Photo & © Tina Schuster
After a busy morning, I met up with Tina, her mother Steffi and Florence at Hötorget at lunchtime. After floral purchases and lunch I rushed on to the Central Station to meet my dad, and then we walked through the crowd down to Musikaliska at Nybrokajen 11, where this afternoon Stockholm Student Singers would give its spring concert with a special guest artist – Helen Sjöholm! At the concert Hall we also met Kristina, as well as other familiar faces.
The crowd was festively dressed, some of them even gala dressed, and I felt a little out of place in my blue jeans. Soon we were sitting in our places on the very first row. The concert started slightly late, and just as the choir started singing a choir member rushed on stage while he frantically tried to get his clothes in order. He became, through song, rejected by conductor Pelle Olofson.
Such small high-spirited and for students typical elements proved to be a recurring feature during the afternoon concert. The easy-going songs and light humor was interspersed with more solemn tones in a meritorious way by an all-male student choir dressed in evening dress. Helen jokingly mentioned that this was what attracted her to appear at the Spring Concert; to perform together with stylish men in tails, after 1.5 years of maternity leave with diapers and porridge! Helen was wearing a long dress in black and purple. In addition, a pearl bracelet which we strongly suspected that her eldest son had made for her, as the creative combination of pearls undoubtedly brought to mind a child’s open mind.
According to the program sheet that was distributed for free at the entrance, the spring concert’s program would look like this:
ll Bandito (from the opera Ernani)
Guiseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Nachtwache (Op. 104 No. 1.)
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Lyrics: Friedrich Rückert
Arr: Pelle Olofson
Serenade
Franz Berwald 1796 – 1868)
Quartet: Daniel Nyström, Nils Alwall, Peter Linder & Tomas Jönsson
Vit natt
Godfrey Gräsbeck (1927 – 2010)
Lyrics: Boris Pusternak in Swedish interpretation of Ralf Parland
Soloist: Pär Jonasson
O klang och jubeltid
Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Arr: Pelle Olofsson
Guest soloist: Helen Sjöholm
Soloists: Mattias Lundström med Jonas Ekman & Søren Westerberg
En sång som handlar om sig själv
Franz Schubert
Lyrics: Tage Danielsson (1928 – 1985)
Arr: Martin Östergren
Guest soloist: Helen Sjöholm
Summer Night City
Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Arr: Claes Grufman
The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)
Lyrics: Anonymous (from the Oxford Book of Ballads)
PAUSE
Pikse Litany (Litany to Thunder)
Viejo Tormis
Lyrics: Ain Kaalep based on a magical incantation
Soloists: Paul Girgensohn & Anders Norell Bergendahl
Sov tills jag kommer
Maurice Karkoff (1927 – 2013)
Lyrics: Harald Forss
Traumlicht
Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949)
Lyrics: Friedrich Rückert
Pierrot och månen
Einar Ralf 1888 – 1971)
Lyrics: Paul Friedrick in translation of CG Santesson
Man borde inte sova
Gunnar Wennerberg (1817 – 1901)
Guest soloist: Helen Sjöholm
Aftonen
Hugo Alfvén (1872 – 1960)
Lyrics: Herman Såtherberg
Kvällen stundar
Wedding poem from Malung, interpreted by Jan Erik Lindquist, processing Gunnar Hahn
Soloist: Nils Alwall
Gabriellas sång
Stefan Nilsson
Lyrics: Py Bäckman
Arr: Pelle Olofson
Guest soloist: Helen Sjöholm
Du är min man (encore, not in the program)
Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Guest soloist: Helen Sjöholm
The concert, themed “night”, lasted much longer than we had thought, more than 2.5 hours. Every now and then in addition to the voluminous program – and to the earlier mentioned spex elements – the choir sang one or two of our most famous student songs, such as Sköna maj and concluding Sjung om studentens lyckliga dar. Moreover, the spex elements, mentioned before. When Helen would make her entrance a choir member entered the stage crawling, pushing a giant meatball in cardboard, while the choir was singing Bella Notte. Long white wires symbolized spaghetti in this portrayal of Lady & The Tramp’s romantic dinner. At the other end of the cord spaghetti was – of course – Helen. An odd but very entertaining entrance!
Helen was in good shape and took the chance to joke with the choir when the music and lyrics gave her opportunity. She also talked about her own, as well as ‘her’ father’s, time in various choirs.
In the second act, before Helen tuned up in Man borde inte sova, the conductor Pelle Olofson was placed, asleep and wrapped in a blanket, in a comfortable chair, and a few choir members sang Sov du lilla videung, with contemporary and personalized lyrics. Other playful elements were eg when some of the choir members entered the scene with placards, where they demonstrated against the mockery, or when one of them came running, just before a song, with a fire extinguisher.
What impressed most, besides Helen, was a very difficult song; Pikse Litany, which the choir sang in South Estonian!
After the encore Helen took command by stomping on the floor and start to sing Du är min man (You Are My Man) a capella! After applause and flowers, I bid my friends goodbye to go with my father to a restaurant for dinner. We were both happy and satisfied after a very entertaining concert!