Pippi Longstocking 75th anniversary on Play

The show is performed entirely in Swedish and suitable for children 3–8 years old, though the music is universal.

Recorded in Berwalhallen April 2020.

If not for her Krumelur pills, Pippi Longstocking would have turned 75 this year – an admirable age for the world’s strongest nine-year-old. The idea for Pippi came when war weighed heavy on the world and, as Astrid’s daughter Karin Nyman expressed in an interview a few years back: “There was a terrible longing for freedom, that nothing would oppress you, and Pippi stepped forward as the one who said ‘it’ll be all right, it won’t be like that anymore’. She became an outlet; for Astrid, too.”

“We are very happy that we get to celebrate Pippi’s birthday with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Astrid Lindgren’s World, in spite of the current situation”, says Johan Palmberg, great-grandchild of Astrid Lindgren and Rights Manager at The Astrid Lindgren Company. “We love all kinds of celebration, just like Pippi does, and we hope that this will be a ton of fun for all children who get to watch it.”

In the 1990s, Astrid herself described how many girls and women had told her how Pippi had helped them. “Many have said that she somehow empowered them. And that is understandable, because in every age it has been boys, boys, boys – and suddenly along comes a girl. At that point it’s natural that they start to think, that maybe I can, too.”

Pippi is a remarkable girl. Her mother is an angel in heaven and her father is king on a faraway island. She can care for herself just fine, doesn’t have to do anything for anybody else and won’t show respect for anything or anyone who does not deserve it. Pippi has been a role model to generations of children all over the world as well as proof that everyone can and is allowed to be strong and independent.

David Saulesco and Christina Hedlund

Music:
ARAM KHACHATURIAN: Galop from Masquerade Suite
JAN JOHANSSON: Här kommer Pippi Långstrump
GEORG RIEDEL: Mors lilla lathund
PER-MARTIN HAMBERG: Polisvisan
GEORG RIEDEL: Sjörövar-Fabbe
GEORG RIEDEL: Kalle Teodor
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Excerpt from Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major
GIUSEPPE VERDI: Excerpt from Triumphal March from Aida
JOHANN STRAUSS II: Excerpt from An der schönen, blauen Donau
JOHANN STRAUSS II: Excerpt from Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH/LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI: Excerpt from Toccata and Fugue in D minor
JACQUES OFFENBACH: Excerpt from Galop from Orpheus in the Underworld
GEORG RIEDEL: Sommaren är min
GEORG RIEDEL: Pluttifikation
GEORG RIEDEL: Sov alla

Approximate duration: 1 hr
Swedish lyrics to all Pippi songs by Astrid Lindgren.
Orchestral arrangements by Jonas Nydesjö, Jóhann G. Jóhannsson and Olov Helge.
The show is performed entirely in Swedish and suitable for children 3–8 years old.
Produced in collaboration with Astrid Lindgren’s World and The Astrid Lindgren Company.

You can experience the concert on Berwaldhallen Play