Personaltidning för anställda inom Holmen-Koncernen. www.holmen.com . Text & fotos: Bertil Axelsson
Kjeld Brandt coaxing magic tones out of his clarinet.
Magic on Bornholm
In the last few years Insikt has given Holmen employees an opportunity to describe attractive and exciting places in “My holiday suggestion”. Here is a recommendation of my own: next year why not visit the Danish island of Bornholm?
My wife Judith and I were there last year and I fell a little in love with this beautiful island with its rather calm pace of life - not here the usual bustle you can find in some holiday paradises. In addition, every year a jazzfestival is held in Allinge-Sandvig on the north-western tip of Bornholm. We were unaware of this when we went there last year and it turned out to be an added bonus, at least for me, as I like to listen to light jazz when I get the chance.
The pleasant stay we had on the island made us want to go there again. According to the printed programme, the jazz festival is the largest event in Scandinavia. Over a period of seven days eleven bands give as many as 35 concerts, most of them lasting three hours.
On a baking hot day in July we sat down in front of the stage in the harbour in Allinge, on which New Orleans Delight was performing. The music got through to me instantaneously. Kjeld Brandt on the clarinet was playing a solo. I don't know what it was called (and forgot to make a note of it), but the sound of the clarinet was like magic.
It proved to be a musical experience of the kind that you can have from time to time, though in my case not as often as I would like. It was so magical that I thought I simply had to write about it in my column. Taking my camera, I crouched down right in front of the stage and took a picture of Kjelld.
Besides excellent musicians, Denmark has many well-known authors. From 1905 to 1996 the scientist and poet Piet Hein lived in this country. He composed short aphorisms in verse form, to which he gave the name “grooks”. It's not easy to select any particular grook by Piet Hein (he wrote 7,000 of them), but here is an example:
Small people often overrate
the charm of being tall;
which is, that you appreciate
the charm of being small.
