Emil Hartmann
Biography Emil Hartmann
Christina Åstrand
Violinist Christina Åstrand, born 1969 in Århus, Denmark. Started playing violin at the age of 4. Began her studies with professor Tutter Givskov at the Royal Jutland Conservatory of Music in 1983 – as one of the youngest students ever. Further studies in Paris with professor Gerard Poulet. Soloist Diploma 1990.
Christina Åstrand is one of the most remarkable violinists in Scandinavia. Her career had a big turning point when she – with very short notice – in 1990 played Sofia Gubaidulina’s violin concerto “Offertorium”. Today she is a frequent soloist with the leading Scandinavian orchestras – always providing a personal interpretation of the music. She is extremely versatile in terms of repertoire, ranging from the classical concertos to the most contemporary works for violin and orchestra. Several Danish composers have composed and dedicated works to her. She is one of the few violinists in the world who also plays György Ligeti´s violin concerto. Her recording of Ligeti’s and Per Nørgård´s violin concertos with the DR Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard won the Diapason D'or 2001.
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra is one of Sweden’s oldest, founded as early as 1912. Today it consists of 51 musicians and gives about 75 concerts a year in Helsingborg and around southern Sweden. Since 1988 the HSO has been on a number of tours abroad, visiting among other countries France, Germany, Austria, Poland, the USA and Spain with great success. In 1991 Okku Kamu took over the post as principal conductor after Hans-Peter Frank, and over the last few years the orchestra has experienced a strong growth in audiences. Over the years the HSO has made many recordings, the most recent of which, with Okku Kamu, have attracted international attention. In January 1995 the HSO’s recording of Britten’s piano concerto was named Editor’s Choice in the highly respected British periodical Gramophone - the first time for a Swedish orchestra. The recording of Franz Berwald’s symphonies was awarded a Diapason d’Or by the French music periodical Diapason, and for the CD Svenske klassiske favoritter (Swedish Classical Favourites) the orchestra has been awarded both a gold and a platinum record for more than 100,000 copies sold.
Hannu Lintu
Hannu Lintu was born in Finland and studied cello and piano, first at the Conservatory in Turku and later at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he pursued conducting studies with Atso Almila, Jorma Panula, Ilya Musin and Eri Klas. He has also studied with Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 1994 he won the Nordic Conductors’ Competition in Bergen, and in 2002 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras all over Europe, in America and Asia, and in Scandinavia has become particularly well known for his contributions to contemporary music, premiering works by among others Per Nørgård, Marc Anthony Turnage, Jouni Kaipainen and Kaija Saariaho. Especially worth singling out among his recordings are Kaija Saariaho’s From the Grammar of Dreams with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Third Symphony, Cantus Arcticus, and First Piano Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Sibelius’ Pelleas and Melisande and Händel’s Belshazzar with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra.
Per Salo
Born in 1962 in Copenhagen Denmark, Per Salo studied piano and organ in Denmark, Italy and USA. In Denmark he studied with Grethe Krogh, Flemming Dreisig, Esther Wagning and John Damgaard. In New York, USA, he studied with Seymour Lipkin. Salo graduated with an Organ Diploma from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in 1985 and with a Masters Degree in Piano Performance from Juilliard School of Music, New York in 1989.
Per Salo is very active both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His repertoire includes many Danish and contemporary works and many Danish composers have written music for him. In 1996 dedicated his piano concerto Concerto in due Tempi to Per Salo. Per Salo’s concert activities have brought him to all of the Scandinavian countries, most of Europe, Korea and the USA. Recently he appeared as a soloist in Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony at concerts in Germany and Denmark.
Stanimir Todorov
Stanimir Todorov (b. 1967 in Bulgaria). After studying the cello as early as the age of 7 at the Sofia Music School, Stanimir Todorov continued his studies with the maestro Zdravko Jordanov at the Sofia Academy of Music, from which he graduated with the highest distinction. A grant permitted him to attend the highly esteemed International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad in Switzerland, with the result that he left his native country to study with prominent personalities like Radu Aldulescu, Yehudi Menuhin, Alberto Lysy, Lory Wallfisch and others. In 1994 Stanimir Todorov distinguished himself in the international Rostropovich Competition in Paris and was also awarded the prize for the best interpretation of modern music: a commissioned work by the composer Alfred Schnittke. Besides working as solo cellist in the Orchestre Suisse Romande, Stanimir has been engaged as a soloist by orchestras including the French Radio Orchestra, the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR.
Emil Hartmann
Emil Hartmann (1836-1898) was the great-grandson of the composer Johann Hartmann (1726-1793), who had immigrated to Denmark in the 1760s, and the eldest son of the composer J.P.E. Hartmann (1805-1900) and his musically gifted wife, Emma Hartmann. He knew at an early age that musical genes had also been handed down to him: he began to compose even before he could talk properly. As long as Emil and his siblings were give private tuition at home, they were taught music on an equal footing with the normal school subjects. But apart from this Emil Hartmann had no formal musical education.
He received his first commission as a composer in 1858, when he was asked to collaborate with his childhood friend and later brother-in-law August Winding in writing the music for August Bournonville's ballet Fjeldstuen (The Mountain Hut). The premiere on 13th May 1859 was received with great applause, and most of the reviews were excellent. One said for example that 'the two young composers, August Winding and Emil Hartmann, who have so ably and characteristically borne up the poetry of the ballet, are fully entitled to their share of the warm, well-merited recognition.' In addition, Winding's teacher, Niels W. Gade, and Emil's father could also take their share of the credit, since each had helped the two young composers with the instrumentation.
