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Anders Hillborg’s Collaboration with Mats Ek for the Royal Swedish Ballet Receives Critical Acclaim

Feb. 28, 2025

The first appearance of Anders Hillborg’s music on the dance stage at the Royal Swedish Ballet has been celebrated by critics. A Cup of Coffee, choreographed by Mats Ek for the Royal Swedish Ballet, uses Hillborg’s Cello Concerto across its half-hour span, and premiered on February 7. Nir Kabaretti conducted the Kungliga Hovkapellet with Kati Raitinen as soloist.

Ek’s choreography, which appears in a double-bill with Wayne McGregor’s Infra, explores the tensions between couples at different stages of their lives; it is designed by Marie-Louise Ekman and lit by Erik Berglund and in repertory until March 15.


Meet the Creators of A Cup of Coffee

Selected Reviews

"It's all down to Anders Hillborg, claims Mats Ek. Hillborg's cello concerto gave context to the images that the images the creative choreographer had in his head…Images that must become dance…[the orchestra] conjures wild strings, swishing wind, dramatic crescendos, uneasiness and dreamy fragile sighs as well as a distinctive voice from solo cello."

Svenska Dagbladet (Anna Ångström) February 8, 2025

"…an explosive unfolding of constantly new images…An elderly couple's kitchen, a women's collective, a wave of refugees, an ocean... are we dreaming together?…The 30 dancers in this powerful masterpiece make a crowd that is as if it had materialized from Hillborg's cello composition."

Dagens Nyheter (Maina Arvas) February 8, 2025

"Cellist Kati Raitinen plays divinely…The piece has not previously been used for dance, but it is so perfectly intertwined with Ek's playful piece that it feels like it was written for this very purpose…35 minutes becomes a lifetime."

Expressen (Jesper Strömbäck Eklund) February 8, 2025

"The orchestra matches the grounded yet timeless Ek universe with composer Anders Hillborg's music, which ranges from warm, enveloping sensitivity to violently dramatic strings. This wonderful…caffeine rush ends in an ominous image of our violent earth, with the dance mat torn up and the stage floor swallowing all."

Aftonbladet (Cecilia Djurberg) February 8, 2025 *****

Erik Wahlgren alternates with Raitinen as soloist across the run. Hillborg’s concerto was written for Nicolas Altstaedt and premiered in October 2020 with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fabien Gabel. Like Hillborg’s recent Viola Concerto for Lawrence Power and Piano Concerto No.2 for Emanuel Ax, the 27-minute work is cast in one unbroken movement. It is characterized by the intimacy of its scoring – much of the piece is written for strings alone, with dazzling virtuosity eschewed in favour of long, yearning cantabile lines, giving the work a soulful and reflective quality.


Anders Hillborg/Cello Concerto/Amalie Stalheim, cello/Stavanger Symphony Orchestra/James Gaffigan

To learn more about Anders Hillborg, visit fabermusic.com.

Anders Hillborg
Cello Concerto (2020)
for cello and chamber orchestra
2(pic).2.2(2.bcl).0-2.2.0.0-perc: crot, t.bells, tam-t, 1 timp-str(min 8.8.6.6.4)
27'

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