Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra ( Swedish Helsingborgs symfoniorkester - HSO ) is at home in Helsingborg . The orchestra was founded in 1911 and is one of the older orchestras in Sweden.
history
In the first half of the 19th century there were seldom concerts in Helsingborg. Occasionally some ensembles performed at one of the city's health fountains, either at the Sofia Spring or in Ramlösa. Occasionally the music choir of the hussar regiment also performed outdoors. A breakthrough for music in the city came in 1885 when two chamber music concerts were held in the Hotel Mollberg. The concerts were performed partly by local musicians and partly by famous soloists from Copenhagen and were so successful that the large hall of the hotel was insufficient.
These concerts marked the beginning of an organized concert activity, which culminated in the establishment of the Helsingborg Music Association in 1896. Among other things, the lecturer and music lover Astolf Mozart Möller (1829–1925) was involved in the establishment, with the orchestra consisting mainly of musicians from the Hussar music department. The 29-year-old music director of the Skåne Hussar Regiment, Olof Lidner, was appointed first conductor and music director. Lidner was a good organizer of musical performances, and the folk concerts organized by the Music Society impressed the Stockholm Academy of Music. When the Academy proposed to the government which cities should receive state grants for state-sponsored symphony orchestras, Helsingborg was therefore one of the cities selected.
With the help of government contributions, the Northwest-Schonen Orchestra Association was founded on July 14, 1911, with Lidner as conductor. The Academy’s instructions for the new symphony orchestras stated that their primary task was to “provide valuable music for the working population and other lay people”. This was something the orchestra association did, and so in its first year 32 of the 66 concerts were folk concerts and only eight symphony concerts. Since the orchestral association did not have its own concert hall, the concerts took place in different locations. The Volkshaus or the auditorium of the school was most often used for folk concerts, while the symphony concerts and the city theater were performed.
The orchestra
Today the orchestra's venue is the city's concert hall. The orchestra currently (2014) consists of 58 musicians and gives around 75 concerts a year. The composition is structured as follows: 11 first violins, 9 second violins, 7 violas, 6 cellos, 5 double basses, 2 percussionists, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 4 french horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones and 1 tuba.
For the three seasons from 2014 to 2017, the Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson (* 1966) was “Composer in Residence”. Before that it was the Swede Paula af Malmborg Ward (* 1962).
The orchestra has recorded music on record labels such as Naxos and Dacapo . The "Swedish classics" published by Naxos have sold 150,000 times.
Part of the financing of the symphony orchestra comes from members of the "Friends of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra" in the form of membership fees, gifts and sponsorship contributions. The association also awards contributions to the musicians in the orchestra. Most of the funds come from the city of Helsingborg, the Skåne region and the Swedish state.
Conductors
- 1912–1939 - Olof Lidner (1867–1949)
- 1939–1945 - Sten Frykberg (1910–1983)
- 1945–1959 - Håkan von Eichwald (1908–1964)
- 1959–1962 - No permanent conductor
- 1962–1969 - Sten-Åke Axelson (1906–1988)
- 1969–1980 - John Frandsen
- 1980–1990 - Hans-Peter Frank (* 1937)
- 1991–1999 - Okko Kamu (* 1946)
- 2002–2005 - Hannu Lintu (* 1967)
- 2006-2014 - Andrew Manze (* 1965)
- since 2014 - Stefan Solyom (* 1967)