HARMONICA AND ORGAN - AN UNUSUAL DUO. The world's smallest and the world's largest musical instrument; "David and Goliath" together in stunning baroque pieces and Norwegian folk music.

Sigmund Groven and Iver Kleive have collaborated for more than 30 years and have built a repertoire consisting mainly of baroque pieces and Norwegian music, most of which they have composed and arranged themselves. Even though they have chosen very different instruments, and are also quite different personalities in many ways, they have a fundamental musical rapport and understanding and also have many other things in common. They both originate from musical families; born and raised in Telemark, a region of Norway rich in folk-music, they have always had an open mind and taken keen interest in various contemporary and popular musical styles and idioms. They left Norway to study, and their mentors were the best possible role models: In Munich Iver came under the guidance of organist Franz Lehrndorfer and legendary choirmaster, conductor, and organist Karl Richter, whereas Sigmund had the great fortune to study in England with his boyhood idol, the equally legendary Tommy Reilly, one of the great pioneers of serious harmonica-playing.

Hybrid SACD + Pure Audio Blu-ray two-disc-box at the price of one ordinary Blu-ray
5.1 SURROUND + STEREO produced in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352kHz/24bit)
The compact disc looks like a normal CD and plays on all standard players and computers

This 2-disc set consists of a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players plus an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc of the same music playable only on Blu-ray players.

The magic of a "time machine" brings Percy Grainger's original performance back to life in this modern surround-sound recording with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rolf Gupta. Edvard Grieg himself bears witness to the validity and authenticity of Grainger's interpretation through his own enthusiastic endorsement: "I had to become sixty-four years old to hear Norwegian piano music interpreted so understandingly and brilliantly. He breaks new ground for himself, for me, and for Norway. And then this enchanting, profound, serious, and childlike naturalness! What a joy to gain a young friend with such qualities!"

In 2007, conductor Rolf Gupta gave the first Norwegian performance of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor with the legendary Australian pianist Percy Grainger (1882-1961) as the posthumous soloist. On this recording, the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra accompanies Grainger's original and controversial interpretation of the concerto. In addition, the violinist Øyvind Bjorå and pianolist Rex Lawson perform Grieg's Violin Sonata in C minor. The recording also includes a handful of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, performed by the composer himself. Astonishingly, these performances have not been available to the public until now.

Two different instruments have facilitated Grainger's and Grieg's encounters with the KSO/Gupta in modern times. Grainger plays on a form of musical time machine, the Duo-Art reproducing piano, which is something like an analogue predecessor of the computer, powered by an electric suction pump, and controlled automatically by perforated rolls of paper. Grieg, on the other hand, has been restored to life by means of a foot-pedalled pianola, played by Rex Lawson. For this recording, both instruments were fitted in front of a Steinway concert grand piano and re-performed the playing of Grainger in 1921 and Grieg in 1906.

In this recording, The Norwegian Girls' Choir has chosen Norwegian folk songs, music from the national romantic tradition and hymns that we love to sing. Some of the songs have been specially arranged for this album, while others have been part and parcel of the choir's repertoire for a long time — in fact from before some of the choir's present members were even born. You can hear beautiful lullabies and some of the choir's favorite Grieg songs; you can hear songs full of charm and songs full of gravity, songs of love and songs of sorrow, songs of birth and songs of death. The Norwegian Girls Choir is a choir with proud traditions. The choir is composed of singers from the Oslo area, admitted through auditions. It is an independent continuation of The Norwegian Broadcasting Company’s Girls Choir, established in 1947. The choir has an important place in Norwegian cultural life, and it has fostered a number of well-known singers, musicians and artists. The choir’s ambition is to be a choir school that helps the singers to develop into independent musicians and artists, and to create a musical expressiveness that involves not only the singers themselves but also audiences.

Can the dualism of life, nature and art be expressed in pure music? This is the question the multi-talented composer Flint Juventino Beppe - formerly known as Fred Jonny Berg - has set out to answer. The album Remote Galaxy is a journey in time and space, a journey given meaning by the album's music and philosophy. The music is uncompromisingly honest, with a genuine power of it's own. Using well-known acoustic technology, the composer takes US to some unusual and, for most of us, unknown places. Remote Galaxy continues the journey of 2L's Grammy nominated album Flute Mystery, and again the Philharmonia Orchestra is conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy to interpret these adventurous scores. The composer's deep spiritual interest in nature, philosophy and space is as central in the universe of Remote Galaxy as it was in Flute Mystery. Beppe's music leaves a unique fingerprint in the artistic world: there is quite simply nothing like it. The individual and inventive nature of his orchestral works demands a rich palette of instruments and an extended use of woodwinds, brass and organ. As solo instruments, the intense but delicate sound of the clarinet, the scope of the flute's range of expression and the special characteristics of the rarely used viola da gamba make for an inimitable atmosphere captured in 2L's innovative surround sound technology. With the introduction of height channels, acoustic reflections create a natural sound presence originating from both around and above the listener.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ came to Nidaros. With these words the Icelandic Annales regii of the year 1165 recorded the arrival of a drop of Christ's blood in Nidaros, today known as as Trondheim in Norway. As often occurred with important saints' relics, Christ's holy blood and it's arrival in Trondheim became the central theme of an ecclesiastical feast. This feast was called Susceptio sanguinis and was celebrated annually on September 12th. Today the Nidaros holy blood relic has disappeared, and many regard the medieval cult of relics as heathen and utterly fanciful. If we choose to focus on the main idea lying behind the Annales regii, namely the theme of the redemption of mankind flowing from a substance that descends from the divine, we might understand the cult's long-standing attraction. Schola Sanctae Sunnivae and conductor Anne Kleivset perform the first recording of the Holy Blood Office.

This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players.
Includes gregorian chant(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Consortium Vocale Oslo. Conductor: Alexander M. Schweitzer. Soloist: Mario Guillermo Ojeda.

It is common to date the beginning of the Renaissance to the mid-14th century. From the ashes of the Black Death emerged a society that was fundamentally changed , and to a large extent saw itself as re-born - formed a new. It cannot be a coincidence that this transformation first took place in the very parts of Europe that had been at the centre of the Roman Empire when at it's strongest, in Italy. Florence became the main powerhouse of the new Europe, and from there the Renaissance spread rapidly, bringing an intense cultural flowering to France, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. It is in these countries that Nordic Brass Ensemble has assembled the repertoire for "European Tour" - music arranged specially for this ensemble by Hans Petter Stagnes and Stian Aareskjold. Modern brass instruments have a hsitory going back to the Jaissaries, the Ottoman sultan's special military corps. Contact between Renaissance Europe and Islamic culture helped determine how European culture, and in particular it's music, would develop in this period. Nordic Brass Ensemble is made up of musicians from symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in the Nordic countries, and it has always played early music.

In the early romantic period, struggles with absolutism's collapse led people to find new solutions in communal life. Another vision of society emerged, shaped by artists who viewed a higher world order in nature through synthesis of all the arts, to be felt by the individual, ushering in new freedom of stylistic decisions, especially in music. The virtuosic sonatas for natural horn and fortepiano by Danzi, Ries und Nikolaus von Krufft offer stunning horn and piano dialogues. They explore the full range of timbres, flamboyantly surpassing classical structures in search of new modes of expression.

Following on from the award winning recording of MOZART's violin concertos with Marianne Thorsen, TrondheimSolistene team up once again with the recording company 2L for their new production. This album features a selection of some of the finest and most technically challenging repertoire for string orchestra, and includes repertoire by Benjamin Britten, the Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz, the Norwegian composer Terje Bjørklund as well as Bela Bartok's seminal work for string orchestra the Divertimento. DIVERTIMENTI is the first music-only recording to be made available commercially in the ground breaking format of Blu-ray. A true world premiere!

The divertimento as a musical genre dates back to the nineteenth century. Divertimenti were composed for various social occasions and were intended to be light, uncomplicated and cheerful. Such pieces were often scored for small string ensemble. Over the years this effortless, elegant form has appeared in many different musical styles and, to a large extent, set the standard for the virtuosic chamber music we know today. A number of the most prominent composers of our age have engaged with this most fascinating musical style and have contributed to its further refinement as a chamber-symphonic showpiece.

Hybrid SACD + music Blu-ray
5.1 SURROUND + STEREO produced in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition)
The hybrid SACD looks like a normal CD and plays on all standard players and computers.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This disc gave me one of the strongest musical experiences I have ever had.


Do not be repelled by the album’s title or by the morbid picture on the front cover. This is not a gloomy collection of gruesome, death-obsessed music. This beautiful and diverse vocal music is, in particular, unified by reflections on death, the acknowledgement of its presence in - or after - our life. Only in the last song, Mussorgsky’s Field-Marshal, is Death openly terrifying.
 
The “golden thread” of this programme is Shakespeare’s poem Come Away, Death from The Twelfth Night. Out of more than twenty settings, three were chosen. All of them treat the text as a tragic renunciation - despite it being originally placed in the context of a merry comedy. These three short songs are like way-markers on the path through the album, separating three longer works.
 
The setting by Korngold opens proceedings. It is lyrical and almost operatic, with frequent switches between major and minor. The melody moves in slow, steady waves. The mood is close to Purcell’s Dido’s Lament: this is a calm acceptance of death, with bitter sorrow, but without protest. The setting by Sibelius is, I guess, in Swedish. It is stern and bare - the darkest of the three. The music conveys both dread and foreboding. Despite being very sparse, it leaves a feeling of heaviness, of a hard and cold tombstone. Finzi’s setting adopts the pace of a funeral cortege and the ceaseless slow swaying of a tolling bell. The melody is poignant, with distressing accents: here the hero is definitely not agreeing with his fate! This version is more theatrical, less personal than the other two: the music ascends like a thorn bird rising to the skies. It is also the most beautiful version, and the melody is haunting. It stayed with me for a long time.
 
Wolfgang Plagge set four poems by Edith Södergran. There is no explicit mention of death in the poems. However, they can be interpreted as pondering the subject. The music is boldly dissonant and creates a feeling of fragility and strength at the same time - as if depicting a strong yet emotional personality in deep depression. The accompaniment is sparse and effective. These settings succeed in their aim to “reproduce and reinforce both the ascetic and the uninhibited aspects of Södergran’s incomparable language”, as the composer strove to do. Although very modern, the music grips and enthralls with its interplay of white light and delicate glass, of cold rain and warm wind. The match with the words is tight and delicate. Kielland’s dark velvety voice brings the songs to life - frightening, poignant, stirring. This is a very memorable and beautiful work. 

HVIL is described by its creators as “the Earth’s plea to humankind”. There is no translation, and there probably cannot be any, for the Earth speaks an eerie language, whispering and shouting out words in clusters. If you know Norwegian (and Latin) you’ll probably be able to decipher those long long words; the rest of us will need a translation, which is absent. I understand that a detailed explanation is not feasible - still, I would have expected to receive a little more information. As it is, I can only speak about the effect of the sounds, without really understanding the meaning of the words. The effect is spectacular. The piano part lies in the lowest and highest registers. In between, the voice cries out: a desperate plea, dark and intense, and at the same time fragile. The voice jerks and thrashes about as if in fever. The music descends to the lowest reachable areas. Kielland is a marvel; her voice is powerful in all the registers, and she shows great affinity with the work. This is the most persuasive advocacy for the Earth’s plea: I don’t understand what the singer is saying, but I feel that I totally agree with her. The music is atonal: the Earth does not care about our ridiculous conventions.
 
The programme is closed by a strong, memorable performance of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Grammatically, in the Russian language, Death is feminine. Thus a woman’s voice is more suitable here than the customary bass or bass-baritone: we hear Death speaking, not someone retelling her words. And among the female voices, the lower one surely has a better claim to the work, due to its darker connotations. So, Kielland is already in a good starting position - but a good start is not enough. What she does, how she sings, what she makes out of these songs, is absolutely awesome. Lullaby, this female counterpart to Erlkönig, is a gem of the musical theatre, and Kielland sculpts each word as if she lived it, with absolute identification in all roles. This is one of the cases where it is borne home to the listener that music is not just about accurate note-rendering. If you have children, by the end you’ll be half-dead yourself.
 
The text of the Serenade is rather verbose, without the dense action that we encounter in other three songs. Kielland compensates by giving us some magnificent opera singing. Her diction is very good, and the Russian pronunciation is praiseworthy. She conveys the feeling of restrained power, which finally uncovers itself in the explosion of the last notes. Trepak has the grim dare-devilry, which we know from some pages of Boris Godunov - especially the role of Varlaam and the Kromy scene. In the midst of the winds and blizzards whipped up by Osadchuk, Kielland sings with raw abandon. The ending is a soft consolation. The Field-Marshal puts a huge exclamation mark at the end of the recital. The images of the battlefield are shocking, and Death’s monologue is terrifying. Kielland’s voice is strong and cuts deep like a blade through butter. The ending is devastating.
 
Throughout the disc, the contribution of the pianist Sergej Osadchuk is invaluable. The power and expressiveness of his playing matches those of Marianne Beate Kielland’s singing. He has to handle difficult scores, and he does it boldly, yet his technique always serves dramatic purposes. In the liner-note, Kielland recounts the conception of the album. The works are described - by the creators where they are still living. We have bios of the performers, all this in English and Norwegian. Complete texts with English and Norwegian translations (where possible) are provided. As usual for this label, the recording quality is exemplary. I listened on an ordinary CD player, but even so I was amazed by the quality of the surround. If something can persuade me to buy a SACD player at last, it is this disc. I just want to hear what the “real thing” can be, if the plain-CD reduction has such a feeling of space and presence. Kielland’s voice is captured most vividly and is presented as if a shining gem on a velvet bed.
 
There are experiences in life that you remember, although they may not be pleasant. Some of them are musical. They make you think, maybe even change. They clean the pipes of your soul. This disc is one such experience: a work-out for the psyche. Our souls need exercising not less than our bodies do - especially in these times when we consume so much emotional junk food. And, just like the effort and the tension of sport, the process does not necessarily induce an enjoyable feeling, but in the end you are glad you did it … and so it is here. Unless even the mention of Death is taboo for you, consider hearing this disc. There may be no joy in this enjoyment, but there is much beauty, sincerity and high art. This disc gave me one of the strongest musical experiences I have ever had. 

-- Oleg Ledeniov, MusicWeb International  

BULL Sæterjentens Søndag . Violin Concerto in A. Concerto Fantastico in e. I Ensomme Stunde. La Verbena de San Juan. Et Sæterbesøg • Annar Follesø (vn); Ole Kristian Ruud, cond; Norwegian RO • 2L 67 (Blu-ray audio: 69:21)


& SACD


Tall, preternaturally handsome Ole Bull captured the fancy of concertgoers in Europe, and in the United States as well. In fact, at a time when classical artists like Henri Vieuxtemps had trouble making inroads in the American hinterland (supposedly after an initially disappointing reception, he composed his first set of variations on Yankee Doodle ), Bull made immediate connections with his program of atmospheric, sentimental, and technically dazzling pieces that he had composed himself—and always with his audiences in mind. Nevertheless, as had Paganini, whom he idolized, before him, he proved himself able to win the admiration of first-rank composers. The opening work on this program, Sæterjentens Søndag (The Herd Girl’s Sunday Morning), represents just such a simple song, one that must (and seems calculated to) have drawn an admiring tear from his listeners. Annar Follesø gives an appropriately sensitive and atmospheric account of it (with the accompaniment arranged for orchestra by Johan Svendsen), along with Ole Kristian Ruud and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. The two concertos, recently discovered, represent the more virtuosic side of Bull’s personality. The first, in A Major, opens with a long and symphonically conceived tutti, with some of the quieter passages sensitively orchestrated. The soloist enters with a showy cadenza that must have been in part just what Bull’s audiences wanted—and even expected. The writing for violin sounds like a (derivative?) mix of Paganini’s pyrotechnical wizardry and De Bériot’s suave tunefulness. Still, many listeners may doubt that Bull has integrated his thematic materials as successfully (or at least consistently) into the passagework as did his contemporaries the Henris (Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski). But Follesø displays the natural virtuosic flair to play some of these seemingly aimless passages without retaining his tongue in his cheek, as well as an affinity for the concerto’s genial ethnic harmonic and melodic atmosphere. The brief slow movement also opens with an extended orchestral passage; but the soloist claims the limelight upon his entry in an affecting passage on the G string. The Rondo pastorale that brings the concerto to a close features thematic fireworks in double-stops, and while some of the later material grows almost maudlin, Bull always manages to hold his listeners’ interest.


The nominally programmatic Concerto fantastico (with movements representing night, dawn, and day) also begins with a long tutti and features even more flamboyant passagework, which Follesø plays with aplomb. As in Bull’s Concerto in A Major, the streamers seem to be stretched pretty thinly over their underlying framework. Once again, though, Follesø (and Ruud and the orchestra) play their roles without sounding smugly superior to the program. The slow movement, built on a simple, heartfelt tune, sounds affecting in the same way as did the other concerto’s corresponding movement. The finale, a short but intoxicating romp with lyrical pauses for breath, seems even more shrewdly calculated for effect than does the other concerto’s finale. Once again, Follesø provides a rollicking, technically dazzling account. I Ensomme Stunde (La Melancolie), here arranged by Johan Halvorsen and Wolfgang Plagge, offers Grieg-like fare like that in Sæterjentens Søndag . The more extended fantasy, La Verbena de San Juan , however, with its percussion-rich orchestration, sounds like a sort of Norwegian counterpart to Sarasate’s ethnic concoctions, although it seems to go a step further in local color. According to the notes, Bull wrote it for Queen Isabella of Spain upon the occasion of a tour in 1846. The queen, again according to the notes, enjoyed Bull’s music—and perhaps other attentions. According to the notes, Bull incorporated Sebastian Yradier’s Jota Aragonesa out of gratitude to that composer; audiences should recognize it. They should also recognize Sarasate’s whistling harmonics (also familiar from Paganini). And Bull, as did Sarasate, incorporated left-hand pizzicatos liberally in his works. Follesø is equal to the challenges both these techniques pose.


Et Sæterbesøg includes references to folk fiddling with drones that I’ve always associated with the Hardanger fiddle or at least its style. The notes relate that, coupled with the words to Sæterjentens Søndag, it’s become a part of Norway’s cultural heritage. For those inclined, as many have been, to dismiss Bull as a sort of musical charlatan, the lyrical outpouring in the song’s middle should invite at least a second look. Arve Tellefsen played a program of Bull’s music for violin and orchestra with Andrew Karsten and the Bergen Symphony Orchestra in 1988 (Norsk Kulturraå ds Klassikerserie 50008), including two works on Follesø’s, Et Sæterbesøg, I Ensomme Stunde , and the Adagio sostenuto from the Concerto fantastico . Tellefsen’s version of Et Sæterbesøg takes advantage of bells to enhance the mountain atmosphere, and his “Hardanger” sounds twangier, even if he doesn’t draw as deeply affecting a cantabile from its lyrical passages (or those of I Ensomme Stunde— though Tellefsen’s version of the concerto’s slow movement throbs with a warmer expressivity despite his edgier tone production).


The Blu-ray version (audio only), to which I listened (although I used the CD version of Follesø’s program in making the comparison with Tellefsen’s program), provides extraordinarily sharp definition, hardly losing clarity in the midst of a somewhat reverberant setting. Whether or not this medium will offer relief to listeners fatigued by the roughness of even the best CDs, in particular in recordings of violin tone, it represents an improvement over CDs, as did DVD-Audio, among formats dependent on high-storage media (the sound: 24 bit and at least 192 kHz, with a choice of 5.1 DTS HD, 7.1 DTS HD, or 2.0 LPCM). Notes in the highest registers hiss and spit, yet with a relaxing smoothness and stimulating three-dimensional (a metaphor only) projection. The entire program, in this rich smorgasbord of formats, should appeal to lovers of the violin and perhaps to general listeners as well. As did Paganini and figures like Sinatra and Presley, Ole Bull represented a cultural phenomenon that should interest at least historians. His success in his own time demonstrates that, at least to the extent that his effect didn’t depend on his personality, genuine musicality underlay his work. It’s apparent in this collection. Recommended on that account, as well.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

What is the music of the Nordic light? Let yourself be transported to a new world of sound as the chamber choir Schola Cantorum and conductor Tone Bianca Dahl, with guest musicians Are Sandbakken and Nordic Voices, grant you an AUDIENCE. Hear one of Norway's leading choirs in premier recordings and modern classics.

Hybrid Super Audio-CD 5.0 SURROUND + STEREO produced in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352kHz/24bit)

Ståle Kleiberg’s concertos unfold in the space between poetry, passion and playfulness. This is contemporary music with which listeners can easily engage, but which does not for one moment compromise artistic quality. “I try to form the musical expression so that it corresponds with my experience of life; or, to put it another way, to form it so that it is in accord with my conception of what it means to be a human being,” says Kleiberg about himself and his music. When the pandemic hit the world with full force in 2020, preparations for this album had been under way for some time. A recording involving a symphony orchestra and three soloists can hardly be arranged on a Monday and executed on a Tuesday – to put it mildly. There are many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that must somehow find their place. When Norway went into lockdown in March 2020, the pieces were ready, contracts and agreements signed, and the recording dates booked. We wondered how it would all pan out. We even wondered for a while if the recordings could take place at all. Fortunately, the flexibility and the readiness to find creative solutions to new problems shown by everyone involved meant that we were able to get the job done in spite of all the difficulties. In fact, we experienced a personal presence and greater attention to detail than ever before, rather like recording chamber music with the sonic palette of the full orchestra.

Trio Mediæval’s collection of hymns and lullabies — intimate songs as old as time and as new as tomorrow: this is music with no boundaries, celebrating our common humanity. We’ll never know the first song or the first singer, and we’ll never know what they sang about. But if time could unwind and we could hear it, perhaps we would witness a mother or a father singing the first lullaby. When we sing a hymn or a lullaby we become a link in a chain that began in the unknowable past and will stretch into the infinite future: a timeless continuum of solace and comfort. The new lullabies by Anders Jormin and Sinikka Langeland began in their heads as little musical gifts for real children, and are here sung for all of us by three singers who have sung many a lullaby to their own children, aided and abetted on this album by Trygve Seim, and Mats Eilertsen, fathers both. Hailed as a "fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty", Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first album Words of the Angel in 2001 launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience. Formed in 1997, the Grammy nominated vocal ensemble consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018. Trio Mediæval has recorded eight albums for ECM Records. Solacium is their first release with the Norwegian label 2L.

HOME, the latest solo jazz piano album from Jan Gunnar Hoff, can be seen both as a homage to and as a statement of belonging to northern Norway, with its naked landscape and its Arctic location. The title can also allude to a quest for identity, both from a personal and from an artistic perspective. All these sentiments and aspirations find expression in the music on this album. Many of the pieces here are interpretations of well-known themes, while others are original compositions by Hoff. Some of the pieces are completely improvisatory. “In May 2021 Morten Lindberg got in touch with me and asked if I could make a solo recording in Stormen Concert Hall in Bodø. With open minds and very few pre-conceived ideas we went ahead and, broadly speaking, took things as they came – the way we felt at the time, the actual piano and the concert hall itself determining what we recorded for two days in August that year. This album does not aim to present a particular genre, with all the expectations such a commitment might carry, but rather to give each number its own shape and style. When you interpret text-based songs instrumentally it’s best to keep a sharp focus on melody, rhythm and phrasing. By freeing the phrasing of the melody from the constraints of a fixed tempo, I can put more strength and intensity into my interpretation, and broaden and embolden the melodic material.” (Jan Gunnar Hoff, 2022)