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Swedes go British for BBC Proms debut

One of Sweden's leading orchestras, Camerata Nordica, will perform the world premiere of one of Great Britain's favourite contemporary composers, Benjamin Britten, at this year’s prestigious BBC Proms.

Swedes go British for BBC Proms debut

“The BBC Proms are often described as the world’s greatest musical festival, and they are quintessentially British, so it is a particular honour for Camerata Nordica to be invited to perform an all-British programme for its Proms debut,” Sofie Haag, Founder and Managing Director of From Sweden Productions, told The Local.

The world-first performance will take place on August 31st in London’s Cadogan Hall as part of the renowned classical music festival that will see over 90 concerts performed over a two-month period in the British capital. Camerata Nordica’s performance of Elegy for strings will go towards celebrating Britten’s centenary year.

Both Stockholm-born Haag and the orchestra she represent are “elated” that their hard work and determination has opened the doors to the prestigious hall, and about the prospect of performing to a world-wide audience.

IN PICTURES: Camerata Nordica

The piece the Swedish orchestra will perform next month was written by British composer, conductor and pianist Benjamin Britten in April 1928 when he was only 14 years old but has never been performed on a public stage. Britten, who died in 1976, is perhaps better known for his epic War Requiem and Simple Symphony.

The highly anticipated debut performance is almost sold out but will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 (including online) for those unable to attend. Directed by Norwegian violinist, Terje Tønnesen, and consisting of hand-picked musicians from all over Europe, the ensemble has already performed in the USA, Poland, Argentina, Latvia to name but a few. But this will be their BBC Prom debut.

“It is something we are extremely proud of,” Kjell Lindström, General Manager for Camerata Nordica told The Local. “We are overwhelmed, delighted and deeply honoured to be given this wonderful opportunity,” he said in a recent press release.

Part of the orchestra’s appeal is that, as a camerata, they perform without a conductor and uniquely, they also play standing up.

“Camerata Nordica has an exceptional energy. It’s a string ensemble that performs without a conductor, so the players need to be specially sensitive to each other as they play, and all the violin and viola-players perform standing up, which is very unusual,” Haag said. “There is a special rapport between the musicians – and also between the ensemble and the audience.”

With the subsequent tour being supported by the Britten-Pears Foundation, the Swedish Embassy in London, SEB and From Sweden Productions, the BBC Proms appearance is as much about showcasing brand Sweden as it is premiering recently discovered music.

“When it comes to exporting music, on a per capita basis Sweden is No 3 in the world, and it certainly punches above its weight when it comes to classical music,” Haag told The Local.

“They are the only Swedish orchestral ensemble appearing at the Proms this year, though the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme made a huge impact in the recent Wagner Ringcycle at the Royal Albert Hall.”

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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