Roman • Agrell • Johnsen
Drottningholms Barockensemble
Olle Torssander, flute
Ulf Bjurenhed, oboe
Hans Larsson, horn
Björn Gäfvert, harpsichord
Swedish Concertos is Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble’s tribute to three of the 18th century’s most significant Swedish composers: Johan Helmich Roman, Johan Agrell, and Hinrich Philip Johnsen. The album presents rarely performed Swedish orchestral music from the golden age of the Baroque and early Classicism, interpreted on period instruments.
The album opens with Roman’s (1694–1758) overture to Festa musicale (BeRI 32), written in 1725 for King Frederick I’s birthday. This is followed by Agrell’s (1701–1765) Oboe Concerto in B-flat major – a brilliant example of the melodic art of the galant style – and Roman’s Flute Concerto in G major (BeRI 54), whose attribution was established in the 1970s by Roman scholar Ingmar Bengtsson. The album concludes with Agrell’s Harpsichord Concerto in A major and Hinrich Philip Johnsen’s (1717–1779) Horn Concerto in E-flat major from 1751, an important but rarely performed contribution to the genre.
The soloists are Ulf Bjurenhed (oboe), former principal oboist of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Olle Torssander (traverso flute), educated at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague; Björn Gäfvert (harpsichord), the ensemble’s permanent keyboard player since 1989; and Hans Larsson (horn), former principal horn of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble was founded in 1971 by violist Lars Brolin and performs 17th- and 18th-century music in a historically informed manner. Led by concertmasters Nils-Erik Sparf and Stefan Lindvall, the ensemble performs around 40 concerts a year and is documented on some sixty recordings for BIS, EMI, Musica Sveciae, and Naxos. In 2023, DBE released the CD ”6 Works for Orchestra” by Johan Agrell – now the focus is on solo concertos by Agrell, Roman, and Johnsen.