Muziek Centrum Nederland: Klas Torstensson

Contemporary

Composer in the Spotlight

Compact Discs
CV 100 - The Expedition
KTC 1352 - Intermezzo & Epilogue from the Expedition, Self portrait with percussion.
Available in cd shops througout the Netherlands or via the Etcetera website.

Brochure

Download the essay Tussen ratio en intuïtie written by Erik Voermans

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WORKS IN THE WEBSHOP

Klas Torstensson

‘On the one hand Klas Torstensson has the gift of writing extremely delicate and poetic music, on the other hand he is able to evoke magnificent natural forces in his music.’ This view that was expressed in the magazine Luister about Stick on Stick (1990) sums up the creative strength of Torstensson pretty well. Stick on Stick, for which Torstensson was awarded the prestigious Matthijs Vermeulen Prize, was followed by a period of renewed creativity in which the composer explored wide emotional ranges in his music even further.

Analytical language started to be replaced by greater drama. A good example is the touching opera De Expeditie (The Expedition, 1994-1999) about an unsuccessful Swedish balloon expedition to the North Pole in which electronically sampled sounds of ice are combined with Puccini-like melodiousness.

Natural Forces
The fascination with natural forces of the North is not surprising: Torstensson was born in Sweden in 1951. In the 1970s he moved to the Netherlands to study electronic music composition at the renowned Institute for Sonology. After his studies he made his home in this country. At the moment he is working on a large-scale opera cycle, A cycle of the North. The first part, Fastlandet, was premiered in the ZaterdagMatinee in 2006. The second movement - Polarhavet - was written for the ‘Baltic Sea Festival' in 2008,(in 2009 nominated for the Dutch Toonzetters Prize and awarded with the Swedish Musikförläggarpriset'). Still to be completed is the third movement which is a combined commission from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm and Het Brabants Orkest.

Over the last period of time Klas Torstensson has been devoting his time to his new Violin Concerto, which he composed for Jennifer Koh and het Nieuwe Ensemble. The world premiere of this concerto will take place on May 13th, 2010 in ‘t Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.

Floris Don

Recent commissions and concerts

May 13, 2010: Violin concerto (World premiere) for Jennifer Koh and the Nieuw Ensemble, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, 8:15 p.m.

September 13, 2010: Lantern Lectures/Self-portrait with percussion, (portrait concert), Sacrum- Profanum Festival, Krakow

October 6, 2010: Lantern Lectures/ Self-portrait with percussion, serie ‘Tijdgenoten’ (portrait concert), Concertgebouw Amsterdam

March 18, 2011: Violin concerto, Ars Musica, Antwerpen

April 16, 2011: Polarhavet (Dutch premiere), Saturday Matinee, Concertgebouw Amsterdam

2011: Premiere of the chamber music version of the same Violin Concerto for the Swedish quartet ‘The peärls before swïne experience
2011-2012: Third movement from A cycle of the North for orchestra (World premiere), a commission in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm and Het Brabants Orkest
2012: Prelude & Encores for wood quintet Calefax (World premiere), commissioned by the NPS
2011-2012: composer in residence with Het Brabants Orkest

Website: http://www.klastorstensson.com

3 characteristic statements by Klas:

I like to explore the remote corners of history (on his research for In großer Sehnsucht).

We built structures and experimented with timbres, but did not deal with ‘higher’ concepts. Fifteen years ago we did not mention love and tragedy.

If my children will ask one day whether we have the symphonies by Schubert, I can at least say that we do.

Klas Torstensson’s most special experiences abroad:

The sauna with midnight sun in the Finish town of Viitasaari where I was composer-in-residence in 2001 (following in the footsteps of Cage and Xenakis).

The rehearsal of Urban Songs in Paris in 2000 that was cancelled because the musicians of Ensemble Intercontemporain went on strike because of the ‘bad food’ during their latest tour...

The impressive Icelandic translation of The Last Diary in Reykjavik in 1996. (The restaurant ‘Perlan’ – the pearl – on top of the city’s warm water tower was also very impressive. The restaurant rotated around its axis at a speed of 360 degrees per two hours. The view was fantastic, the food was okay.

: photo: Teo Krijgsman

concise personal portrait

Klas Torstensson’s interests:

Kokta flodkräftor: crayfish boiled in plenty of water (and also half a pint of lager), salt (and also a sugar lump) and dill. We used to catch them at night in the streams around the village. In my youth you needed to allow ‘ett tjog’ (around twenty) crayfish per person for the crayfish festival (when it’s a full moon!) in August. Slurping was (and still is) allowed!

Klas Torstensson’s heroes and inspiration:

I don’t worship any heroes, but I (still) like to be inspired by my children Arvid (now 13) and Bente (7), who have made my music sound more open, more colourful and at times milder than it used to be.

Nature (especially the nature area near Kapelludden in Sweden, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, where my granddad owned some grassland – the livestock was brought there by barge early in the summer - and where he built summer houses for his children in the early 1950s. With their own beach, landing stages, grass for bare children’s feet, woodland, wild strawberries, sauna... In winter I used to langlauf, skate or skate sail there from the village 5 kilometres away. In summer I went there on our sailing boat - a dragon. Now we - my family and I - still go there a few weeks a year...)