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N.B. Click here for Launch recital and Closing Gala Concert Wigmore Hall, 18 October 2004 "From Sweden: the cream of Swedish and British musicians playing Swedish and British music in around 30 concerts over 14 months" Mats Lidström, Bengt Forsberg, English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble/Stephanie Gonley This ambitious festival was previewed with a recital by
Anne Sofie von Otter in April, and now it has been launched before a small audience at the Wigmore Hall by its artistic director, cellist Mats Lidström. Perhaps his administrative responsibilities were weighing on him, but he did not impress as, for example, recently at Blackheath. He began by introducing to British audiences an indulgent youthful cello sonata by Edvin Kallstenius (1881-1967), with Bengt Forsberg (who upstaged and nearly drowned him at times), and which failed to whet the appetite for more from that pen. For further information about this lengthily spread-out festival, see the From.Sweden website, but beware; I haven't found out how to disable the prolonged tuning-up accompaniment to the text which greets you! Time will tell if the ambitious scheme succeeds, but this was not a good start. The music did not make for a good mix, and programming may prove the festival's Achilles Heel? Emperor String Quartet & Poseidon Trio Wigmore Hall 16 December 2004 This proved a delightful evening, but the programme predictably frightened off regular Wigmore Hall supporters and there was a tiny audience, a proportion of them heard speaking Swedish. The Poseidon Trio (Sara Troback and Claes Gunnarson principals in the Gothenburg Orchestra) was nearly very good. Per Lundberg (who has made a Bis CD with trombonist PChristian Lindberg) was heavy handed in John Ireland's Cobbett prizewinning Phantasie Trio. A page turner, available beforehand for a pre-concert run-through, could have helped them test the acoustics and achieve a better balance. Things went better in the Trio No 2, written 11 years later in 1917; Ireland seemed to have got a keener grasp of the medium by then. Mankell's Notturno has no chance to become established; it is one of those works which is far harder to play than it sounds, festival director Mats Lidstrom informed us, though you'd never guess so from Claes Gunnarson's mastery of its awkwardnesses. Stenhammar's strong sixth string quartet, "one of Sweden's six most important quartets, all of them by Stenhammar" (Lidstrom), was a good showcase for the Emperor Quartet, who ended the concert with the real discovery of the evening, Ludvig Norman's expansive two-viola string quintet, a real original superbly written for the medium, which deserves a regular place in those recitals which feature a guest for Mozart's quintets. Wigmore Hall, London, 20 March 2005
Eccles: A division on a ground A more successful recital than several in this spread-out festival. From the front of the Wigmore Hall, one felt as if at a pleasant domestic music making session, its lynch-pin Jakob Lindberg, lute virtuoso, accompanist and droll commentator. It was all quiet, intimate and relaxing. There was a reasonable audience - not full, Lindberg opined by ear (!) because of the degree to which the lute detuned during the evening. Dan Laurin provided dazzling demonstrations of his skill in ornamentation on several sized recorders, and accompanying Anna Emilsson's light soprano with obbligatos in Handel etc. She has a charming manner of delivery and the Swedish language (English translations provided) is a pleasure to hear. A pity Dan Laurin wasn't allowed to vary the baroque fare with some of the contemporary Swedish recorder music composed for him, but the burgeoning field of contemporary music, recently enjoyed in Stockholm, isn't scheduled in this festival. The programme book was lavish and comprehensive, although not the easiest to navigate. Wigmore Hall 30 May 2005 Andrew Manze violin Nearing the end of this long running festival, tonight's was the most satisfying of the several concerts we have attended. Audiences have grown, but not filled Wigmore Hall, and it has been too diffuse to make a real mark, I fear. First in this mixed programme of music for strings, a group of folk music pieces with the intriguing keyed-fiddle depicted, an alluring national instrument, Refined viol playing by the Phantasm quartet culminated with three of the young Purcell's miraculous Fantasias, which inevitably eclipsed pieces with Swedish connections by Düben and the more obscure Lazaro Lazarin (Lazzarini) whose splendid name (but with little known about him) graced the programme. As before, the organisation of the design and type-setting (black on dark grey is not good for reading in dim light!) left us not always sure what we were hearing when. Most enjoyable of all were Andrew Manze's solos, introducing us to Assagi by the Manze never fails to take opportunities to talk with audiences, and he is always illuminating. He came in bubbling to continue backstage interval talk, and demonstrated how Roman might really have played the disconcertingly plain ending of one of his pieces. Roman's passagi are fanciful, wayward music of great charm; there's a CD to be made there.
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Jakob Lindberg lutes and cister 
'father of Swedish music', Johann Heinrich Roman (1694-1758). These served to remind us that J S Bach's acknowledged pre-eminence has caused some fine music for unaccompanied violin and cello to be overlooked and not rediscovered by string players, to the impoverishment of recital programmes.