Recording on ITunes

Dear Reader,

My recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 with the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra is now available for downloading on ITunes and can be found here: http://www.apple.com/search/ipoditunes/?q=kristofer+wahlander. If you prefer to buy the CD, it is still available for sale at Toccata.nu. Click here to get to their site: http://toccata.nu/cd-label/mindfeel/La_Forza.html

Enjoy!

Music at the Fort

The Music at the Fort festival is over after three weekends full of adventures.The journey started on the 26 July when the Lund University Male Choir gathered in Barseback in order to travel to Flakfort by boat. The sea was a bit choppy and some of our singers where soaked in salt water! One of them was unfortunately wearing his tails and he promptly moved inside. But a little bit of water was not to ruin such a great event and all the singers arrived in a good mood at the fort. What then followed were some hours of complete madness. They had never had a concert at the fort before and we were in for many unexpected surprises. So I was extremely happy when I could ring the bell on time for the audience to enter the hall.

We had invited Tomas Hakansson, an actor, to introduce all the concerts. He did it in such a charismatic and violent way that I think some members of the audience got frightened!

The choir gave an excellent concert and I think many people in the audience were surprised by the quality of the singers. The choir unfortunately carries the very modest name of a university choir although none of the singers are students. They are also much maligned by the tradition that they invite everybody who has ever sung in the choir to take part in their famous televised spring performance on the steps to the Lund University. Many of the singers who have long left the choir no longer possess the voice to sing those spring songs and the result is less than pleasing. But when the real core of the choir is singing, they are one of the leading male choirs in the world.Having said that, some members of the audience had traveled some distance to see the concert. One group had flown from the Faroe Islands and one couple had flown in from Stockholm. After the concert, the audience and the choir all marched through the candle lit corridors of the fort to the restaurant pavilion. The choir kept singing all night and the audience were overwhelmed by the quality and the sheer joy which the singers were radiating.

The weekend after, we had gathered a real world class string orchestra by inviting leaders from such orchestras as the Danish Radio Orchestra, The Royal Danish Opera, The Tivoli Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. I was conducting the concert myself and it was a great pleasure to work with such excellent musicians. We all stayed at the fort over the course of the rehearsals and the concerts and I got to know the players very well. They all turned out to be not only great musicians but also very nice people and we had some excellent days together. The first concert took place on the Saturday 2nd August and was extremely well received by the audience. I introduced the concert myself from the podium and it is always such a pleasure when you are not the only person laughing at your jokes. The leader Frederik Oland turned out to be an excellent leader and he inspired the orchestra to a marvelous performance. All sections played extremely well and it was a great joy to conduct. We were rewarded with a standing ovation at the end.The day after, we had another concert and I was worried that we had discharged all our batteries on the first one. But with another packed hall, the orchestra recharged immediately and the success was a fact once again.

The finale of the festival took place on the 9th August when the classical guitarist Craig Ogden visited us. I knew before how good Craig is as I have worked with him before but the audience was left marveling at his playing. There is no doubt that Craig Ogden is one of the best guitarists in the world and he showed exactly that at Flakfort. Many of the pieces were well know guitar repertoire pieces but they sounded so fresh in Craig Ogden’s interpretation. Everybody was extremely pleased with how it went and for the first time, I had the opportunity to travel home on the same ship as the audience. The atmosphere was great and it was a very special moment to see Flakfort disappearing in front of the sunset.

Conductor goes underground

On Friday, the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan published a good article about me and the 'Music at the Fort' festival. It is in Swedish and can be seen here: http://sydsvenskan.se/nojen/article352240/Dirigent-gar-under-jorden.html

An amazing weekend

On Friday, some excellent musicians gathered on Flakfort, the former top secret military island where we now have our music festival. I had invited a group of leaders from some of the best orchestras in northern Europe. We had people from the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and even the London Symphony Orchestra. We had our first rehearsal on Friday evening and finished late in the evening. The musicians were absolutely marvelous and it sounded excellent even during the first rehearsal. We continued to rehearse all Saturday and in the evening we gave our first concert to a hall, packed to capacity. It went extremely well and I was especially pleased with our interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. The crowd was absolutely delighted and we got standing ovations at the end.

We were then worried that we did not have time to recharge our batteries as we had another concert on the Sunday. But my fears were calmed when one of the musicians told me that they had a saying in Denmark that if there is water in the swimming pool, then you start to swim. And there was plenty of water in the shape of a packed hall! And the musicians played excellently again.

It was very nice to work with such top class musicians. They seemed to enjoy it too and the general feeling after the concert was that we have to do it again. And I certainly agree – now when we have put together such an excellent string orchestra, it would be a shame not to play together again.
So I hope to be able to let you know when we are playing again soon…