Stockholm Po/ Umea So - Torbj�rn Iwan Lundquist: Symphony No. 2 '� for freedom', Symphony No. 9 'Survival'

Torbj�rn Iwan Lundquist�s first contact with music, at the age of three when his father Iwan brought home a gramophone and played the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. It made an indelible impression on Torbj�rn and already at the age of four, he had taken interest in his mother Ester�s inherited piano When the Soviet army marched into Prague in 1968 Torbj�rn got the impulse to complete the Symphony No. 2 (for freeedom), already commenced at the time of the 1956 Hungary crisis, but not completed then due to lack of time. He was now an established composer, and the piece was well received at the premi�re with Malm� Symphony Orchestra under his own direction in 1971. Torbj�rn Iwan fell ill in the spring of 1993 with cancer, and life and composing slowed down. All available strength was used to complete the rediscovered symphony he surprisingly had found in his archive, originally intended to become number 5, but now numbered 9. The symphony, which he called Survival after a series of successful treatments for the disease, and the song cycles Chamber Music to texts by James Joyce and Pour l��ternit� to texts by Jean-Luc Caron were his last completed works. At his passing, an unfinished score of the Symphony No. 10 were found on his desk.