, a slightly unusual education with studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire – a city in which he has been very active. It therefore looked like a good idea, for his return, to let him completely devote himself to Tchaikovsky’s music. It turned out to be just that.At the same time as the fifth symphony’s emotional realizations seemed to flow freely, he kept them under strict surveillance with sure art of balance. Tchaikovsky’s symphonies are so masterly not the least for the fact that the emotional surge is bridled by an excellent feeling of form. Kristofer Wahlander had a real flair for this and the charge of the music therefore became so much more concentrated. Wahlander is also an excellent conductor in the strictly technical field. He got the different orchestral voices to express themselves and phrase in a unified manner and the strings played not only with passion but also in an unusually supple way.

I hope this was another chapter in a long and exciting collaboration with Lund City Orchestra - an orchestra that I am always keen to return to.