This release of the year is the first joint album of the Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra celebrating its 50th anniversary and its artistic director Malin Broman. The Stockholm Diary includes, among other things, Arnold Schönberg's cult work Verklärte Nacht, Glanz for solo viola by Sally Beamish and Esa-Pekka Salonen's work 'Stockholm Diary', which was recorded for the first time.

The Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Malin Broman, a Swedish violinist who also is the violin and viola soloist on the album. The unifying factor on the record is not only Schönberg's cult work Verklärte Nacht, but also the city, namely Los Angeles.
“The composers of the album,Schönberg, Salonen and Stravinsky, have all been in Los Angeles at some point, so the title of the album could just as well have been LA Diary,” laughs Malin Broman on Jubilee Year Opening webcast (available on orchestras` YouTube channel).

However, the name of the album comes from Esa-Pekka Salonen's (b.1958) string orchestra work of the same name. The Stockholm Diary (2004), composed for the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, has not been recorded before. "The work perfectly reflects the collaboration between Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and me, as well as Sweden and Finland," says Broman on the album's inside booklet.

The main work of the album is Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951). A programmatic work based on a poem by Richard Dehmel followed Schönberg throughout his life; the composer orchestrated the work he originally composed for the string sextet twice; in 1917 and in 1943.

As if Schönberg's opposite is Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) Concerto in D from 1946. The baroque rhythmic and energetic concerto is one of the composer's late neoclassical works.

Another piece by Salonen is the Lachen verlernt (Forgotten Laughter) composed for the solo violin work in 2002. The title of the work refers to Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, in which the soloist asks Pierrot harlequin to teach her to laugh again.

Glanz for solo viola is from the repertoire of the English composer Sally Beamish (b.1956). In 2016, Beamish composed the work in memory of a good friend and colleague, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. “The German word Glanz comes from Richard Dehmel’s poem Verklärte Nacht, which Arnold Schönberg used as the basis for his masterpiece of the same name,” says Beamish. This short passacaglia is like a glance at Schönberg’s work, which explores two themes used by Schönberg.