Schweden Barock

Merry and artful, danceable and refined — these need not be opposites. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the music of minstrels and courtiers was actually not far apart at all. And the musicians who played it were often the same — only on different occasions and in different places.

Ida Meidell and Johan Hedin lead us back into the music of castle and country estates with Baroque violin and nyckelharpa, a kind of keyed fiddle that can sound similar to a hurdy-gurdy. For years now, both musicians have moved with assurance between historical performance practice and Swedish folk music. Ida Meidell performs with European Baroque ensembles, including François Lazarevitch's Musiciens de Saint-Julien. Johan Hedin is regarded as one of the most influential nyckelharpa players of our time and has profoundly advanced the old instrument through his own builds and playing styles.

As a duo — making its debut at the Korrö Folk Festival in 2019 — they trace precisely those resonances between the 18th-century Swedish minstrel tradition and European Baroque music that this programme recounts.