Elbphilharmonie Talk with Martin Fröst

No matter who you talk to in the music world, mention the name Martin Fröst and you’ll invariably hear a murmur of admiration at the very least. For decades, the tall, blond Swede has been celebrated as one of the foremost clarinetists of our time, captivating colleagues and audiences alike with his consummate playing. The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra has chosen him as its Artist in Residence for the 2025/26 season. Around the time of the first concert of his residency, we had the opportunity to speak with the refreshingly down-to-earth soloist about his career, the particularities of musical life in Sweden, the works he will be performing during his residency in Hamburg, and what connects him to ABBA.

With clarinetist Martin Fröst, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra has chosen a resident artist who presents all facets of his instrument with ease.

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Right at the start of his residency, Martin Fröst played a particularly spectacular work that is unusual in its visuality: »Peacock Tales« by Anders Hillborg. Its technical challenges are one thing, but the performative demands it places on the soloist are another: With its carefully choreographed movements, performed in places in a stylised mask reminiscent of the Venetian carnival, the soloist’s body must be controlled – and set free – as a second instrument alongside the clarinet. Martin Fröst, born in 1970, helped shape the composition and premiered it at the age of 28. The work has accompanied him for half his life, though he hadn’t performed it for a very long time – until now. The concert made clear how effortlessly he still masters the dance-like elements of the work. In the talk, he reveals how, even in his mid-fifties, he continues to embody this peacock-like excellence in both his playing and in the simultaneous dancing.

On his new album, the clarinetist, who also enjoys success as a conductor, turns his attention exclusively to small works by Johann Sebastian Bach, which he has recorded primarily in duo formations with double bass, violoncello and viola. Only the final work features an accompanying piano, played by none other than Benny Andersson, who became world-famous as a member of ABBA during Fröst’s childhood. In the Elbphilharmonie podcast, Fröst talks about his collaboration with Andersson, prompted by the interviewer who happens to be a latecomer to the world of ABBA fandom.