Vin och melankoli - Male choir works by Pacius

Helsingin kamarikuoro
Nils Schweckendiek, conductor

Having performed and recorded the complete mixed and female choir works by Fredrik Pacius in 2024, the Helsinki Chamber Choir now turns its attention to his substantial output for male choir a cappella and will perform his complete works for this scoring in a series of three concerts from 2025 to 2027. Born in Hamburg in 1809, Pacius studied with Louis Spohr in Kassel and later worked as a violinist in Stockholm. He was appointed to teach music at the Imperial Alexander University (nowadays Helsinki University) in 1834, when he was 25 years old. In 1838, he founded the oldest still active choir in Finland, Akademiska Sångföreningen, and over the years composed a wide repertoire for male voices in the Swedish, German, Finnish and French languages. This programme ranges from drinking songs to works exploring various causes of melancholy. The composer of the first Finnish opera and the Finnish national anthem, Pacius has become known as the father of Finnish music: this project revives a cornerstone of our nation’s musical history.