Press Reviews

Press, SEMF 2012

"If you haven't already discovered this unique festival: don't hesitate next year!"
- Inger Alestig, Dagen

"[The] festival breaks through the walls between popular and posh... The only boundary not crossed is that of good taste."
- Thomas Anderberg, DN

"... a crash course in music history for everyone who loves music."
- Loretto Linusson, Aftonbladet

"You learn by allowing yourself to be entertained. Top notch pedagogy."
- Thomas Anderberg, DN

Press, SEMF 2011

"Stockholm Early Music Festival defies boundaries, breaks down walls... [It] has once again shown how indispensible it is to Stockholm's music life."
- Thomas Anderberg, DN

"...consummate music-making. Here's to the next ten years!"
- Fabrice Fitch, Gramophone

"Happy audience, happy musicians."
- Lars Hedblad, SvD

Visit the website for SEMF 2011...

Press, SEMF 2010

"The real 'love' festival.... international star status brings the people flocking"
– Sofia Nyblom, SvD

"...a real 'menu degustation'...... and with enormous public support"
– Thomas Anderberg, DN

"This is truly the most international and artistically the highest quality classical music festival this country has to offer"
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

"This year's Stockholm Early Music.....a superb festival"
–Hanna Höglund, Expressen

Visit the website for SEMF 2010...

Press, SEMF 2009

"To call this festival a gem would be to diminish it, it should rather be described as a jewel encrusted tiara, sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow."
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

"...if there is one event that Stockholm can not manage without, it is Stockholm Early Music Festival."
– Sofia Nyblom, SvD

"Stockholm Early Music Festival has become an utterly reliable source of pleasure, knowledge and enjoyment every summer. May it continue to enrich our lives for many years to come!"
– Kaj Engelhart, Kyrkans tidning

Visit the website for SEMF 2009...

Press, SEMF 2008

"Stockholm Early Music Festival presents the world's leading ensembles and is rewarded with a large and enthusiastic audience"
– Thomas Anderberg, DN

"An event which must surely be among the best of its kind in North Europe"
– Kaj Engelhardt, Kyrkans Tidning

"A performance of the highest quality which was rewarded with whistles and cries of 'bravo' from the audience"
– Lars Hedblad, SvD, about The Harp Consort

"No other festival, not even the Baltic Sea Festival presents so many leading international ensembles of such high class"
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

Visit the website for SEMF 2008...

Press, SEMF 2007

"Magnificent is the least one can say..."
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet reviews Les Paladins

"nothing less than a musical banquet"
– Sofia Nyblom, SvD

"a beautifully contrived musical display - pure magic"
– Sara Norling, DN describes Hesperion XXI

"It is an astonishing achievement in itself to scrape together every year the funds needed to produce this wonderful festival"
– Kaj Engelhart, Kyrkans tidning, The Church Times

Visit the website for SEMF 2007...

Press, SEMF 2006

"There is no doubt, Baroque music has rarely been heard with such a swing to it!"
– Thomas Anderberg, DN comments on La Púrpura de la Rosa"

"Music of the spheres ...For the fifth year in a row, Early Music Festival presented a long weekend of European stature, baroque tones otherwise all too rare in our barbaric nordic climes"
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

"...the audience's enthusiasm took on gale-force proportions"
– Carl-Gunnar Åhlén, SvD comments on Ensemble européen William Byrd's concert

"This is a festival Sweden really needs"
– Sofia Nyblom, SvD

Visit the website for SEMF 2006...

Press, SEMF 2005

"Almost brought the roof down in the German Church! Stockholm Early Music Festival was a fabulous success!"
– Thomas Anderberg, DN

"Stockholm Early Music Festival is in its own way as colourful an attraction as the Vasa ship. But there is one difference - the festival is kept afloat by the power of music."
– Sofia Nyblom, SvD

"a remarkable intensity - SEMF's success is largely due to the enthusiasm of the team of festival workers, from the artistic director to the volunteers checking the tickets."
– Andrea Braun, Concerto, Germany

Visit the website for SEMF 2005...

Press, SEMF 2004

"...perhaps the most superior festival we have in Sweden..."
– Claes Wahlin, Aftonbladet

"It is naturally a feather in its hat, that this recently established festival manages to bring such prominent guests to Sweden every year."
– Tony Lundman, SvD

"Stockholm Early Music Festival has found a tenable niche."
– Hans Wolf, Kyrkans Tidning

"...this year's festival - the most ambitious and varied so far, has found a natural balance between the new and the established..."
– Sara Norling, DN

Visit the website for SEMF 2004...

Press, SEMF 2003

"... gratifying is Stockholm Early Music Festival where variation, integration and quality are important ... exemplary throughout"
– Nora Roll, DN

"Divine? More than that. Also human."
– Örjan Abrahamsson, Östgötacorren, commenting Tallis Scholar's concert in the German Church 03-06-06

"This time, the Antique period was the most interesting alternative."
– Tony Lundman, SvD, about the Greek ensemble LyrAvlos, comparing the concert to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert the same evening at the Stockholm Concert Hall

Visit the website for SEMF 2003...

Press, SEMF 2002

"completely naturally, the central figure in the Stockholm Early Music Festival ... a heavenly gamba player. With the stroke of his bow Jordi Savall heralds a new festival with old music."
– Torbjörn Eriksson, Expressen

"Stockholm's music scene has been enriched by the advent of a new festival. ... the underlying idea behind the concerts was, sensibly enough, to stress quality rather than quantity…. Let us hope that the festival takes up a permanent place on the scene."
– Hans Wolf, DN

"perhaps most extraordinary is that it is the first time a festival devoted to early music has been arranged in Stockholm ... At last, many lovers of the baroque and earlier periods must be saying"
– Tony Lundman, SvD