‘Ellen Nisbeth, viola’

The Stockholm Concert House named viola player Ellen Nisbeth as its Rising Star for the 2017-2018 season. Together with fellow Swede Bengt Forsberg, she performs a programme largely inspired by her Scandinavian background. In addition to an arrangement of Grieg's Violin Sonata no.3, for viola, Nisbeth will play three pieces by British composer Percy Grainger, a good friend of Grieg’s and a lover of Scandinavian culture. Grainger was also one of Frederick Delius's close friends. Like Grainger, Delius sought out the high Northern latitudes; he had a summer house in Norway. It was in his Norwegian chalet that Delius began composing his Sonata no 2 for Violin. Nisbeth plays an arrangement by famous viola player, Lionel Tertis.