Stefan Solyom, conductor
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Recorded live October 12th 2017 at De Geer Hall, Norrköping, Sweden.

Polar Vortex or polar vortices cause dramatic weather events, such as 50 degrees below zero in the US a few years ago, volcanic or meteor outbursts, extreme heat, cold or storms. It is a tonal journey in three sets of weather conditions around the world and are not intended as program music, but that it is "music with inner images."

The first movement "Frozen City" is described as a city in total frostbite and a lot of snow around it where the sun shines brightly through the window. Now and then we hear the winds that pass by.

The second movement "Northern Lights" has an aurora-like shimmer of the orchestral part using harmonic loops in a meditative state. The heat rises, lava flows up over the landscape in the score it says clearly "like a lava activity" and all the ice begins to melt.

The third movement "Volcanic Eruption" (Finale) is a ritual dance with passion and pagan rites. One hears riffs from percussion that thunders on in the score "Like a pagan dance!". Some elements from previous movements show up, the whole thing spins further and leading to a disco-like finale with trumpets in the lead.

Polar Vortex Symphony

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.

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Polar Vortex Symphony

Benjamin Staern Composer