Thomas Dausgaard - Music director

Looking back at this project and the way it shaped his work with the ensemble, Thomas Dausgaard comments  “When we started this project over ten years ago it was still quite unusual to play Beethoven with such a small orchestra (38 players). I was very keen to find a way into the chamber musical core of the music. In this I was strongly inspired by the contribution that the period instrument orchestras had brought to this repertoire, not least in terms of timbre and colour. But the most important thing for this whole project, which has spanned ten years, if it was to be sucessful was for it to pull together the orchestra. I would say that, through our intense involvement with Beethoven, we have been able to achieve a collective language and identity, an awareness of what we are doing, how and why. This also gives us a purpose when we play Ravel, Bruckner or Brett Dean - but when there is music by Beethoven on the stands we are instantly as one.“

In 2009 Simax released Volume 10 of the Complete Beethoven Orchestral Works which include Symphony no. 9 and incidental music. Reviews of the cycle so far have highlighted the pe iod instrument flavour and abundant energy:

"Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra have obviously learned lessons from the period-instrument innovators, but there's nothing mannered or willfully contentious about the results. Instead there's abundant life, quick-witted musical intelligence, inwardly charged expression, scintillating precision, humour and a sense of awe before Beethoven' s more startling inspirations - yes, they can still startle even today."

"This series goes from strength to strength. In a world overflowing with Beethoven symphonies, these performances have in abundance the all-important qualities of freshness and vitality, of the kind that makes you perk up your ears and listen anew to music you thought you had memorized ages ago."

Whilst Beethoven remains central to Thomas Dausgaard´s work with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, together conductor and ensemble have continued to expand their repertoire. Haydn, Brahms and Schumann are some of the composers that have been the focus of festivals in Örebro over the years and on Schumann Dausgaard exclaims  "It was fantastic! All the difficulties of balance I'd experienced before with a full-size orchestra disappeared.“  

Another labour of love had started and the result is a new series of recordings on BIS entitled “Opening Doors“ which already features the complete symphonies of Schumann as well as a recording of Dvorak Symphonies nos. 6 & 9.  In 2010 BIS releases two further recordings in the series - Schubert’s Great and Unfinished Symphonies (Spring) and Bruckner 2 (Autumn).

2010 marks the occasion of the orchestra’s 15th anniversary and, as a fledgling orchestra that has reached international acclaim in such a short time,  the musicians are proud to be making their Salzburg International Festival debut with Thomas Dausgaard and Swedish soprano Nina Stemme.
 
Full biography for Thomas Dausgaard (IMG Artists)