I first heard the fearless Norwegian tuba player Øystein Baadsvik in the Aho concerto (review). I say fearless, for anyone who’s brave enough to play this instrument in a solo capacity deserves a medal of some kind. He’s since recorded several tuba discs for BIS – the Aho piece was subsequently reissued on BIS-SACD-1685 - all of which have found favour on these pages. The master of ceremonies here is the indefatigable Christian Lindberg, who has impressed me a great deal as both trombonist and conductor; in the latter role his recent Stenhammar recording deserves special praise (review).
The Arctic Philharmonic, one of the world’s newest – it was formed in 2009 – also has the distinction of being the most northerly on the planet. It’s not a band I’ve encountered before, but given Lindberg’s work with diverse ensembles – most recently the Royal Flemish Philharmonic – I’d say they are in very capable hands. That’s evident in the three-movement Baadsvik concerto which although not an instant hit grows more delightful with each hearing. Directed with commendable flair and enthusiasm the piece also highlights Baadsvik the soloist’s dexterity and finesse. His secure, nicely nuanced tone us nothing short of remarkable; the essentially songful central movement and its quiet, sustained close are simply gorgeous.
What I find endearing about this concerto is that it never overworks its material or outstays its welcome; that’s more than I can say for the stern, somewhat lugubrious Ness piece, a Baadsvik commission. Curiously the start brings to mind the deathly tread of Mahler’s Abschied; not what Ness intended, I’m sure. The liner-notes rather unhelpfully describe his current style as a blend of ‘post punk and ambient music’. I’m bemused by such statements, especially when they don’t offer an obvious entrée to the music being played. The composer doesn’t help by describing the title thus: ‘Bogey Thresher is a threshing machine for ghosts, i.e. a machine designed to harvest spectres.’ Despite some virtuosic playing from Baadsvik there’s rather more chaff than wheat here.
Lindberg is not at all precocious about Panda in Love, which he explains is nothing more than a juxtaposition of personal experiences and ‘mental images’. I suspect if instruments were animals the tubby tuba might just qualify as an Ailuropoda melanoleuca; indeed, the instrument’s full, ripe lower registers are very much to the fore and this, together with nimble rhythms, whoops and scale-like passages, makes for an inventive and witty display. The recording is equally impressive, although it does benefit from some extra ‘wellie’ — i.e. volume.
Two of the three concertos are well worth hearing; Baadsvik shines throughout.
Ge Gan-Ru: Fairy Lady Meng Jiang - Lovers Besieged
BIS
CD
$21.99Jan 28, 2014
• Chinese composer Ge Gan-ru, whilst studying music at the Shanghai Conservatory, earned the designation of “China's first avant-garde composer”.
• Flautist Sharon Bezaly, heard here, is the Concerto for Flute's dedicatee.
• Enrique Diemecke leads the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.
Grieg: Cello Sonata; Grainger: Scandinavian Suite / Brantelid, Hadland
BIS
SACD
$21.99Apr 14, 2015
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Wonderfully-played Nordic, or Nordic-inspired, music from a Swedish-Danish cellist and Norwegian pianist.
– Gramophone
5 Stars (out of 5) Brantelid's feverish energy, tonal and textural range add something new. The Andante has a glistening innocence, while the sense of rough, spontaneous dance in the finale pulls the music closer to its roots. That feisty quality ignites the Scandinavian Suite of [Grainger]...Nielsen's poignant Op. 21 song 'Just bow your head, oh flower' is an inspired encore. Blink and you could be sitting in a sunny wooden parlour in Funen, Denmark.
– BBC Music Magazine
Although they were born forty years apart on opposite sides of the world, Edvard Grieg and Percy Grainger have much in common. The aim to become pianists and composers more or less forced both of them to leave their native countries – Norway and Australia respectively – in order to gain access to the great central European tradition that so dominated musical life during the second half of the 19th century. Grieg enrolled at the Leipzig conservatory in 1858 and Grainger at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1895, but their experiences were in many ways strikingly similar: both made progress as pianists, but neither of them found the German approach to the teaching of composition fruitful. Grieg’s strong attachment to Norwegian folk music made it difficult for him to compose in a way that conformed to the Germanic ideal, while Grainger some forty years later withdrew from the composition class at the conservatory in order to study privately. He too would find his greatest inspiration in folk music traditions, as exemplified in La Scandinavie for cello and piano, a suite of arrangements of Scandinavian folk songs. The two composers met in 1906, in London, and not surprisingly they got along famously. The meeting led to Grainger visiting Grieg in Bergen the following year, only two months before the older composer passed away.
The Danish-Swedish cellist Andreas Brantelid and his Norwegian chamber music partner Christian Ihle Hadland have teamed up in this programme of cello works by the two composers, opening with Grieg’s celebrated Cello Sonata. They also include less well-known pieces, however, such as the composer’s arrangement of the Allegretto from his third violin sonata, and an Andante con moto intended as part of a never completed piano trio, in which they are joined by the violinist Lars Bjørnkjær. Discovered after Grieg’s death, the piece would have to wait more than 70 years before receiving its first performance.
Christopher Rouse: Flute Concerto, Symphony, Rapture, Etc / Bezaly, Royal Stockholm Po
BIS
CD
$21.99Sep 01, 2009
All of this music has been recorded before, but not so frequently as to make new versions redundant. BIS has released the Flute Concerto separately in a disc sensibly devoted to modern flute concertos. It's a very major work, more immediately appealing and just as emotionally gripping as the grittier Second Symphony. Christopher Rouse, for all of his roots in, and occasional glances toward, American pop music, is a very serious, sometimes genuinely anguished composer, even in a supposedly more "relaxed" piece such as Rapture. His direct emotionalism and intensity seldom let up, a fact that really good performances such as these never allow us to forget. As in the first volume in this series, Alan Gilbert and his Stockholm Orchestra sound quite comfortable in what must have been very unfamiliar musical territory, and Sharon Bezaly in the concerto is unbeatable. With excellent sonics, this second volume in BIS's very worthy ongoing series is just as recommendable as the first.
HK Gruber: Manhattan Broadcasts / Gruber, Cohen, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
BIS
CD
$21.99Jun 01, 2003
HK Gruber (b.1943) is one of the more refreshing of contemporary composers. His music is widely performed today, but since it takes time to become a household name many people have yet to make his acquaintance. Some background material is thus in order. This is how he presents himself on the Internet: 'Composer, conductor, chansionnier and double bass player HK Gruber (Vienna, 1943), is one of the most well-known and well-loved figures on the contemporary music scene, and yet he remains something of an enigma. Composing in his own highly individual style, he has been labelled 'new-Romantic', 'neo-tonal', 'neo-expressionistic' and 'neo-Viennese', but his music remains refreshingly non-doctrinaire - a deceptively simple and darkly ironic idiom which often includes a heavy dose of black humour. Berg, Stravinsky, cabaret and pop music are all influences, but whatever stylistic ingredients he uses in his works, he remains inimitably himself: one of the major talents of post-war music. Gruber's most popular and beloved composition, the neo-gothic 'pan-demonium' Frankenstein!!, was premiered in 1978 by Simon Rattle and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Sicne then it has travelled across several continents in several languages and in different guises: in concert, in staged performances, on television, and on film. Among Gruber's other compositions are a cello concerto writtten for Yo-Yo Ma, the percussion concerto 'Rough Music' and a trumpet concerto 'Aerial' written for Hakan Hardneberger and commissioned by the BBC Proms. His dramatic works include the apocalyptic opera 'Gomorra and Gloria'. This disc contains three important works by HK Gruber including his 'Cello Concerto' which is performed by Robert Cohen. The Swedish Chamber Orchestra is the eloquent band and the composer conducts the programme himself. Those of us who may sometimes be daunted by 'the dryness and abstraction of the content of the rigorous serial approach' will surely rejoice at Gruber's humour, enthusiasm and joie di vivre. At BIS we are very pleased at being albe to add his name to our catalogue.
Well known for her performances with early music groups and acclaimed for her performances both as a soloist and a continuo player, cellist Mime Yamahiro Brinkman presents here her first solo disc. For this release, Brinkmann has chosen a programme which takes the listener on a journey through the rise of the cello, from its beginning as accompaniments in church music to the well-loved solo instrument that it is today. Harpsichordist Bjorn Gavfert joins Brinkmann throughout this recording, and baroque guitarist Karl Nyhlin joins the group for the two Boccherini sonatas making this an outstanding recording for any cello lover.
Allmanna Sangen began its existence as a male-voice choir affiliated to the University of Uppsala in 1830, but was reformed as a mixed choir in 1963. Ever since, the choir has expanded its repertoire and stylistic range, often surprising audiences with its unconventional approach to familiar works and with collaborations across genres. On Femina moderna, the choir and its conductor Maria Goundorina present a programme with recent works by Swedish and international women composers: no less than ten of the thirteen works included were written in 2000 or later. Most recently composed is Anna Karin Klockar’s Speeches which in 2016 won first prize in a competition for women composers arranged by the choir. The competition, the Allmanna Sangen & Anders Wall Composition Award, was first held in 2014 in celebration of the choir’s 50th anniversary as a mixed choir. The winning work on that occasion, Sandskrift by Maria Lofberg, is also included on this disc, along with pieces by composers such as Lera Auerbach and Libby Larsen, Cecilia McDowall, Galina Grigorjeva, and Nana Forte.
