The future of classical music after Covid-19? Multimedia concert invites us to look beyond the world’s current troubles

Swedish clarinettist and conductor Martin Fröst’s Xodus (The Way Out Lies Within) is a multimedia concert that blends words, music and live painting

Fröst hopes the project will encourage conversations about how we move forward ‘as individuals, musicians and society’

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Martin Fröst (left) and Jesper Waldersten will collaborate in performances of multimedia musical work Xodus (The Way Out Lies Within).

Published: 4:15pm, 19 Apr 2022

Swedish clarinettist and conductor Martin Fröst is teaming up with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra to seek a way out of troubled times.

His latest multimedia project, Xodus (The Way Out Lies Within), blends words, music and live-painted images.

“We often look back on our history in classical music and on what we have achieved,” Fröst tells the South China Morning Post. “With Xodus, we want to look forwards. We ask, where do we go now? What is the way out – as individuals, musicians and as a society?”

The way out of what? It could be the global pandemic, the climate crisis or the Ukraine war, Fröst says.

Sometimes you cannot be sure what would touch you. Is it the drawing? Or is it the music? Or is it something else …?

Martin Fröst

It is his most difficult project yet, the musician says, “because it’s impossible to give the answer – I cannot say ‘OK, let’s find a way out’. But we can talk about it. We can talk about it with music, with words.”