Self-portrait and Diptych

Klas Torstensson’s music always has a dramatic line; he is there to tell a story. While his earlier works have been characterised as raw, unpolished, aggressive and even shattering, in his opera De Expeditie we suddenly meet a more poetic composer with a remarkable lyric talent that nods to Puccini and Sibelius. De Expeditie tells the story of the three men who in 1897 set out to chart the polar areas from aboard a high hydrogen gas balloon, but were forced to make an emergency landing on ice only after three days, to meet their death after several dreadful months. Torstensson composed the diptic Intermezzo & Epilogue before finishing the complete opera. The Intermezzo is the instrumental recount of the flight; the Epilogue is the moving lament by Strindberg’s fiancé Anna Charlier. The full-length cycle Lantern Lectures was a joint commission by Le Nouvel Ensemble Modern (Montréal), Asko Ensemble (Amsterdam), Kammarensemble (Stockholm) and Klangforum Wien. Selfportrait with percussion (Lantern Lectures, Volume V) is a concerto for percussion and large ensemble, commissioned by Peppie Wiersma and the Asko Ensemble. The work is a self portrait in the sense that it shows the coming of age of a musical identity formed by all kinds of percussion sounds, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Fank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention and Varèse and Xenakis. Even Mahler is there. Torstensson: “I never try to consciously change my style; in fact, I never think in terms of style. At the same time, I am aware of traditions, and the fact that my music reflects the traditions of which I am a product.” Klas Torstensson’s compositions have been performed by orchestras, ensembles and soloists worldwide. In 1991 Torstensson received the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize - the most prestigious composition prize in The Netherlands, in 1999 followed by the Stora Christ Johnson Priset, the major Swedish composition prize. Torstensson’s opera The Expedition was a nominee for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2006, whereas the Intermezzo from the same opera received a recommendation by the jury of the International Rostrum of Composers in 1999.