Classical Music

Tomba sonora is a site-specific musical project for the mausoleum in the Emanuel Vigeland Museum in Oslo. The mausoleum is in effect one huge tomb, and it's reverberation time has played a key role in how this music has been conceived and composed by Kristin Bolstad; moreover, the room's special frequency response and the overtones derived from it are also used actively in the musical material. The positioning of the vocalists and the direction of the sound are among the many ways the acoustic qualities of the room's space are used creatively to shape the flow and movement of the music. To gain entry to the mausoleum one has to bend down low to get through a low, narrow opening. Just above this doorway is the urn which contains Vigeland's ashes, so this is an act of obeisance that has to be made by everyone entering the mausoleum. The mausoleum houses not only this urn but also Vita, his magnum opus, a work that consists of frescoes that cover the walls of the 800-square-metre room, which took him most of his life to complete. Vita depicts human life from conception to death, with hundreds of nude figures which, in scenes of intense intimacy, reflect both a Darwinian and a Christian perception of life. The acoustics of this mausoleum are a significant part of the multisensory immersive experience any visitor will encounter. The hard surfaces of the stone walls reflect the sound from all directions and one feels enveloped by it. Performers' interaction is also strongly affected by this reverberation, something musical phrasing has to take into account. The long reverberation calls for slower tempi, reduced dynamics, gentler articulation, and, not least, very patient listening. Perceived reverberance is measured by an acoustic parameter, and in a typical concert hall it would be 1-3 seconds. In the mausoleum of Vigeland the EDT parameter measures 13 seconds. The room insists that everything happens slowly. The music creates a room that is quieter than a room without sound, and we can only find our way to this quiet room by slowing down and giving time.

Polarity is an acoustic jazz project from Jan Gunnar Hoff and the Hoff Ensemble. Of the new release, Hoff writes: "My main goal is to create a specific identity for each album I make. This time I chose to involve Anders Jormin and Audun Kleive, two of Scandinavia's finest jazz artists. The result is Polarity, an album based on both new and older compositions of mine, recorded in a unique acoustic setting." Polarity has been conceived as a cohesive experience where the compositions themselves, the moments of spontaneous inspiration during performance and the natural sound world of the church acoustics all affect the final result. The compositions are inspired by actual experiences and particular states of mind. The album was recorded using state of the art technology called Immersive Audio. The listener is surrounded by music and can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions. Prepare to be fully enveloped in a cocoon of life-like audio.

Trachea, the windpipe. A source of transformation where the breath of a human being can be refined into the most beautiful, powerful, tender art. The voice is humankind's primeval instrument, plumbing the greatest depths of our emotional register. Schola Cantorum takes us through six unique musical landscapes that share something fundamental: This is music that celebrates the physical and spiritual, thinking and feeling human being - and at the same time poses a challenge. "I love the choir - this instrument which is so unpredictable, so personal. Each member sings with his or her own voice, communicating their own personal story, and my objective is to collect it all, unify and purify it, and hopefully make the Eros, the profound and inherent love, shine brightly by way of the instrument. Whether the music is complex or simple, the objective remains equal: to cultivate an energy and a timbre which merge with the composition, elevating it to something larger than the sum of all it's individual elements. It is during this encounter, where each individual forms part of something larger than themselves, that musical magic arises. This is what I seek. Those moments when the eyes of both the performers and our audience glow. This is the moment I know that we have succeeded." (Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl, conductor) Ever since Schola Cantorum was founded by composer Knut Nystedt in 1964, the chamber choir of the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo has had as it's prime goal to present contemporary choral works with a particular emphasis on Norwegian and Nordic composers.

I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures, is a quote from Anne Frank's diary, the book on which The Beauty That Still Remains is based. These are thoughts we must all take heed of, confronting injustice that does not strike directly at ourselves. This recording represents a deep musical engagement with such universal values as empathy and faith in the good that is in every person. Asylos deals with the contradictions of inclusion and exclusion, and points up the connection between the pilgrims of the past and the asylum seekers of our time. The Norwegian Girls Choir addresses the theme of the inviolability of human dignity. The music by Marcus Paus and Maja S.K. Ratkje frames, in contrasting ways, the power that humanity and hope carry with them even amid the most intense horror, and through testimonies of the past these works tell us how relevant these topics still are.

Classical Music

With Fryd (English- "Joy"), Cantus invites you on a musical journey that starts in the meeting of two significant female figures: Mother and Mary. We wish to make a tribute to the Norwegian mothers who each year conjure up Christmas for the children through all kinds of Christmas preparations. At the same time it is a celebration of the Christian maternal figure, Mary, who gave God's son to humanity. It is a meeting between the child in the manger, the new king, and the excited children longing for a Christmas filled with experiences and joy. In this way, these simple names- mother and Mary- embrace the message of Christmas and the exquisite joy we all know so well. With Fryd Cantus explores the musical traditions of Christmas from the older, little known folk tunes in original arrangements, to brand new contemporary music. The music is presented both a cappella and in collaboration with instruments like organ and zither.

After composing his three last symphonies in as many months in the summer of 1788, Mozart started out on another mammoth project - a trio for strings of truly symphonic proportions. This visionary work with it's somewhat unpretentious title "Divertimento in E flat major" revealed itself to be the quintessence of everything Mozart stood for as composer, craftsman and dramaturge. With it's six movements, a playing time of around 50 minutes and the grandeur of it's musical lines it puts all earlier chamber music compositions in the shade. Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein writes: "it is a true chamber-music�work and�grew to such large proportions only because it was intended to offer... something special in the way of art, invention, and good spirits... one of his noblest works."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

In this recording Tina Margareta Nilssen presents three piano works, each with a wide spectrum of expression and intensity. Two of them belong to the standard repertoire, but the third, by Signe Lund, is a practically unknown work, a real gem recorded here for the very first time. The Piano Sonata in E minor is one of Edvard Grieg's most equilibristic and passionate works. Signe Lund's beautiful music guides the listener through Norwegian nature, turbulent stormy weather and the French salons. And in Beethoven's famous "Appassionata" sonata one can hear the struggles and suffering that ultimately led to his creation of a whole new era of music.

Classical Music

Life, with its extraordinary diversity, brings both light and darkness, and the tension in between is something everyone has felt. In the course of a lifetime we get to know every degree and every nuance of light and shade. And it is precisely the experience that light can be shut out for long periods that makes the full richness and potential of life seem even stronger when light returns. The electroacoustic "Vers la Lumière" connects the classical works for piano on this album to make an uninterrupted whole. Through reflection and innovation David Bratlie's transitions represents a contemporary voice, and it provides continuity, and looks ahead, on this musical journey with Antonio Bibalo, Franz Liszt and Olivier Messiaen. Immersive Audio is a sonic sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially; surrounded by music you can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions. Dolby Atmos and the Auro-3D on this Pure Audio Blu-ray delivers a new standard in immersion, fully enveloping the audience in a cocoon of life-like audio.

Classical Music