I performed Monteverdi’s Vespers in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm on Sunday 24th March 2019. Prior to this visit I had spent only a few hours in Sweden (in Malmö, on a day trip over the railway bridge from Denmark) so I took the opportunity to extend my visit over a long weekend that tied in with the cheapest flights. This opportunity had arisen at fairly short notice and my Mum (who lives on the Isle of Man) had already arranged to fly over to the UK to visit me and my wife (Jo) over that weekend. Rather than turning down the engagement or cancelling Mum’s trip, we decided that it was a great opportunity to visit the Swedish capital together - so that is precisely what we did.

We arrived at Arlanda Airport on the evening of Friday 22nd March 2019 and took an Uber to our AirBnB in the Huvudsta area, to the West of Stockholm’s city centre. This location would prove to be ideal as it was equidistant between the central station and the concert venue, and also convenient for travelling to the Drottningholm Palace. Our priority on arrival was finding dinner that evening. It seemed as if everything was going to be closed, so we were relieved to eventually find a cosy bar and pizzeria that was still serving.

Next morning, after purchasing our 72-hour tickets for the underground (Tunnelbana) we speedily moved towards the centre of Stockholm on the T10 line - part of Stockholm’s comfortable and immaculate underground railway network. We walked from the central station towards the Gamla Stan (old town) island, a historic part of the Stockholm archipelago - the largest archipelago in Sweden. We enjoyed a traditional Swedish breakfast in a tiny cafe and I learned a new word. ’Fika’ is quite difficult to describe as it is an idea, a state of mind and an important part of Swedish culture - and it doesn’t seem to be like breakfast, brunch, lunch or afternoon tea as these tend to happen at a particular time of day whereas fika could happen at any time. Fika seems to involve socialising over a hot drink and (an ideally homemade) cake, and it seems to be something of a Swedish ritual. We sat in bay window in this cosy cafe and we were able to look out towards the cobbled streets and well-kept 18th-century buildings nearby, while enjoying fika. After this we explored the narrow streets of the Gamla Stan and happened upon the Royal Palace just as the changing of the guard was due to happen. We waited for a few minutes and watched this ceremony of marching, bugle calls, natural trumpet fanfares and drum signals.

Next we walked over the Strömbron (the Stream Bridge), past the Grand Hotel and around the next bay (Nybroviken) towards the Performing Arts Museum (Scenkonstmuseet). We had to visit today (Saturday) as the concert was on Sunday and the museum would be closed on Monday. I had wanted to visit the Musical Instrument Museum (Musikmuseet) here and I was a little disappointed to learn that the Musikmuseet had closed in 2010 and only a few instruments had been curated into the public displays in the new Scenkonstmuseet, which opened in February 2017. Fortunately the museum was quite interesting and fun, and I did get the opportunity to see two instruments I was interested in: the first was an oboe da caccia made by Johann Heinrich Eichentopf in Leipzig in 1724 - the instrument has a brass bell and a decorated garland [and I have engraved (though the original is mostly stamped) a modern reproduction of this instrument]; the second instrument I was interested in was a contrabass trombone by Georg Nicolaus Öller made for the German Church in Gamla Stan in Stockholm in 1639. It was worth visiting just to see these two instruments alone, but I hope to return one day and see more of their collection of musical instruments.