Where the musical giants come to have fun

The above clip is one of the most amazing clips I know. For several reasons. One reason is that the second half of the middle, slow, movement (from 6:19) is amazing and magic as hell. The main reason, however, is that the people who play in the ensemble are all enormeously successful, world-famous soloists, who usually play as soloists in front of big orchestras all over the world - but who here play together in a small little ensemble. Some of the ultra-famous artists include e.g. Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, James Levine, Sarah Chang, Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin - but there are also many others. There are not many times in musical history that such a collection of geniuses can be seen playing together - having fun together - in such a manner. One such occasion was undoubtedly in the household and church of the composer - Johann Sebastian Bach - who apart from being one of the most important composers to date also is the father of many super-famous composers (who actually were more famous than their father at the time). After Bach's time, I can imagine that Vienna had quite a few such roundups in its prime (1770-1830) as most likely Paris a little bit later (1830-1850). Today, I know only one place where an event like this can occur: Verbier.

Verbier is the only place I know where the world elite in classical music goes each year, and where they apart from giving amazing solo concerts also do events like this: having fun and doing informal chamber music together. What I like about this is that they are doing chamber music to a large extent in the manner that it was intended: in a more informal and smaller setting. I have always liked this setting the most, and it is one we have always strived towards when arranging my own family's signature soirees.

Roland Pöntinen, the link between our local chamber music festival and Verbier.

When it comes to the festival in Verbier, they feature mostly international and non-Swedish artists, but now and again there are also some Swedes who make it to the concert programme. I think that the most frequent such guest is our excellent pianist Roland Pöntinen, who played also this year. And, the programme that he played this year in Verbier, he actually repeated again yesterday - in my home city, Linköping! After that concert, I talked to him a little bit, and he confirmed my impression: Verbier is a place where the world elite comes to have fun. He also told me that he actually also has completed my current main project as a pianist: to play through all of Beethoven's piano sonatas. So now I know three Swedish pianists who have done this: Pöntinen, Tengstrand, and Påhlsson. I plan to become number 4! :)

The reason why Pöntinen came to Linköping is that he was invited to play in Linköping's own little music festival, the Linköping chamber music festival. This festival is of course much smaller than that in Verbier, but there is also here a mix of different types of events, and an attempt to only have artists on a really high level - and to also have more informal concert forms. Right now I just got back from one of the most informal such events: an evening concert in the hotel lobby. At this event, the artists sit down and play a more or less completely improvised programme, and before and after they hang around and drink beer with each other and with whomever wants to hang around with them. I love that! And via the connection with Pöntinen, I really feel that this connects with and manifests the motto of my blog and yoga school: music and yoga in Linköping - linked up with the world!

Two of the artists performing at this evening's informal hotel lobby concert. Standing up in the background, you see the artistic director, clarinetist and conductor Staffan Mårtensson. In the foreground you see my knee - and as you can see, I sat less than 2 meters away from the soloist.