Lind, Pärt and Ravel

The evening opens with Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, arranged for string orchestra and percussion. The work is among Pärt’s most iconic and is one of the first clear expressions of his own compositional principle, tintinnabuli—a musical language closely associated with his personal approach to sound and one that rarely leaves anyone unmoved. The sonic journey continues into the present day with the entrance of a large mobile phone orchestra. On stage, we meet virtuosos of this new instrument: a large youth group performing two works by Lind, first together with a percussion trio and then in dialogue with Norrlandsoperan’s woodwind and brass sections. Lind, who describes the mobile phone orchestra as a new electronic instrumental group within the traditional orchestra, also performs on analogue synth. After the interval, the full Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra takes the stage. Ravel’s Bolero—known for its ingenious orchestration and hypnotic repetition of a melody few can resist—opens the second half. Although the work is now over a hundred years old, it still feels just as fresh and fascinating in the way it gradually reveals the orchestra’s full palette of colours. In this arrangement, Bolero also gets a contemporary sonic touch: saxophones, celesta and harp have here been replaced by Lind in favour of electronic sounds, performed by the mobile phone orchestra and analogue synth. The evening concludes with the world premiere of a new work by Lind for symphony orchestra, mobile phone orchestra and analogue synth. Here