Benjamin Staern Symphony No 2: Through Purgatory to Paradise (2019-22)

Live recording Swedish Radio P2 from the world premiere April 7 2022.
Konserthuset, Stockholm.

Cathrine Winnes
Kungliga Filharmonikerna (Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra)

The basic ideas for Benjamin Staern’s Symphony No. 2 were born from Lili Boulanger’s orchestral work D’un soir triste. The incentive was an episode about sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger in the series She composes like a man with conductor Cathrine Winnes as host.
But during the pandemic, work on the symphony took a new direction. The music was increasingly shaped
a reflection on our time with Corona, the digital revolution, times of crisis and total silence. Two literary works became another important starting point: Dante’s The Divine Comedy with the episode about the road through purgatory to paradise, and Boccaccio’s Decamerone where the teenagers are quarantined outside Florence during the plague and read to each other.
The symphony is also a stylistic turning point. ”After writing very massively orchestrally for ten years, I now wanted to compose more transparent and chamber music with a focus on melody,” says Benjamin Staern. He has also used certain names and keywords that are coded in the music, including Lili est mort, (Lili is dead), Paris, Stockholm, Kris and Corona which form melodic material.

The first movement, Isolation, 0:00 begins with a high note
– a free transfer from Boulanger’s D’un soir triste. The sentence is slow and thoughtful. Clear sounds from high strings, vibraphone, glockenspiel, celesta, harp and solo performances from oboe and violin shape the isolation and emptiness.

The second movement, Struggling Through the Tunnel, 6:26,
is a scherzo about dragging oneself towards the light
in the tunnel, a kind of inner utopia about the haunting Paradise.

The third movement, Confronting the Past, 12:43, leads with descending scales and quarter tones down to the abyss. After reaching the bottom, everything turns up again and the music reaches a peak.

Fourth and final movement, Journey to Paradise, 19:02 where natural tones symbolize catharsis, the purification. It all ends with a hollowed-out sound in the orchestra that echoes the initial high note of the first movement.

The symphony is dedicated to Cathrine Winnes, her daughters Julie and Amalie.

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