Sundsvalls Tidning 130224
By: SUSANNE HOLMLUND
Review Tonhallen
Sundsvall Orchestra Association – Anniversary concert
Conductor: Fredrik Burstedt
Soloists: Anna Stadling and Helen Sjöholm, vocals
Choir Florus Chorus
Pekka Hammarstedt, guitar
Host: Lars T. Johansson
Music by: L van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Peter Tjajkovski etc.
Sundsvall Orchestra Association was formed on February 27, 1913, and its first concert was performed in front of an audience of 400 people and started with Beethoven’s Overture to Prometheus.
Yesterday, 100 years later, the concert began with the same overture, like all anniversary concerts over the years. But the crowd had grown to twice its size, and the podium was now a big memory bank: soloists Anna Stadling and Helen Sjöholm, old members returning home to take part, School of the arts’ teachers and students, musicians from the chamber orchestra – they’re all in one way or another products of the Sundsvall music scene, where the orchestra association is, and has been, a backbone.
And there probably was an extra dimension of pride that rang from the orchestra this afternoon. Equipped to full symphony orchestra with big brass, harp and well attended string strength itpresented a repertoire with the full, powerful and impressive orchestral sound that is rarely heard in Sundsvall nowadays. The monumental cathedral building in the last set of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Bernstein’s explosive overture to Candide, a mixture of musical rapidity and wonderful choral tunes. Alexander Borodin’s polovtsiska dances, a magnificent work with virtuoso whirling dances, heavy rhythm and one of the symphony world’s most beautiful melodies, almost ethereal when Florus Chorus’ bright, clear and buoyancy girls’ voices approached it.
Conductor Fredrik Burstedt, also a returnee, is distinct and specific and guided the orchestra with fine results through tricky technology; pulled out delicate nuances and built a good overall sound with the steady brass at the bottom. He also temporarily reclaimed his old place in the violin part while the orchestra’s latest permanent conductor, Stig Robertsson, entered the stage to lead his own pieces: two fresh-sounding Latin dances with finesse, humor and a light-modernist splash.
Even for popular singers, it must be a dream to have the volume of a full symphony orchestra and a good choir in the back, a hundred men that give the song a rarely heard resonance and tonal depth dimension. The straighter tougher Anna Stadling, the softer, very expressive Helen Sjöholm, both are true professionals with voices which in a way also are very similar.
In the country-sounding “A thing called love” Anna Stadling was backed up by a fine phrasing girls’ choir and in “Ring of Fire” flames grew out of the strings. When Helen Sjöholm sang one of her signatures, “Gabriellas sång” both the angel choir and the string force emphasized her life’s declaration, and the to the last place crammed Tonhallen literally boiled. Lars T. Johansson as a happy and relaxed presenter also contributed to the joviality, as did Patrik Källström’s fine orchestral arrangements.
An orchestral sound to remember, a success, a joyful birthday party which the orchestra association really deserves to experience – and almost everything homemade, springing from their own soil. This underlines how important it is to maintain and continue to nurture the fine tradition of music that generated all these forces and make such moments possible. “Thank you for the music in Sundsvall” said Anna Stadling said. You simply have to agree.