The Esoterics: Johan Kvandal & Sven-Erik Bäck – A double centennial
$22 / $15
Johan Kvandal — Våkn op du som sover
Johan Kvandal — Underet
Johan Kvandal — Tre motetter
Johan Kvandal — Balladen om freden
Johan Kvandal – Balladen om freden ("The ballad of peace")
Johan Kvandal – Tre motetter ("Three motets")
Johan Kvandal – Underet ("The miracle")
Johan Kvandal – Våkn op du som sover ("Sleepers, wake")
Sven-Erik Bäck – 12 Motetter för kyrkoåret ("Motets for the church year")
In the summer program of their 26th concert season, The Esoterics will celebrate the life and work of two Scandinavian choral musicians who were born eight days apart: the Norwegian composer Johan Kvandal, and the Swedish composer Sven-Erik Bäck. Kvandal was the son of a composer who frequented artist colonies in his youth and studied with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire de Paris. With strong influences from both Norwegian folk and international contemporary musics, Kvandal developed his own language, a “modern tonality,” and spoke out strongly again the prevailing avant garde.
Kvandal’s Swedish contemporary, Sven-Erik Bäck, after completing his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm, traveled to Rome to study with Goffredo Petrassi, a leading teacher of European modernism. While Bäck’s choral music sets conservative Biblical texts, his compositional treatment of these verses was anything but traditional. In this sacred program, The Esoterics will perform all twelve of Sven-Erik Bäck’s Motetter för kyrkoåret ("Motets for the church year") in Swedish, as well as all of Johan Kvandal’s sacred works for unaccompanied choir. This program will be a fascinating remembrance of Kvandal and Bäck, and their not-quite-parallel lives in choral music.
Tickets: $22 ($15 student / senior / un[der]employed / differently-abled)