I went to two concerts today. One was at the Skärborgarnas Hus while the second was at Ytterjärna. Both concerts featured mostly stringed instruments, three performers, some fantastic music and a lot of famous poetry. In fact, they were both all round fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed by their respective audiences.
The first concert was the latest in the Trosa Chamber Music programme. It featured Erika & Cecilia, with guitarist Mats Bergström. Erika & Cecilia are duo, Erika Lindgren Liljenstolpe and Cecilia Österholm, and they play and sing folk music with a violin and, a strange instrument I’d never seen before. In Swedish, it’s called a nyckelharpa (key harp) and creates an amazing sound with some simultaneous bowing and fingering.
And, combined with Erika’s vioilin and Mats’ guitar, the mix was amazing. In fact, the whole concert was incredible. From polkas to waltzes, from haunting voices to rollicking tunes, the whole thing was just brilliant. I’ve now seen quite a few chamber concerts, but this one was definitely the best.
For the first time, the artists were selling CDs. I was going to buy one before suddenly remembering that we don’t actually have a CD player.
They played a number of self composed pieces, which used the poems of Edith Södergran (1892–1923) for the lyrics. This was something that they shared with the second concert I went to. Sofia Karlsson has put the poems of Dan Andersson (1888-1920) to music. This was an odd and unexpected connection.
Sofia was brilliant. She was joined by an amazing violinist and a chap who played guitars, viola and clarinet. Sofia played guitar, flute, viola, recorder and piano.
I was at this second concert with Nicoline and KSP. Originally, Mirinda was coming but, because of her sudden unwellness, she stayed home, rearranging furniture in a strange, fevered state while KSP happily took her ticket.
Actually, the title of this post comes courtesy of KSP. We were walking from the unlit car park to the hall in a kind of misty, wet air with faint droplets. It was very dark. Indicating the weather, KSP said, “It eats the light.” She said it in a rather sombre tone. I thought it was poetic enough to be an ideal title for this post.
Apparently, Sofia is one of Sweden’s most loved performers and the audience at Ytterjarna vouched for that. There was hardly an empty seat and the people in them were very appreciative.
The concert featured all the tracks from Sofia’s album, Black Ballads and a few more because of the interval. Normally, the concert just runs right through, like the album is just playing from start to finish but, because the concert hall features such amazing food and drinks, Magnus insists that there is an opportunity to sell it at half-time. So we were lucky enough to get a few bonus tracks.
In her own words, Sofia says that “I have never made a sequel to the album “Black Ballads”. That record is my only and great declaration of love for Dan Andersson’s poems and works. He is my dearest poet and also a part of my life, my tradition and my family for generations back. He is the poet of the vulnerable, the poet of the forests and the poet of the barren fields. It will be a fond reunion to perform the album on stage again.”
All in all, it was a wonderful concert. When it finished, I wanted to go and find when her next one was going to be so that Mirinda, once she’s regained her health, could go and see her.
And, in a week of darkness, and eating the light, I’m just going to leave this here:
Isn’t it painfully obvious when you spell it out?
