April 1, 2014

Pretty music

Saturday afternoon, we spent an hour or so at the Art gallery listening to a song recital, lieder by Sibelius, Debussy and Paul Schierbeck. There was also some lyrical piano pieces by Grieg. The soprano was Lona Beccau, the pianist Helge Kjekshus. I found a few clips on youtube from a previous concert, same programme, but the recording is so badly made, I will not pain you with them.

Beccau was great, not just a fabulous voice, but fittingly flirty and charming. Kjekshus plays with great feeling, as always. Not that I am much of a judge of music, but I was not the only one to like it, the concert got rave reviews in the local paper; the critic (male) pretty much confessed that he came away wanting to run up the aisle and marry someone right away!

I think this version with Birgit Nilsson of Sibelius´ "Flickan kom från sin älsklings möte" (= the girl came from a meeting with her darling) is a better treat for you, and gives you a feel for what we experienced.

(Put up by operazaile.)

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2 comments:

  1. Cate03 April, 2014 13:24

    I sang the Sibelius on a series of solo concerts of Nordic art song (DC museum tour and New House of Sweden) about 8 years ago. It is one of my favorite art songs ever. I learned the languages phonetically and found Swedish very beautiful. The world of Nordic art song also was new to me and opening to it was an adventure.

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    1. Viktoria Berg03 April, 2014 15:24

      You know, about 20 years ago we had a music festival here in Luleå, with a Polish company doing a production of something - can´t remember what now, but I remember experiencing the musical quality of the language so intensely, because I couldn´t understand the words. I had a Polish grandmother, but at that time I remember being actually grateful for not having learned her language! I suppose what I experienced that evening was also some kind of adventure, a musical one.

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