One of Sweden’s greatest composers of the 20th century, Ingvar Lidholm, has passed away on 17 October at the age of 96, Swedish Radio reported. Ingvar Lidholm was a central figure in the Swedish music life for seven decades and wrote ground-breaking works for choirs, chamber musicians and orchestras. Lidholm is said to have contributed to the “Swedish choral miracle”, the emergence of choirs who could perform very difficult pieces. Among these pieces is Laudi which Lidholm wrote at the age of 26 at the inspiration of a choir that his friend Eric Ericsson led. « Almost unmanageable », the chorists of the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir were said to have reacted when they got the notes on Laudi in their hands in 1947.
Lidholm has written a capella works, solo pieces for clarinet, oboe and cello, and orchestral works such as Kontakion (1978) and Ritornell (1955). Other choir works of Lidholm which have become classic are Canto LXXXI (1961), Libera me (1995) and a riveder le stelle (1973) as well as the opera A Dream Play (Ett drömspel) (1990).
