Last Thursday, we travelled the "Norway in a Nutshell" trail by train, Flam Railway and ferry from Oslo to Bergen for four performances over two days at the Bergen International Festival. This marked the end of our music tour. We farewelled our fellow travellers on Monday morning, had a quick catch up coffee with Marg and Mick McK (just in from Dublin and heading off on a Hertigruten Cruise) and returned to Oslo by train.
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| The final destination...Bergen International Festival |
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| Hard to leave my hotel room with this view from the wall of windows...the view at ground level |
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| Hotel on left hand side |
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| West Norway Museum of Decorative Arts |
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| Laburnum |
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| Lilac |
We visited Edvard Greig's villa, Troidhaugen, for a piano recital of his music in a small hall overlooking his composer's hut. It's located about 10km from central Bergen.
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| Local pianist, Martha Berit Belt |
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| Honeysuckle azaleas - such a sweet smell! |
Both evening performances were at Håkonshallen which dates to the early 13th century. It was rebuilt after extensive damage in the Second World War. The Edward Grieg Choir performed his last work, Four Psalms, and a work from Ole Bull...a Norwegian violinist and composer we would get to know far better on the second day!
Here's another character that we kept coming upon in Denmark and Norway - Ludvig Holberg. Yes...of Grieg's Holberg Suite! A writer and philosopher in the early 18th century, he was also born and lived in Bergen.
Saturday morning saw us strolling along the waterfront to the ferry wharf and an hour trip to the small island of Lysøen which was the home of Ole Bull. He was also born in Bergen. Most famous in the 19th as a virtuoso violinist and composer, he was called "The Paganini of the North". His statue was outside our hotel!
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| Wooden boats line the shore around Bryggen - a UNESCO listed series of Hanseatic commercial buildings |
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| Varied landscape on the trip to Ole Bull's island |
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| Our destination - the villa was built in 1873 as a summer residence |
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| Here we saw American violinist, Noah Bendix-Balgley, accompanied by Austrian Christopher Traxler, perform music by Bach, Brahms, Block and Ravel. |
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| Again beautiful flowers everywhere... |
Returning to Bergen in the afternoon, I had to stroll down the alleyways of Bryggen for a coffee or two and some retail therapy prior to the farewell dinner and final performance. It was a very long day....
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| Our final performance was by young American pianist, Charlie Albright - a name to watch out for! He played it all - Beethoven, Chopin, the Danish National anthem, improvisations and jazz and was well received by the mainly local audience. |
