Sunshine for the queen
The sun shone over the newly refurbished villa while HM Queen Sonja visited Lysøen on Wednesday, 27 May 2010.
As official patron for Ole Bull 2010, HM Queen Sonja is a most welcome
guest at Lysøen, Ole Bull’s island on the outskirts of Bergen. The
Norwegian government contributed 3.2 million NOK to restoring the
landmark, so in the months leading up to Bull’s birthday jubilee the
villa and island have undergone major renovation.
After
greeting the local inhabitants of Os at Buene Quay, the queen was
ferried to Lysøen. There she was greeted by Berit Høgheim, director of
Lysøen Museum, and Einar Skarbø, chairman of Lysøen Committee. They
were joined by the mayors of Bergen and Os, and the foursome escorted
the queen to the villa and told her about the renovation projects.
Extensive renovation
‘To
put it mildly, it did not look all that nice out here a month ago’,
says Berit Høgheim. So it was with tremendous pleasure that she was
able to present a refurbished island to the queen.
Bull’s
villa now has a new basement floor and a largely renewed roof. This
takes care of leaks from both above and below. Drainage ditches have
also been dug around the entire villa, so together with the basement
and roof projects, there are now far fewer worries for the
administrators of this historical monument. One major benefit is the
villa’s much improved indoor climate. In addition, improvements have
been made to Lysøen’s many trails, several textiles have been restored,
and Bull’s piano has been tuned.
Asked for an encore
The
newly tuned piano was played during the concert held in honour of the
queen. Violinist Vilde Frang and pianist Christian Ihle Hadland
performed compositions by Bull, with additional works by Robert
Schumann and Richard Strauss. The queen was so pleased, she asked for
an encore.
‘You will hear a humoresque by Sibelius for desert’, replied Frang.
This
was the first in a series of concerts held at Lysøen in connection with
Bergen International Festival 2010. Arve Tellefsen, Håvard Gimse,
Henning Kraggerud and Annar Follesø are some of the musicians
performing at Lysøen in the coming weeks.
Frang and Ihle Hadland will return to Lysøen for another concert on 5 June.
See the calendar for the concert program.
