EARLY SUMMER CONCERT
with the Royal Swedish Orchestra under the baton of Gilbert

The season concludes with a magnificent concert on the Royal Swedish Opera main stage with the Royal Swedish Orchestra performing Johannes Brahms’s first symphony, conducted by Music Director and Royal Court Kapellmeister Alan Gilbert.  

Johannes Brahms worked on his first symphony for over 20 years before it was first performed in 1876. It was an instant success and earned the nickname »Beethoven's Tenth Symphony«, as Brahms so clearly shouldered the role of the great German symphonist after Beethoven and his nine symphonies. 

Brahms, who never composed an opera or a ballet, is very rarely performed at the Royal Swedish Opera’s main stage. But his music has been used in several ballets, such as Mats Ek's Rättika, Roy Assaf's Ballader and Amir Chamdin and Pär Isberg's Gustavia. The concert also includes Brahms’ Schicksalslied, in which the Royal Swedish Opera Chorus joins the orchestra on stage, as well as the orchestral piece D’un matin de printemps by French composer Lili Boulanger (1893–1918).