Henning Kraggerud brings Romantarctica to Tasmania
At Hobart’s Federation Concert Hall this week, Henning Kraggerud’s composition Romantarctica for solo violin, clarinet and orchestra will receive its Australian premiere with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, one of the co-commissioners of the work, together with the orchestra’s Principal Clarinet Andrew Seymour, and the composer as violin soloist and director. Romantarctica brings together two ports of departure – Tromsø, from which many explorers set off for the Arctic, and Hobart, a departure point for Antarctic expeditions including those of Scott and Amundsen. It was co-commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Philharmonic, the world’s southernmost and northernmost professional orchestras. The concert programme also includes Beethoven’s Romance No 1, Svendsen’s Romance, and Mozart’s Symphony No 29 in A, K201.
Henning stays in Tasmania for another week, for a performance as part of the TSO’s Obscura series, an immersive, multi-sensory concert experience, focusing on Equinox, his 2014 composition depicting a journey through the world’s time zones and musical keys.