In November, Benjamin was the subject of the 2019 Stockholm Tonsättarfestivalen. With ten works featured over five concerts (including the Swedish premiere of Dance Figures), the prestigious festival was presented by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Konserthuset. It also featured the Eric Ericsons Kammarkör and Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
‘Imaginative and elegant music… Benjamin’s orchestral writing is always transparent and creates in its most beautiful moments a sense of wide horizons and high altitudes… [In Duet] the piano starkly hits individual notes while the brass intone like some vague foghorn in the distance. Cryptic and mightily alluring… [In] the evening’s most suggestive work, Sometime Voices… Benjamin engineers the ‘twangling instruments’ humming about Caliban’s ears in an incredible way, entirely worthy of the sorcerer Prospero.’
Dagens Nyheter (Camilla Lundberg), 23 November 2019
‘Benjamin’s music is always substantial; it doesn’t matter if the orchestra writing is reduced to brittle sounds or if they make the walls shake.’
Aftonbladet (Claes Wahlin), 26 November 2019
‘A Mind of Winter is surely the most beautiful, shimmering winter ever heard in music.’
Expressen (Lars Sjöberg), 22 November 2019
‘One could have filled a whole week with Benjamin’s music and not lacked variety… Dream of the Song unites impulsive sensuality with spiritual light…’
Svenska Dagbladet (Erik Wallrup), 22 November 2019