Under the artistic direction of Peter Pontvik, the festival kicks off on 6 June with a baroque Frank-Swedish celebration. There will be three or four concerts per day. The first, on 7 June, entitled “The Genius of Composition - Graupner versus Bach”, will be given by the ensemble Les Idées Heureuses under the direction of Geneviève Soly.

The second, a programme entitled Düben Delights, featuring baroque music from the famous Düben collection, will be performed by the Swedish group Göteborg Baroque. The first of the two concerts scheduled for 8 June will be a programme of madrigals and Gregorian chant from the Melódia Manuscript, dated c.1650, performed by Carmina Chamber Choir of Island, under the direction of Árni Heimir Ingólfsson.

At night, the Ensemble Pierre Robert, directed by Frédéric Desenclos, will offer the programme “À la française, un buffet Couperin”. Two short operas by Rameau, Pygmalion and Anacréon, will be performed on Saturday 9 June in a production that features Les Paladins along with Swedish singers and instrumentalists, and the Stockholm Baroque Dancers, all under the direction of Jerôme Corréas. The second concert of the day features an excellent Swedish trio, specializing specializing in baroque music, including Kerstin Frödin, Chrichan Larson and Peter Lönnerberg, with music by 18th-century Swedish composers.

Saturday’s final concert, given by Hespèrion XXI under the direction of Jordi Savall, will offer a panoramic view of medieval Sephardic and Hispanic music in the programme “Oriente-Occidente”. On 10 June the Belgian group La Folata will perform a programme of medieval Italian music. To close this year’s Festival, Weser-Renaissance of Bremen, conducted by Manfred Cordes, will perform Buxtehude’s oratorio The Last Judgement in a concert commemorating the anniversary of the composer’s death in 1707.

Throughout the Festival there will also be numerous other activities, such as a seminar on the Düben Collection with Erik Kjellberg, children’s concerts, lunchtime free concerts and a master-class with Jordi Savall. The Stockholm Festival provides an excellent showcase for the increasingly active early music scene in Nordic countries.