"On November 5 I gave my last concert in 2022! A solo recital in Gothenburg Concert Hall on the magnificent Rieger organ. My heartfelt THANK YOU all who made me perform this year in Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, France, Spain and here in Sweden!"
Best regards, Gunnar
The CD A Saami Requiem (TOCN 0017) by Gunnar Idenstam and Saami artist Ola Stimmerbom was released in 2022 by Toccata Classics in London. It is a spiritual mass in which the audience is invited to the world of death. A world that is inhabited by wondrous and mythical creatures. Here comes only the one who has met death: in the Saami tradition this person is a Nåjd, a Shaman, a spiritual leader, who can do this journey together with you and return to our world.
Idenstam and Ola Stinnerbom
Photo: Håkan Larsson
The latest solo CD is of his own suite Metal Angel (TOCC 0495), recorded on the spectacular organ built by Dominique Thomas in Monaco Cathedral.
Kultuurpakt Belgium writes about the Metal Angel CD: "The result is magical. One gets the feeling of standing in front of the gates of the Holy Grail castle and the sun is shining on the towers, to make us experience a higher power inside. This album can be enjoyed by hard metal fans as well as fans of classical music, and each will be transported to their world of imagination".
Watch the the whole Metal Angel suite here, from the release concert in Studio Acusticum: Metal Angel
Excerpts of some virtuosic pieces: Metal Angel - Bach - Improvisation.
Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E Minor BWV 548 from Thomaskirche in Leipzig, recorded in July 2021.
One of the encores from the concert in San Sebastian, Spain, in August 2022.
From the film Organist Idenstam - Licence to Dance
www.dramatix.se
Idenstam Toccata V from the film Organist Idenstam - Licence to Dance
In 2013 Gunnar Idenstam received the Royal Medal Litteris et artibus by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and the same year he was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
In 2012 Gunnar Idenstam was awarded the prestigious Interpreter´s Prize by the same Academy. The Jury wrote: "He has created his own musical platform and with a sense of tradition and renewal he brings influences from different genres, far from the traditional organ world, into the context of organ music. With a dazzling technique, serious and yet playful, and with revolutionary improvisations, he creates organ art on the highest international level."
