Anders Hillborg’s Piano Concerto No.2 – the MAX Concerto made its German and Norwegian debuts in March 2025 with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, conducted by Sakari Oramo, and the Oslo Philharmonic, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä. Emanuel Ax, whose name lends itself to the concerto’s subtitle, is soloist, following his premiere of the 22-minute work in October 2023 with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Like the 2021 Viola Concerto, Piano Concerto No.2 is cast in one unbroken span. ‘Grand piano’ opens the piece with keyboard-traversing flourishes, before ‘Mist’, in the shape of divided strings, then settles. From it a tinkling ‘Toy Piano’ emerges. In ‘Chorales and echo chamber’ the woodwinds shadow accents in the piano’s quasi-baroque writing before a glittering climax with crotales, bells, and glockenspiel. ‘Hard Piano’ then presents a toccata-like sequence of brilliant, jagged passagework that plunges into a cadenza. As if encouraged by the virtuoso display, the orchestra joins the piano for a grand, passionate statement of the opening theme. ‘Ascending piano’ climbs to a sweeping finale before the music recedes into the distance.
Since the premiere, when the work was lauded by critics, Ax has performed the work with the New York Philharmonic – conducted by Eun Sun Kim – and in January 2024 gave the Swedish premiere of the work with the Stockholm Philharmonic. The piece was commissioned for Emanuel Ax by the San Francisco Symphony with the generous support of John Kongsgaard.
In May 2025 Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the world premiere of a 22-minute piece by Hillborg, conceived as a tribute to Gustav Mahler and partnering the composer’s Symphony No.1 at the 2025 Mahler Festival. It is commissioned by commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the Mahler Foundation.
In 2022 Mäkelä conducted Hillborg’s set of orchestral panoramas Eleven Gates with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In April, Ryan Bancroft, who conducted the Swedish premiere of Hillborg’s MAX Concerto, will give the US premiere of Sound Atlas with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a 20-minute work whose delicate textures are given an unearthly gleam from the use of glass harmonica.
Hillborg’s Cello Concerto (2020) has just received a celebrated choreographic treatment from Mats Ek at the Royal Swedish Ballet – the first time the composer’s music has appeared on the dance stage. Critics acclaimed the marriage of music and movement in Ek’s A Cup of Coffee, a sensitive 30-minute exploration of couples at different stages of their lives, which premiered on 7 February. Read the reviews here.