Baltica Amphibia

A festival learns to swim

Once, there was a dream: Let music unite the countries of the Baltic sea, let it build bridges between its nations and people. Never has this dream been so close to realisation as with the current edition of the "Baltic Sea Festival". This is, because the child of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tydén and Valery Gergiev is now embarking ontwo ships that will travel back and forth to Helsinki, presenting a great concert each time. Once the boats arrive in town, a spectacular program of world-class classical stars starts, featurung among others Helene Grimaud. Quite appropriately, the ships are called "Silja Symphony" and "Silja Serenade", the latter carrying up to almost 3.000 passengers and offering 7 bars, 6 restaurants, a "bubble bath", a beauty salon and a "skybar" (don't ask us, what that is, but it sure sounds good). There will be music in Turku, Talinn and Gdansk as well and the festival will culminate in a finale week of ten concerts in Stockholm. Tickets are still to be had, so do check out the festival's homepage for more information.

Homepage: Baltic Sea Festival
Homepage: PR2 Classic (Representative of the Baltic Sea Festival)
Homepage: Silja Line