Spotlight on: Konserthuset Stockholm

This article was originally published in our Winter 2024 issue. Click here to subscribe to our quarterly print magazine and be the first to read our January 2025 issue features.

Having arrived in central Stockholm late at night, I followed the map on my phone and found my footsteps taking me up a slight rise towards an eerie blue glow in the distance. Drawing closer, and upon entering the Hötorget (‘Haymarket’), one of Stockholm’s oldest squares, I arrived at the starkly neoclassical Konserthuset Stockholm, designed by Ivar Tengbom and completed in 1926 – home to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and famous the world over as the venue for the Nobel Prize ceremony each year on 10 December, as well as that for the Polar Music Prize.

Returning after a night’s sleep, I discovered the reason for the atmospheric hue: the stone used in the building’s construction is itself a pale blue, with the nocturnal lighting used to add an otherworldly shimmer to one of the city’s most beloved institutions. Tengbom’s vision was for Konserthuset Stockholm to be the focal point of Hötorget, and he infused every aspect of his design with the fervently held democratic principles of 1920s Sweden.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that the office of Stefan Forsberg, the executive and artistic director of Konserthuset Stockholm, should be at the very heart of the building, just down the corridor from the dressing rooms for the brass section, rather than secreted away in a soundproofed wing. As Forsberg explains, the construction of Konserthuset Stockholm was truly a radical event:

‘The hall is steeped in the classical Greek ideals of equality and democracy. The location was very carefully chosen, as Hötorget was the one place in Stockholm where the high and low of society regularly came together, because of the busy and historic market – the rich came for the haberdashery, but it was also a market for fruit, vegetables and animals.

‘Therefore, Ivar Tengbom did not build separate entrances for the different tiers of seating, but all must enter through the same, wide doors. This is in stark contrast to, for example, the older institutions of the Royal Swedish Opera or the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which ensured that those of different social classes were segregated on arrival. From day one, these ideals of openness, fairness and access for everyone have been part of the mission of the orchestra and of the building.’

Despite growing up in the small town of Motala, 150 miles west of the capital, Konserthuset Stockholm has long been a part of Forsberg’s psyche. ‘All Swedish high- school students have the opportunity, when they turn thirteen, to choose two weeks’ work experience – and I said that I wanted to play the trumpet in the RSPO! And so, I turned up on my first day and there was a place ready for me, and all the players made me feel extremely welcome – even including the moment when we all prepared for a loud tutti entry and then they left me to play it by myself. The whole orchestra was in on the joke!

‘I went on to play professionally [in the Swedish Wind Ensemble] and then moved into artistic programming and planning [with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir]. I never dreamt that I would ever be back here in any role, let alone the position I have been privileged to occupy for the last twenty years.’

In fact, Forsberg jokes that someone must have dialled the wrong number in 2002 when the then chairman of the board of Konserthuset Stockholm offered him the top job. ‘I said to him, “Why do you want me? I don’t have any experience of running a concert hall – I’m a musician!”’ It turned out that was exactly what they wanted: someone who would keep the public-facing work of Konserthuset Stockholm as the priority, rather than a career administrator.

‘From the very beginning it was made clear to me that my priority should always be to plan the artistic programme of the hall and ensure that events remained inexpensive and accessible – and to plant Konserthuset Stockholm so firmly in people’s minds that they wouldn’t even consider going to an event elsewhere in the city without having checked our listings first!

‘To this end I have been very fortunate in that we are very heavily funded by public money, rather than having to rely on fundraising. Of course, we are very grateful to our sponsors for their support, but there has never been any question of what we regard as our most important work being at risk for financial reasons.’

‘It’s no secret that Swedish cultural institutions really care about the here and now’ © Yanan Li​

This 2023-24 season’ – Forsberg’s 21st – will be his final one as director as he retires in the summer. The statistics relating to events and attendances at Konserthuset Stockholm are the envy of many a larger venue across the world: there are over 1,100 events each year, and the building is never fully closed to the public at any point during opening hours, with a rich year-round programme of children’s events, tours, lectures and other activities.

The Royal Swedish Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) is also committed to supporting Swedish composers. ‘The chief conductor of the orchestra must, above all, have a feel for contemporary and Swedish music – these have long been the cornerstones of our repertoire – as well as a strong grasp of the core classical works,’ says Forsberg. ‘The orchestra chose Ryan Bancroft in 2021 to succeed Sakari Oramo as chief conductor, and the day after Ryan had conducted the Nobel Prize concert that year, he arrived for a planning meeting with not just a handful of Swedish scores, but a whole suitcase full to bursting – that’s when we knew we had picked the right person.’

The 2023-24 season’s opening concert was a case in point – the single work on the programme a real statement of intent. The High Mass (1994) by Sven-David Sandström (1942–2019) is scored for huge vocal, choral and orchestral forces and is almost apocalyptic in scope. It caused a great deal of controversy on its premiere, but not for the reasons one might suspect: Sandström had forged a reputation for himself in the late 1970s and 1980s as a committed, hardcore serialist, and some critics accused him of betraying his ideals and veering towards populism in his adoption of structural and stylistic models from the Baroque.

That said, the work is certainly no walk in the park for its performers, and Bancroft oversaw a thrilling, heavyweight performance – one that made headline news in the following day’s newspapers and which engendered much positive reaction. This public receptiveness to, and appreciation of, classical music was something that Bancroft registered early in his association with the RSPO. ‘It’s perhaps very clichéd to talk about how much a concert hall means to the people of a town or city, but here in Stockholm it’s absolutely astonishing how much they really care about their music,’ he says. ‘I’ve had it happen so often that audience members approach me in the street the day after a concert to talk about the music and the performance; it just shows how valued the orchestra is within Swedish and Stockholm society.

‘I was fully aware of the reputation of the RSPO before I came to conduct them for the first time, and as a result I’m not sure I’d ever prepared for an engagement quite so thoroughly before! But I remember how I was met with such warmth from everyone involved with the orchestra and Konserthuset Stockholm, from the top to the bottom, and of course the music-making with them was sublime. For me, as a young conductor still trying to find his way, to encounter that generosity of spirit was infectious.’

Bancroft also talks enthusiastically about the role of the RSPO and Konserthuset Stockholm within Swedish cultural life more widely, and how seriously he and they take what they see as their responsibility for nurturing up-and-coming composers. ‘It’s no secret that Swedish cultural institutions really care about the here and now, and for us it’s about how we can foster a “farm- to-table” way of music-making; by which I mean that when we commission a new work, it’s not just a one-off transaction with the composer that ends after the premiere. Rather, we’ll arrange more performances over an extended period that also include others of that composer’s works, thereby building a lasting relationship not just between orchestra and composer, but also with me, the audience and the concert hall. That’s a rewarding way to pay forward the privilege and the enjoyment I get from working here.’