The concert last night was AWESOME!! We got to Rådhuset (City Hall) at 8:30 and gathered on the steps until everyone was there. The Old City Hall was built in 1546 and it’s a very imposing building on Stortorget, faced by a giant verdigris green statue of Karl X on horseback.
When it was still a real city hall (it’s since been outgrown), it was lent to king Gustav IV Adolf for a year 1806-07, as he thought Malmö a far superior location to Stockholm in times of continental wars (and never liked Stockholm anyway) and chose to move the court here, effectively making Malmö the capital of Sweden for a year. Nowadays, it’s mostly used for conferences and large fancy dinners. We could see the gigantic 6-foot high crystal chandeliers from the main dining salon through the windows, sparkling like lit diamonds.
The inside is all carved and painted and decorated and just gorgeous, with little fanciful architectural details and painted ceilings and carved wood everywhere. Inside the salon where we warmed up, there were floor to ceiling oil paintings of kings and queens and other nobility, darkened with age and stiff in their finery. The room echoed and singing in it was great fun. The acoustics were actually a bit overwhelming.
We sang 10 songs for an audience of nearly 200 people and for the last song, I introduced Hårgalåten with an English translation of the story. It’s weird, I can sing a capella, even ALONE, in front of an audience with nearly no problem. But SPEAKING in front of an audience makes me literally shake with nerves. We finished to a standing ovation and a call for encore, which was hugely gratifying and unexpected. 🙂 Then we went down to the fancy restaurant in the vaulted cellars and were served salad and mushroom and asparagus pasta. I finally got the shaking reaction to stop at that point!!
We have another concert evening coming up on Friday, 2 different places, both outside, so it will be a very different experience, I’m sure!