Programme notes:

Cadenze for chamber orchestra marks the start of a new phase in Nilsson's creative style. The music has become even more open and unconstrained. While still adhering to form Nilsson breaks up the musical structure and gives the individual parts greater freedom. The music breathes in mutual understanding with the instruments, which are suddenly permitted to go off on a voyage of discovery together. Instruments or groups no longer confront each other: now they meet in harmony to explore an aesthetics that acknowledges the beautiful. In Nilsson's composition the word cadenza stands for an almost improvisatory digression from the melodic material, which is mainly presented by solo instruments. The introductory alto flute solo is inspired by the Japanese shakuhachi flute but only as far as the timbre is concerned, since the tonal material is taken from Western tradition. The oboe cadenza that follows is elegiac one moment and elusive the next, as though the oboe is afraid of being caught in a state of melancholy. In the next cadenza we meet a decidedly nocturnal clarinet followed finally by the bassoon and the saxophone. Between these solo passages the whole ensemble is heard in open, bell-like sound formations and in the last section these bell sounds are linked together with the previous musical characters, leading into reminiscences from the introduction on the alto flute. Cadenze was composed in 1989 for the KanmarensembleN and was commissioned by the National Institute for Concerts (Svenska Rikskonserter). Text: Thomas Roth. From Phono Suecia nr 53 (1993)