Swedish, Bengaluru musicians unite for Mozart show on Friday

Two of Sweden’s leading musicians, Bengt Forsberg and Maria Forsström, will perform a concert of Mozart’s compositions on Friday. Forsberg is a Grammy-winning pianist and Maria is a mezzo-soprano, vocal coach and conductor.

The ‘W A Mozart — Requiem’ show will see them performing alongside the Bangalore School of Music’s string orchestra, the choirs Cappella Bangalore and The Bangalore Men, and four soloists from the city. The evening is a nod to Mozart’s last but hauntingly beautiful work ‘Requiem’, and ‘Piano Concerto No 12 in A-major’, a modest piece from his early years. They were written nine years apart.

Metrolife met the duo at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, on Monday where they were to perform works of women composers from the past later that evening. ‘Piano Concerto No 12’ is a much lighter and brighter piece than the ‘Requiem’, Forsberg shared. To which, Maria added, “I would call it intimate, uplifting and tender”.

The ‘Requiem’ is considered a choral masterpiece and how it came to be adds to its enigma. Mozart died while writing this funeral song, which was commissioned to him anonymously. His student later finished the piece. Some believe that Mozart was writing the ‘Requiem’ for his own funeral.

While Maria has performed the ‘Requiem’ many times — “in a choir, for a service, as a choir master and now, as a conductor”, it’s a new assignment for Bengt as an organist. He is excited because the braveness and endless imagination in Mozart’s work have always appealed to him.

Maria didn’t think of the ‘Requiem’ much in her teens. “But as I grow older, it speaks to me. I cry when I hear certain passages. A certain change of chords touches my heart. I need to gasp and look away. But as a conductor, I don’t show my emotions to the audience,” she said.

‘Amazed by response’

Forsberg and Maria are in town for a series of concerts, masterclasses and lecture-recitals. They are “amazed by the hunger” for Western classical music in India and are happy to nurture it.

The Mozart show had sold 800 of 1,000 tickets when we met. Maria said, “In Sweden, we can go to opera, chamber concerts, and all the range of church concerts. The (Western) classical music is accessible everywhere. So in Sweden, there isn’t this hunger for concerts as we see in India.” 

Forsberg remarked that Bengalureans listened to his concert, held the past week, with “concentration”. Maria was reminded of a chance meeting with a woman at a beauty salon. That was last March when Maria and Forsberg were in the city to perform Franz Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’. The woman knew nothing about Schubert but she sat through the slideshow on his life, including his death at 31, and then the recital. “After the show, she came to us in tears. This seldom happens in Sweden. We are sometimes afraid to show our naked hearts,” Maria shared.

January 19, 7.30 pm, at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Vyalikaval. Tickets online