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Sweden's ice-cool winter music festival
The Vinterfest classical music festival in Sweden takes place in the snowy depths of winter in the middle of nowhere, but that only adds to its magical appeal
* Periodico the guardian Wednesday 12 December 2012 09.18 GMT

Classical music fans travel on skates and sledges to enjoy the concerts at Sweden's Vinterfest
A strip of mist hovers likethin gauze over the frozen Lake Orsa which shimmers under a blue sky as we squeak and swish our way across the ice, equipped with ice studs and hi-tech Swedish skates. After 20 minutes' skating, the Konsertlada comes into view on the lake's edge – this cosy, barn-like structure in the hamlet of Vattnäs, in Mora, central Sweden was recently built by international opera star, and local girl, AnnaLarsson and is one of the most picturesque locations of Vinterfest, a chamber music festival with an icy twist.
A key attraction of Vinterfest is its artistic director and internationally acclaimed clarinettist, the aptly-named Martin Fröst, who, if your knowledge of the clarinet stops at Acker Bilk, will open your mind. Not only does he bring his classical music friends from around the world tothis isolated spot, he has ensured the festival embraces the locality and its amenities, so every possible venue from DIY stores to MOT centres, libraries, fitness centres and art galleries has been roped in to stage events.

"We're in the middle of nowhere and the festival takes place in the depths of winter," Fröst tells me between concerts. "Many people thought these were the very reasons whythis festival (now in its seventh year) would not work, but I think these are precisely the reasons why it does."
We tread over the pine branches that have been strewn like a green carpet at the entrance to the Konsertlada to prevent us from sliding on the ice, past the "sparks" – the local sledge – by which several audience members have travelled here, and take our seats just as Kerstin Avemo, oneof Sweden's best-known sopranos stomps through a side door. Clad in her winter boots and shaking off her fur hood, she emerges like a butterfly, in a mint-green chiffon gown and pale pink heels and charms the audience with Schubert's Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel.
I sit in my socks, hoping they will have dried by the time the French pianist Julien Quentin is through with his exquisite renditionof Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat major. It's that kind of festival – no one seems to mind what would be considered a breach of etiquette at a concert hall in Stockholm or Vienna. Here they have come, dressed in their thermal underwear and snow boots, purely to lap up as much world-class music as they can towards the end of what has been a typically long, dark winter.

Mora is in the heartof Sweden, the county of Dalarna famous for the national symbol, the wooden Dala horse and the longest cross-country ski race in the world, the 90km (56-mile) Vasaloppet. The Vasaloppet tracks, which run directly outside my hotel window, are open to anyone. A highly effective way of winding down is to combine some vigorous skiing through the powdery snow of the pine forests with a dose later thatevening of Martin Fröst in the Älvdalens church as he charms the haunting tones of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet from his clarinet. The church's interior is bathed in a pompeian red light for the early evening concert. It is the time of day the Swedes call den blå timmen (the blue hour), and the shade of the sky seen through the church windows slips from lilac into a deep purple, adding to thedramatic atmosphere.

The landscape hardly gets more Swedish than Dalarna, with its deep-red wooden houses and farmsteads, the snow-dusted landscape, the icy lakes and towering frozen pines in what is one of the most thinly-populated parts of Europe. The bears and elks which are very much at home in the forests around here are currently enjoying their winter slumbers, though talk at the Frysksas...