"Some of the most beautifully played and appealing contemporary chamber and piano pieces you're likely to hear", said American Record Guide about the album Mezzotints – Chamber Music by Ståle Kleiberg. And now there is a follow-up: a new string quartet, two trio constellations and the song cycle ‘Do You Believe in Heather?’, which has given the album its title. Ståle Kleiberg is often called a "modern romantic", and for good reason. We encounter a distinctive and highly individual alloy of modern and romantic elements in his music, whether it is characterized by a still, meditative lyricism or an energizing vitality. His String Quartet no. 3 encompasses this entire range of expression. The music speaks of summer. It is imbued with joie de vivre, and was composed with a full command of the genre and with considerable virtuosity. The flute-viola-harp ensemble is less common, but by no means unknown. Following Debussy's Sonata, several trios have been composed for this ensemble, and Kleiberg's ‘Trio Luna’ is a fine and most welcome addition. The work's three movements capture the mood of three dissimilar outer and inner landscapes, all of them bathed in moonlight, albeit at different times of day and night. ‘The Light Smith’ is also a trio; it is a song cycle for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano, and is chamber music on a very high level of inspiration. Both ‘The Light Smith’ and ‘Do You Believe in Heather?’ are settings of poetry by the distinguished Norwegian poet Helge Torvund. These poems engage with such archetypal themes as light, quietude, love, death and nature, but they treat these themes as real, everyday experiences, rather than abstract concepts. While the theme of ‘The Light Smith’ centers on the beginnings, growth and culmination of life, it is autumn and winter we meet in ‘Do You Believe in Heather?’

The research on the musical cultures of faraway countries left it's mark on Poul Rovsing Olsen's (1922-82) oeuvre. He aimed at clarity and substance, and by fusing elements from the Occidental and Oriental traditions he developed a personal musical idiom that was unusual in Danish music. Poul Rovsing Olsen himself said that it was his dream "to make music as direct as possible, to bring it closer to the listener". This album features his last composition 'A Dream in Violet' and four world premiere recordings of his music for voice and instruments, including 'The Planets,' based on a block book from the 15th century. Poul Rovsing Olsen was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and subsequently in Paris where he studied under the highly regarded teacher Nadia Boulanger and the renowned composer Olivier Messiaen. Alongside his studies of classical music, Rovsing Olsen cultivated his passion for Oriental music and a great part of his life he dedicated to his professional work on ethnomusicology. His work in the music of distant countries also left it's mark on Rovsing Olsen's own music.

After Buxtehude in the 17th century and prior to Nielsen in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Niels Gade (1817-1890) was the most famous Danish composer. His extraordinary 1st Symphony of 1843 was premiered in Leipzig at the Gewandhaus conducted by Mendelssohn, who promptly offered Gade a post at his new conservatory. Gade later conducted the premiers of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Schumann's Piano Concerto. His music (he composed 8 symphonies, the 5th having an important piano part, a violin concerto and a Spring Fantasy for piano, orchestra and voices and a quantity of chamber and orchestra works) is superbly crafted, romantic but with a classical poise and form. The influence of his friends Mendelssohn and Schumann can be detetected, but there is a very definate Scandinavian feel to his music. Schumann wrote that he could detect 'the lovely beechwoods of Denmark' in Gade's music.

The 2 Novelletten are among his most successful works. Beautifully crafted, elegant and warm they are rewarding discoveries, and a good introduction to this neglected but important figure in 19th century Scandinavian music.

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Very pleasant additions to the romantic string-serenade repertoire.

Niels W. Gade’s Novelettes are charming, fresh additions to the romantic string-serenade repertoire. There are two sets, the first in F and the second in E, both dating from fairly late in Gade’s career. For those listeners who enjoy Grieg’s Holberg Suite, or the serenades of Suk, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, and Robert Fuchs, this style will need no introduction: elegant dances, lyrical melodies which rise and fall with a cool outdoor loveliness, the minor keys used merely for spice.

A standout moment might be the beginning of the second set, with its ambiguous slow introduction opening up to brighter things; the second set also features a gorgeous andante with a fine role for the cellos. The first also opens with a lovely slow introduction, and it closes with a finale that brings to mind Mendelssohn’s Octet with its light-hearted fugato opening and perpetual-motion effects.

This isn’t exactly at the top of the string-serenade ladder, not next to Tchaikovsky, Suk, and Dvorák. It’s not even on the second rung, where Fuchs and Dag Wirén reside. The first two Fuchs serenades were just released on a gorgeous Naxos CD which I’d recommend over this one if you only buy one pretty string music disc per year. It doesn’t help that the recorded sound, analog from 1981, is slightly glassy, or that the Aarhus Chamber Orchestra’s work as an ensemble isn’t as polished as that of the best chamber orchestras we have today. Another cause for slight hesitation is the booklet note, which profiles Gade so strongly that we only get 18 words about the actual Novelettes. The CD lasts just 43 minutes.

But please notice I only said slight hesitation! This is still lovely music, fresh and totally enjoyable, and an unquestionably fine way to pass 43 minutes’ time. It’s at Brilliant’s usual bargain price. That said, the same price gets you ten minutes’ more music (and more colorful music too) on the Naxos Fuchs album; though I usually wouldn’t recommend one composer over another in a review, I do listen to my romantic string music to satisfy a particular craving, or mood, and other composers fulfil that mood better than does Niels W. Gade. Still, this is very nice, and there is nothing wrong with very nice!

– Brian Reinhart, MusicWeb International

Berit Opheim Versto, folk singer
Gjermund Larsen, fiddle, hardanger fiddle
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir (Det Norske Solistkor)
Grete Pedersen, conductor

More than a century ago, the rhythms and harmonies of Edvard Grieg's music enchanted a whole world. What Grieg himself readily admitted was that these rhythms and harmonies had been absorbed during his journeys along fjords and across mountains, and his encounters with fiddlers and folk singers - such as the dairy-maid Gjendine Slaalien, whose 'bådnlåt' (lullaby) Grieg turned into a piano piece. But although the most famous, Grieg is only one of many Norwegian composers who have found folk music a deep and decisive source of inspiration. Combining traditional folk songs with recent compositions springing from folk music, the Norwegian Soloists' Choir on the present disc makes a compelling case for the powerful hold that this music has over the country's cultural life, in performances that easily makes one understand why! The choir's conductor, Grete Pedersen, has a constant eye open for the immediacy of folk music, but also its melancholy which, as she writes in her own introduction, 'always shines through, whether the tune is a wedding march or a lullaby, and whether it accompanies a religious song or a tale of a maiden abducted by trolls.' The choir's previous recording for BIS was a programme of Grieg's choral works, described as 'a performance of breathtaking beauty' in Le Monde de la Musique, and 'a reference recording, the likes of which one doesn't encounter every day' on website klassik.com. Already on that disc the Norwegian Soloists' Choir explored the music's roots in folk music, and going a step further in this direction, Grete Pedersen has now invited one of Norway's most respected folk singers, Berit Opheim Versto, and the fiddler and composer Gjermund Larsen to join her and the choir on their journey through 'the intricate landscape of folk music'.

Tracks:
1. Gjendines Bådnlåt
2. Jeg lagde mig så sildig
3. Jesus din søte forening å smake
4. Nådigste Jesus / Jesus styr du mine tankar
5. Med Jesus vil eg fara
6. Bruremarsj fra Valsøyfjord
7. Polonese
8. Gropen
9. Solbønn
10. Solistvals
11. Margjit Hjukse, Op.48
12. Allsang