Every year on December 11, the Nobel Peace Prize committee hosts a concert to celebrate the winner. This year the winner was Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, and apparently a skilled peace negotiator (he's brokered peace agreements on three continents).I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the concert. It may not have been the best seat possible, but it seems to have been one of the best seats you could get by buying the ticket online. I found much of the concert to be quite good, although there were a few acts I was not a big fan of.
From Swedish pop artist Robyn, to Jason Mraz, to Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä (playing a Stradivarius, no less), it was a concert with almost every type of music. I felt Mraz, Vähälä, and Il Devo were the highlights of the evening, but a coworker who also went was a big fan of Robyn's performance. Sean Kuti's African rythms and Dierks Bentley's American country music were not that great, but then again, those aren't my types of music.
If you have the opportunity to attend the concert in the future, I would definitely recommend it. Don't get me wrong, it's not always the greatest music (this year Diana Ross was the headliner, and I just wasn't impressed by her performance at all), but at the same time, how often do you get to go to a concert attended by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, not to mention Norwegian royalty?
Oh, by the way, people often ask why Alfred Nobel, a Swede, decreed that the Peace Prize should be chosen by a committee appointed by the Norwegian government and presented in Oslo, rather than in Stockholm like the other prizes. It's not a question anyone can answer with certainty, but it kind of makes sense. When Nobel died, Norway was in a union with Sweden, and the Norwegian parliament was only responsible for internal matters. It's widely believed that Nobel felt that a committee chosen by the Norwegian government would be much less succeptible to outside pressures as opposed to a committee chosen by Sweden. Oh, and Norwegians like to believe that Nobel thought they were less warlike than the Swedes, however true that may or may not be!
Wow!How lucky you are! That's really a cool and rare experience to go to the concert attended by the Nobel Prize Laureates and the Royalty.I wouldn't miss it if I were in Oslo.
I major in classical music and I play the piano and cello, so I'm a bit curious about the concert notably the Finnish violinist. What makes you think she is better than others?And why Diana Ross's performance didn't impress you? She's such a reputed pop singer!
I'm into your posts that really broaden my horizon cuz I didn't know much about the Scandinavian countries before. But now, by reading your articles, I'm getting to know about this region a bit. Thanks!
This is the first time I know that we can have the opportunity to book the ticket to the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Which website can I access to book a seat?
I wonder if we can attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony by buying tickets online after or before the concert. Also, in the article above, you don't like Sean Kuti's and Dierks Bentley's music, so which types of music are you fond of?
Tickets are usually available on http://www.billettservice.no. This year they went on sale on the 22nd of October, but apparently the date varies, and you have to watch the peace prize web site to know when it's going to happen. Unfortunately seating is rather limited (sponsors get a bunch of them first), so apparently it tends to sell out within about 15 minutes of the tickets going on sale.
I don't know about attending the actual award ceremony, though - it could be interesting to see though.
I have fairly varied musical tastes, Vanessa Mae, Sarah Brightman, Bette Midler, Michael Buble, Jamie Cullum, Jason Mraz, Trans-Siberian, Queen, and Ella Fitzgerald are some examples of my musical tastes. Country and African tends to be missing from that list, although surprisingly enough, I did discover a could of Dixie Chicks songs that I like - "Silent House" and "Not Ready to Make Nice", to be specific. Then again, one is obviously rather political and the other because I have a family member in the same situation.
Diana Ross spent half the time doing a greatest hits medley, which just seemed cheap, like she wasn't interested in really putting an effort into her performance.
Vähälä's performance just felt really solid to me, and classical music almost always seems to have more feeling than a lot (although by no means all) of the modern stuff. --That's not to say a lot of modern music isn't fun and that it shouldn't be a part of the concert (their reasons for including it are quite good - they want as many people as possible to watch the concert, either live or when it's broadcast to expose more people to the prize), it's just not normally as powerful, or at least to me it isn't.
In fact, Norway has a very interesting classical festival in July I'd like to go to if I have chance: http://www.lofotenfestival.com