Conductor Ingo Metzmacher returns to Amsterdam for, among other things, the postponed world premiere of City Imprints by Swedish composer Klas Torstensson, who lives in the Netherlands. City Imprints was commissioned by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, on the occasion of the city’s 400th anniversary in 2021. Gothenburg is Sweden’s main port, from where countless ships with migrants departed for North America. In City Imprints we hear traces of the farewell of loved ones on the quay, but also the mechanical sounds of the shipyards and the work of the stonemasons, so typical of the city. City Imprints also unifies Torstensson’s Dutch-Swedish identity. Gothenburg was built in the seventeenth century on the model of Jakarta, the city that was planned by the Dutch around the same time.

Since the intended first performance had to be postponed due to corona, the Saturday Matinee can now provide the world premiere. A composer who unites Scandinavian sound splendor, Dutch sobriety and tonal lilting into a unique contemporary voice.