Ingvar Lidholm in memoriam Ingvar Lidholm passed away on 17 October, at the age of 96. He started out as a Nordic romanticist and evolved into a noble-minded expressionist, with deep roots in the tradition. Bellander Sten Photo: idholm was born in 1921 in the town Unique feeling for the human of Nässjö in southern Sweden, and he voice developed his astounding talent for Lidholm’s operatic works A Dream Play and music in Södertälje, where his father the TV opera Th e Dutchman were devoted to Lworked on the railway. Like many colleagues August Strindberg, whose texts were also set of his generation – including Sven-Erik Bäck, to music in songs and choral works. A Dream Sven-Eric Johanson, Eric Ericson, Claude Play was staged in Stockholm in 1992 and lat- Loyola Allgén and Åke Hermanson – Ingvar er in opera houses abroad, including Santa Fe, Lidholm grew up in a religious environment, Bern and Weimar. Th e drama for male choir Th e which naturally involved music as well as exis- Persians and the dramatic scene Nausicaa Alone tential questions. were born from Lidholm’s continual proximity to the ancient world. Lidholm’s spiritual kinship The Monday group with the nineteenth-century Romantic poet During the Second World War he studied at the Carl Jonas Love Almqvist gave birth to the hy- Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Th is was perromantic cantata Th e Poet´s Night, which is a where he met Karl-Birger Blomdahl, who was of seminal work in the Swedish musical literature vital importance for him as a friend and colleague. of the 1950s. In the orchestral song …stund, när Lidholm studied polyphony and composition ditt inre from 1998, he and the poet Eric Johan individually with Hilding Rosenberg, who also Stagnelius seek answers to the most important Ulf Grahn Photo questions in the expanse of space. instilled in him a sense of artistic ethics. From the Lidholm had a unique, sensual feeling for the circle of students around Rosenberg a gathering human voice. He interacted for sixty years with was formed, the so-called Monday Group, which the legendary choir conductor Eric Ericson. Th ey in many ways came to contribute to the modern- met as young men in Stockholm in 1943, when isation of Swedish musical life for the following the Chamber Choir was founded. In 1947 the half-century. 26-year-old Lidholm confronted the Chamber Th anks in part to the Monday Group the Choir with the greatest challenge a Swedish choir György Ligeti doors to Europe were fl ung open, National Ro- had hitherto encountered: his fi rst choral work and Lidholm manticism was on the wane and young Swedes Laudi . Latin texts from the Bible were formu- ventured out into the world to meet the new lated in a musical language that brought together currents of the time. Lidholm was, together with Palestrina and Stravinsky of the Symphony of the conductor Herbert Blomstedt, the fi rst Psalms. In the series of Lidholm’s large-scale cho- Swedish composer in Darmstadt; he travelled ral works – from Laudi to Canto LXXXI, …a Arne Hyckenberg Photo: to Italy with Blomdahl and studied the twelve- riveder le stele , Libera me and Greek Grave Re- tone technique with Matyas Seiber in London. lief – seminal ideas are articulated that hark back Elements from decades of stylistic development to earlier ages of our cultural heritage. – from Hindemith to Ligeti and Lutoslawski – permeated and coloured Lidholm’s music. Orchestral classics Herbert Ingvar Lidholm played the viola in the Royal Blomstedt In the same way, Ingvar Lidholm’s orchestral and Lidholm Opera Orchestra and in Lilla Kammarorkestern, works form the backbone of Swedish music, an innovative ensemble of the 1940s. He was in from the 23-year-old’s highly acclaimed debut Nothing in Ingvar Lidholm´s music is industrial, Örebro as principal conductor of the town’s or- work Toccata e Canto (1945) to the master- nothing lent itself to be mass-produced in series. chestra 1947-56; after that he became head of pieces Ritornell, Motus-Colores, Poesis, Greetings Everything is handmade, everything is new. chamber music at the Swedish Radio. In 1965 from an Old World, Kontakion and the ballet he succeeded Karl-Birger Blomdahl as Professor Rites, which renewed the music’s structural tech- Göran Bergendal of Composition at the Royal College of Music nique, timbre, form and capacity of expression. and developed, together with musicologist Bo He was especially pleased with Herbert Blom- * Herbert Blomstedt premiered Lidholm’s modernistic Wallner, the composition seminar, that attract- stedt’s interpretations of his orchestral works. * classic Poesis with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic ed guest teachers such as Ligeti and Lutoslawski. in 1964. During the past fi ve years he has conduct- And fi nally: Ingvar Lidholm stood for an artis- ed it again with great success with orchestras such as Among Lidholm’s students you will fi nd Folke tic ethics that emphasised the process, the unique Rabe, Sven-David Sandström, Daniel Börtz, San Fransisco SO, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, in each composition, and the exclusivity of music. Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, NDR Elbphilharmonie Miklos Maros and Anders Eliasson. In 1975 Exclusivity here means quality and the unsuita- Orchester, Bayerischer Rundfunk SO, Bamberg SO, he returned to the Swedish Radio, this time as bility to be used for anything other than pleas- MDR Leipzig SO, Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo PO planning director. ure, enhanced insight and spiritual edifi cation. and Swedish RSO.

HIG HLIG HTS 4/2017