Performed by Klara Hellgren and Henrik Naimark Meyers, violin, Riikka Repo, viola, Erik Wahlgren, cello and Johan Ullén, piano.
Live recording of the first perfomance, in Vamlingbo church, Gotland, the 12th July 2017.

Please contact the composer.
 

"Elegy" for piano quintet was commissioned by the Chamber Music Festival in Vamlingbo at Gotland, Sweden in 2017. The artistic director of the festival, the cellist Erik Wahlgren, gave me the choice between composing a string quartet or a piano quintet. I instantly knew that I wanted to write a piano quintet since I very much like the sound of this type of ensemble.

When I began composing, something happened that would come to affect the composition completely: the terror attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm in April 2017. I was quite near when it happened and saw people running in panic. The mood that stuck in me afterwards would not let go of me, and out of this I composed an elegiac theme, a motif of sorrow, that become the foundation of the composition. (Please note that the piece does not describe the actual events during the terror attack. It is not programmatic music, but a elegiac motive that was born out of the events.)

The motif of sorrow is paired with a "theme of consolation" that is varied throughout the the entire Elegy. 
As a contrast to these human themes (sorrow and solace) a third sphere is introduced, nature itself. It appears unsentimentally and drastically in the shape of four "birds" of different character, as well as phenomena like wind and rain (the birds and phenomena are not any exact audial reproductions, but rather the fantasy images of the composer.)

These three musical worlds are contrasted against each other and increasingly tighter woven together through the piece.