My article in this week’s New European ‘Denmark’s Sounds of War’
An abandoned Second World War fortification, Fanø, Denmark © James Rodgers
For this week’s New European, I wrote about a concert where the music brought echoes of Europe’s war-torn past. There’s an extract here, and you can read the full article here.
FANØ, A TINY ISLAND off Denmark’s west coast, remains proud of its seafaring past. Superbly crafted models of wooden ships hang from the rafters of the island’s two parish churches.
Today, tourism rather than shipbuilding keeps the island’s economy afloat. In summer, the population of around 3,000 swells by thousands more, the majority of them from Germany. Hamburg is only a little over 300km away and Germany has relatively little coastline – Denmark has plenty of beach to share.
In the tourist season, churches double as concert venues, part of the Fanø Festival. Music from string quartets rises to the sails of the model ships. Swallows occasionally fly past the church windows, enjoying the last light evenings of the Scandinavian late summer.
That evening there was a reminder of something much more menacing, murderous even. Introducing the next piece of music, Roxanna Panufnik’s Hora Bessarabia, the double bass player, Kristina Edin, explained that it had been played at Auschwitz in 2017.
You can read the rest of the article here .
Sunset after a heavy rainfall, Fanø, Denmark, October 2024 © James Rodgers