Playful and elegant

Since 2016, an orchestra academy has been affiliated with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The international RSPO Orchestra Academy is a one-year, advanced-level training programme for young musicians. Under the guidance of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic's section principals and the School of Music in Piteå, the participants receive intensive instruction in orchestral playing, chamber music and individual tuition.

The academy musicians also introduce themselves through a series of public chamber concerts – such as this one featuring this year’s participants. György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for wind quintet consist of six short movements marked by clarity, rhythmic intensity and the wit so characteristic of Ligeti – one of the leading composers of modern times. The programme continues with Joseph Haydn’s final completed string quartet, a work of great invention and brilliance.

After the intermission we hear Entr’acte by Caroline Shaw – a piece inspired by Haydn but filtered through a contemporary musical language that moves between the intimate, the unexpected and the contemplative. The American composer, violinist and vocalist Caroline Shaw is a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most acclaimed voices of her generation.

The programme concludes with a work by the French 20th-century master Jean Françaix: his Dixtuor for ten wind instruments – a double wind quintet – sparkles with playfulness, elegance and virtuosity, all delivered with a wink.