Performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik
Conductor: Aaron Cassidy
Photo by Félix Bonfils (1875)

More about the work with comments given by the musicians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFrIfk4Bl0s

"Thousand Dead Bodies Under My Bed, All Cloaked with the Breath of the Living"

Rolf Gupta: Epitaph - gravskrift til minne om ofrene på Utøya (2023)
Ungdomssymfonikerne dir. Johannes Gustavsson
Konzerthaus Berlin 17.08.2023

Epitaph Konzerthaus Berlin

Uruppförande av minioperan Det svältande hjärtat av Benjamin Staern, text: Tor Lind

Denna miniopera handlar om en komplex relation mellan modern och barnet där mamman lider av borderline. Här får vi höra fyra scener samt en epilog. Barnet berättar hela sin upplevelse som en inre dialog med sig själv. 

Framfört av Magdalena Risberg, Janne Risberg och Sonanza
Grünewaldsalen, Konserthuset
24 november 2023.

Det Svältande Hjärtat uruppförande 24 Nov 23

work comments
It revolves around the artist Hilma af Klint’s life and hers 
not entirely conflict-free relationship with the founder of anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner. 
Not all material was created use in the final version of the opera. 
The composer has now chosen to highlight this his five Hilma Scenes. 
The first scene is a lament to Hilma’s mother, 
the second a musical design by Hilma af Klint’s iconic painting Altarpiece, shaped like a large pyramid. 
The third movement, Seance, refers to creative processes with elements of fire and incense and it fourth paints Hilma’s visions of the two world wars. The fifth and final scene is a farewell to life.

instruments small chamber ensemble – 1 flute/piccolo, 1 clarinet/bass clarinet, 1 percussion, piano, violin, cello.
commissioner Norrbottenmusiken/Norrbotten NEO

 

year of production 2018/20

 

dedication Norrbotten NEO and Petter Sundkvist

 

movements  
I. A First and Final Journey (Lament to Hilma’s mother); II. Altarpiece; III. Seance; IV. Prediction of War; V. Epilogue


duration 15’   


first performance 

April 10 2022,

Grünewaldsalen, Stockholm
Benjamin Staern Tonsättarweekend
Norrbotten NEO
Petter Sundkvist

Hilma Scenes

Since childhood I've always loved water and wants to compose series of pieces refering to ocean, sea, lakes, ponds and so forth as a point of reference.
Wave motion is a physical phenomenon that involves a field or a disturbance of a medium propagating in space. It is music that is gradually transformed as the piece goes on. It is like watching a wave that washes over one, a stunning spectacle, and that reflects like a mirror. You can also experience great rapids and streams along the course of the work.
 
From a musical perspective, I have tried to give the work shape based on a harmonic idea where things encounter one another, are reflected and create disturbances in various ways. This leads to a more developmental kind of thinking in the compositional process. Out of this one can clearly distinguish three parts that overlap. The form has a freely ternary form structure of ABA.
 
1. Rhythmic, suggestive exhortation
2. Melodic, mystical middle section
3. Chorale, when the elements above are mixed together
 
The instrumentation used are based from the classical period of Mozart and Beethoven which includes double winds, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani,percussion as glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, cymbals, gong and strings. The sounds may give you the impression of the above mentioned composers but without quoting or imitating any piece in a post-modern way sending postcards from the past.
 
Wave-Movements was composed on commission from Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and is dedicated to the conductor Daniel Raiskin.
 
Benjamin Staern

Wave - Movements Newmix

"Scherzo for piano", a piece I composed in 1981 when I was 19 years old, here in a performance by my daughter Signe Olofsson, 21 years old, recorded at a concert 9 February in Lund with LIMUS (Lund International Music School during Lund Contemporary Festival 2019.

Scherzo for piano

Fluxus (means “to flow” in Latin).

It represents different kinds of flows that occur during the course of the piece. In this case it concerns with two elements: harmonic and rhythmic states.
You can easily divide this work into three sections:


1. Floating, harmonic

2. Rhythmical, dancing

3. Merging of these above-mentioned elements.


The listener is free to find out what exists in these sections.


Fluxus was commissioned to the Kumla Organ Festival 2008 and is dedicated to organist
Hans Fagius

Published by Gehrmans Musikförlag, Stockholm AB

Fluxus

Identitetshandlingar i C-dur (performed by Norrköping symphony orchestra)

Inför Linné-jubileumet komponerades sångcykeln ¨ Jordens drömmar gröna¨ (2006) till sju dikter av Torsten Pettersson ur diktsamlingen ¨Jag ser en stjärna¨ som handlar om Linnés liv och vandringar.
John Erik Eleby, bar., Uppsala Kammarorkester, dir. Paul Mägi. 
On the occassion of Linnaeus bicentary anniversary I composed this song-cycle  ¨Green Earth Dreams¨ (2006) to seven poems by Torsten Pettersson from poetry ¨ I see a star ¨ which is about Linnaeus' lives and walks.
John Erik Eleby, bar., Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, cond. Paul Mägi. 

Jordens drömmar gröna

Belgrade Philharmonic Hall

ARATOS TRIO:
KATARINA POPOVIĆ, violin
MIHAILO SAMORAN, clarinet
VANJA ŠĆEPANOVIĆ, piano

October 27th, 2020

Stanko Simić - BUTTERFLY DREAM, trio for violin, clarinet and piano

En mididemo utav Pippi lyfter hästen. 

Komponerades på beställning från Sveriges Radio P2 .
Framfört av Noteperfomer Slave Players!

Pippi Lyfter Hästen Demo

Benjamin Staern (b. 1978) started his musical experience with studies in cello, piano and percussion in his youth. Studies in musicology at Lund University and subsequently studied composition at the Malmö Academy of Music during 1998-2005 with Rolf Martinsson, Hans Gefors and Luca Francesconi, and made an early breakthrough, while still a student at the Malmö Academy of Music, with the symphonic work The Threat of War (1999). 

From this point on, Staern has developed a deeply personal style with an output including orchestral and chamber works, solo pieces and electroacoustic music. An interesting aspect of his work as a composer is his unusual ability to associate tones and timbres with different colours and tints. This is a variant of a phenomenon called synaesthesia which is fundamental in his perception and the creation of his music, and which is reflected in his sound world as well as in many of his work titles (Yellow Skies, Colour Wandering etc.) 

Today Staern receives commissions on a regular basis. Looking into the near future, he is commissioned to write a major work for Malmö Symphony Orchestra and song cycle for alto Anna Larsson and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. From September 2010 he is composer-in-residence with New European Ensemble for them he composed works from this collaboration such as Tranströmersånger (selected poems from the Sad Gondola - collection by Nobel-prize author and poet Tomas Tranströmer) and Bells and Waves (Chamber Symphony), winner of the SMFF Award 2011 in the category ”most important work in chamber music/smaller ensemble”.

Works by Benjamin Staern is today performed not only by all the major Swedish orchestras but also internationally by orchestras such as the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Staern has collaborated with ensembles including New European Ensemble, Sonanza Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Aspekte and Stockholm Chamber Brass. Soloists include Håkan Hardenberger, Anna Larsson, Johannes Möller, Karin Dornbusch, Carina Vinke, Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, Philippe Cassard and conductors Michael Christie, Daniel Raiskin, Christian Karlsen, Mats Rondin, Mika Eichenholz and Stefan Solyom.

Hilma Scenes

Benjamin Staern Composer

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