Bästa Byström Uppsala Kammarorkester

About the Performance

Participants

Conductor & soloist: Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano
Uppsala Chamber Orchestra

Concert Introduction 6:20 PM – 6:40 PM

Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major KV449
Britta Byström (b. 1977): Yankadi
Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Appalachian Spring Suite
Anna Clyne (b. 1980): Restless Oceans

Simon Crawford-Phillips is both on the podium and at the piano when he returns to Uppsala Chamber Orchestra. Composer Britta Byström turns 50, which is celebrated with the concert Yankadi and there will also be music by Copland and Clyne.

Conductor and pianist

Audiences in Uppsala have previously met Simon Crawford-Phillips both as conductor of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and as pianist in the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, Poste Restante’s first resident ensemble. Simon has a unique career as a conductor, pianist, educator and creative presenter. In addition to being the evening’s conductor, he is also the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 from 1784.

A celebrated jubilarian

With tonight’s title “Bästa Byström”, we want to celebrate one of Sweden’s foremost composers, Britta Byström, who turns 50. She has received international acclaim and many awards for her music. The main focus of Britta Byström’s compositional production is on the orchestra.

It’s good to be here

Byström’s “Yankadi” is a work in concerto grosso style for solo instruments and orchestra commissioned by the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and premiered in 2014. The solo group consists of six musicians, brass, woodwind and strings. The word ‘yankadi’ in Mandinka roughly means “here it is good to be”. “Yankadi (emphasis on the last syllable) is a West African rhythm, usually in a swaying 6/8 time. This rhythm is the basis of my piece … . The solo group in Yankadi consists of six musicians oboe, bassoon, piccolo, trombone, violin and cello. The idea is that the soloists form a ‘miniature orchestra’, so the music can move between the ‘big’ and the ‘small’ orchestra and often the orchestra picks up the solo group’s music and forms distorted echoes while the soloists move on. …” /Britta Byström

The stealth start of spring

During the evening we start the spring with the orchestral suite “Appalachian Spring” by the American Aaron
Copland from 1945. The music was originally written for the ballet of the same name and is one of his
most popular.

Poetry inspiration

Anna Clyne’s 2018 ‘Restless Oceans’ was written for and dedicated to legendary conductor Marin Alsop. Alsop premiered the piece on the occasion of receiving an award for her work on diversity and pluralism in music.

Clyne’s source of inspiration and title is taken from the award-winning American author Audre Lorde’s poem “A Women Speaks”.

Uppsala Chamber Orchestra

With a range of styles spanning from grand symphonies to more intimate chamber music works, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra has performed live music for the county’s residents for over 50 years. The orchestra, considered by many to be one of Sweden’s finest, consists of professional musicians and is renowned for its warm and full orchestral sound. Since 2007, the home stage has been Uppsala Konsert & Kongress, where they also hold family concerts and invite school classes for study visits. In recent years, the orchestra has made appreciated guest appearances in Estonia, at concert halls in Gothenburg, Vara, and Norrköping, as well as Artipelag on Värmdö. Uppsala Chamber Orchestra is part of the foundation Musik i Uppland, a regional music organization in Uppsala with Region Uppsala as the principal.

The concert is organized by Musik i Uppland and is part of the Orchestra Series – Big Subscription and Small Subscription