In 2019, Swedish composer Britta Byström continued a series of works created for very specific programming purposes. In an era when concert programs and their audiences highly value canonical artistic works—partly due to their historical connotations and cultural affinities—it often becomes challenging to find suitable companion pieces. For example: what could be presented alongside Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 7? The answer might now be A Walk to Beethoven.
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To mark the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, based in northern Norway, programmed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. To complete the program, conductor Christian Kluxen commissioned Britta Byström to compose an orchestral work that would somehow establish a connection with this symphony. The challenge is intriguing, inviting us to anchor ourselves in a distant past in order to reflect on the present. It is as if contemporary times are being addressed by a centuries-old monument of Western culture.
As a kind of prelude, Byström chose a walk whose rhythmic cadence leads us—step by step—to the privileged moment of hearing anew the opening chords of the very symphony Richard Wagner called the “Apotheosis of Dance.” As with all previous occasions resulting in the A Walk to… series, Byström was not given the opportunity to choose the work she would approach. She soon admitted, however, that she had been lucky, since it was a symphony that ignited her imagination, especially the melodic theme of the second movement. Indeed, this melody is one of the clearest allusions found in the reminiscent sounds of A Walk to Beethoven, a score structured in 14 short, linked sections without interruption. Still, one should not expect the traditional sequence of variations on a theme. The composer prefers to call them “14 flowers blooming from the same seed,” “14 paths that lead us to Beethoven.”
Rui Campos Leitão
Image: Britta Byström in 2014. Photo by Arne Hyckenberg