Vinterfest: Mid Winter in the depths of Sweden's Siljan Lakedistrict

Written by Ilyas Khan
Published: February 9, 2014 at 10:23 PM [UTC]

I went again this year to a magical classical music festival that gets better each year. Vinterfest (the website is www.vinterfest.se ) takes place each year during the first or second weekend of February, hosted by 3 towns in the impossible to describe beauty of Sweden's Lake Siljan area. The towns are Mora, Orsa and Alvadalen. Even the names of the towns sound musical dont they ?

I wish I could simply describe a highlight, but that would be impossible. The combination of a landscape that forms the basis of all our imagined Nordic winters, and towns that could not be more evocative if they were captured on some watercolour painting all come together with some of the best contemporary musical talent, all performed in intimate settings with fabulous acoustics.

Vilda Frange, Torleif Thedeen and Hidemi Suzuki were stunningly brilliant, but the star for me was the swedish cellist Jakob Koryani. if you have a chance to listen to this guy perform, then please do so. Better still, if you ever have the time, come to the festival. Its everything that a classical music festival should be, with the bonus of a setting that cannot possibly be described. Oh yes, pack your winter woolies !

Ilyas (who took his violin just so it might be inspired to co-operate a bit more)

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