Looking for Pettersson, Stumbling across Locatelli

Grant Chu Covell

[January 2013.]

Here’s another installment in what’s becoming a series on composers’ haunts and memorials (here and here). A trip to Stockholm took me to the Södermalm district, now one of the Swedish capital’s trendiest neighborhoods. Internet sleuthing reveals that Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) moved to a house on Bastugatan in 1976. The home, provided by the composer’s country as part of several awards, was a significant improvement over his noisy and cramped apartment located a few blocks away. Unfortunately, today a high gate blocks any view of the house, and there’s no marker. Apparently Ture Rangström (1884-1947), another Swedish composer, laid claim to the same address.

Pettersson’s house would have had a view similar to this:

Views up and down Bastugatan on a crisp fall morning.

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A different leg of the same trip took me to Amsterdam, and I discovered this plaque completely by chance:

Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764) lived in Amsterdam from 1729 until his death. Here’s the plaque again with some of Amsterdam’s ubiquitous bicycles.