Amorina Recitals

I have already mentioned the extraordinary musician Marc-André Hamelin on the first page. Here are some more pictures of him taken in Stockholm. Marc-André has a very deep rooted interest in neglected repertoire and has, as of this time, made more than 60 CD's, including both standard repertoire and music that is almost unplayed or even unplayable.

This latter subject has often been misunderstood as "it's nothing but technique," but no-one can say that Marc-André doesn’t affect the audience in an emotional way. All of his five concerts have ended with a standing ovation for this remarkable man. Amorina Recitals are very proud to have arranged five concerts with him.

To be able to be clear in each detail no matter what the complexity of the music is NOT the same as displaying "nothing but technique". This is a remark coming from those who do not possess technique, or/and do not have the patience or talent to work for it! When you talk with real professionals, they will all say: “I don't have enough technique to express what my mind is telling me!” When confronted with someone expressing the idea that technique is in the way of emotions, it’s time to leave! It's a certain sign that you are talking to someone who is very limited in his/hers views about music! "If it's too fast, it's not music", is another common expression. Perhaps they’d prefer if music had a speed limit ...

At his last visit in 2004, I interviewed Marc-André at a question and answer session at the Conservatory.

Hamelin’s father was very interested in the neglected romantic piano repertoire. Through him Hamelin became interested in rarely heard pianist-composers such as Alkan, Busoni and Grainger. He says: "My goal is to help people discover what they are overlooking. I want to reveal the beautiful qualities of these neglected works."

He has always been very keen to show us and talk about music he has discovered. Tanja and I especially remember one such evening when Marc-André suddenly sat down and played the Medtner A minor Sonata. This is just one example of his multi-facetted music mind which keeps on looking for music to investigate.

If there is only one classical record you should buy, listen to Marc-André's astonishingly beautiful recording of the complete Godowsky Studies on Chopin’s Etudes. It won the 2000 Gramophone Instrumental Music Award.

Despite their unbelievable difficulty, these are surprisingly lyrical pieces. But you could never guess that these are frightfully difficult to play, listening to Hamelin. Only in comparison with other interpreters will this be apparent. The difficulty has to do with the extreme polyphony of the pieces and the development of the left hand. Some say that Chopin was a pianist with only a right hand. Godowsky wanted to change this – although never trying to improve on the originals in any artistic sense – showing that there are other things you can do to develop the art of piano playing and the music for that instrument.

Hyperion CDA67411/2

http://www.giamanagement.com/biography.asp?MusicianID=2

This is a photo from 2001 when Harriet Smith, the current chief editor of International Records Review, and the founder and first editor of International Piano Quarterly, came for Hamelin’s recital. Also attending was the Sales, Export & Advertising Manager Michael Spring from Hyperion. Hyperion is one of the world’s largest independent classical label.

In this picture: Hyperion’s representative in Sweden, Göran Sverkman with his wife Kristina Cornelius, and Göran's colleague Thomas Persson. Göran Sverkman’s company distributes Hyperion together with other high-class independent labels.
In the background my brother Jörgen and the music critic Björn Östlund "overlooks the proceedings".
http://home.swipnet.se/bjorn_ostlund/



At each Amorina Recitals concerts the "Concert House Shop" with Ingvar Magnell, sold records as a service to the audience. I find this a very important service for the cultural life at least in Sollentuna, especially since it’s very difficult – if not impossible – to find classical CD's here nowadays. We have several libraries – protected by law – and art galleries, sponsored by the community. Why not also have a locally supported selection of rare-to-find classical music recordings, combining it with professionally performed concert? Wouldn't that be equally important for any community that wishes to call itself culturally oriented? What makes classical music such a special case?

With his back to the camera you can see the Sollentuna pianist Henrik Löwenmark, appearing at a concert in 1995 with his wife and singer Maria Höglind. At the same concert, the famous actor Gösta Prüzelius recited poems. Gösta worked a lot with Ingmar Bergman, but not surprisingly (!) became known to a wider audience when he appeared in a Swedish TV-soap called "Rederiet" ...

The brilliant Japanese pianist Akira Wakabayashi came to Sollentuna for a concert in 2001. He played a very substantial programme with, among other things, Stravinsky’s Pétroushka suite and for Sweden the rarely heard piano version of Prokofiev's ballet music from Romeo and Juliet.
Akira is well-established in Japan and Europe. He has won the second price in the Queen Elisabeth competition in Belgium, and can be heard on several CDs on Denon and Live Notes.

http://www.kajimotomusic.com/artists-e/wakabayashi_akira-e.html

I took the initiative to start the Amorina Recitals Society in 1992. When media in general were so indifferent to classical music, it was necessary to find another way to reach an audience with information! The members in the Society became our most loyal audience, consisting of around 200 members. The Society presented each year an artist with a scholarship; a more substantial monetary gift than the Sollentuna community could ever offer. Each year I also arranged another two to three first- class concerts for the members only, that is to say an additional 30 concerts on top of the 90 concerts in the big series.

Another example of the non-existent cooperation from the media deals with a local violinist. Åsa Wirdefeldt is without competition the best violinist growing up in the Sollentuna community, and it was therefore self-evident that she would receive our scholarship. In spite of her young years, she has played with Berliner Sinfonie Orchestra in the concert house of Berlin, and played the Brahms violin concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm. Today, she is the concertmaster in the Gävle Symphony Orchestra. She played a concert for us for which I submitted all the necessary information to the local press. The paper even called me up for more information. But in the end not a single line was printed in the paper. This would never be the case if a local sports personality was involved. One can only speculate why journalists avoid classical music to such a degree.

For many years there was an music oriented exhibition in connection with the concerts. In 1996 there was a Schumann theme for the series, and to the right you can see part of the Schumann exhibition.
At each concert, during intermission, the audience could go up to the library and see the art exhibition in the small art hall.

During the intermission there was of course the very important coffee break – as shown on
page 2 – together with the opportunity of buying recordings made by the artist of the evening.

Margareta Dahlin was for several years in charge of the coffee shop
and served among other things her popular home-made cookies.

In the last years, Maison Pierre took over the coffee shop.



Helen Jönsson and Helena af Sandeberg.
Two of my former students also helped during many years of the concerts.
Many others have helped with the preparations and perhaps it’s unfair to show only two,
but Helena might be of special interest since she is now a quite famous movie-actress in Sweden.

Some Swedish artists and actors   Page 6