Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra / Sakari Oramo

After six years of intensive work, during which Mendelssohn subjected the concerto to numerous revisions, he finally completed the score in the summer of 1844. Far away from hectic city life, the composer spent the summer months in the lovely surroundings of Bad Soden, a spa town in the Taunus mountains that became a popular meeting place for artists and literati in the 19th century; he was highly productive and creative here.

»The serious work is waiting for Rome,« Edward Elgar announced when he set off with his wife to spend the winter months in the Italian capital. The 50-year-old composer was finally planning to write his First Symphony there. But this time, too, his plans came to nought. Only after his return to England did the score suddenly take shape. »I’m filling page after page,« Elgar noted, and after the first performance in 1908 the Daily Mail referred to it as »the greatest masterpiece of its kind (…) to ever flow from the pen of an English composer«.

Swedish composer Katarina Leyman was inspired to write her orchestral piece »Solar Flares« by the sun – the source of light and life. The energetic, ten-minute score, which was premiered at the Stockholm’s Baltic Sea Festival in 2010, has a powerful and iridescent opening.