BEETHOVEN Trio in G for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano, WoO 37. Serenade in D for Flute, Violin, and Viola, op. 25. Piano Trio in B?, op. 11, “Gassenhauer” • Oslo P Chamber Group • LAWO 1034 (SACD: 69:28)


Here is an absolute winner: a disc of early, lightweight Beethoven chamber works, superbly and charmingly performed by members of the Oslo Philharmonic.


Per Flemstrøm, Per Hannisdal, and Gonzalo Moreno open the program with one of Beethoven’s earliest surviving works, the Trio in G Major for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano, WoO 37, believed to have been written sometime around 1785 by the 15-year-old composer while still living under the family roof in Bonn. It’s fairly certain that the piece was composed for domestic use by the Westerholt household, whose daughter was receiving piano lessons from Beethoven, and whose father and son played bassoon and flute, respectively. The piano part is quite advanced, which tells us that both the young Beethoven and his pupil, Maria Anna, were already quite technically accomplished. Of particular interest is the last movement of this not insignificant work, a fairly sophisticated and well-worked-out theme and variations, which foretells of the importance variations would play in Beethoven’s later works. The piece is not without a number of prior recordings, but Flemstrøm, Hannisdal, and Moreno play with such verve and vivacity it’s hard to imagine a performance more delightful.


Fairly early in his career, Beethoven ceased composing serenade and divertimento-type chamber works intended for domestic music-making by the amateurs among his wealthy, aristocratic patrons. Written in 1801, the Serenade in D Major for Flute, Violin, and Viola, op. 25, is the last of such pieces, though it’s not certain who the intended recipients were. The somewhat odd scoring—flute, violin, and viola—which renders the piece a bit bass-shy, is almost sure evidence that Beethoven had a particular trio of players in mind; as an accomplished violist, perhaps he even wrote the viola part for himself. In any case, the piece conforms, more or less, to the six-movement layout of such works, though the composer substitutes a scherzo for the fifth movement in place of what would traditionally have been a second Menuetto.


The Serenade has enjoyed several more outings on record than has the WoO 37 Trio—some of which, like those by James Galway and friends on RCA and the Gaudier Ensemble on Hyperion, are truly excellent—but none surpasses the current performance by flutist Flemstrøm, violinist Elise Båtnes, and violist Henninge Landaas.


Most frequently recorded and best known of the three works on the disc is the Piano Trio, op. 11. One has a choice, however, as to the instrumentation in which one prefers to hear it. Composed in 1797, Beethoven originally scored the piece for clarinet, cello, and piano, but the Trio was published the following year with an optional violin transcription of the clarinet part to be used in the absence of a clarinet. The nickname by which the piece is known, “Gassenhauer,” derives from the last movement’s set of variations, which is based on an aria, “Pria ch’io l’impegno” from Joseph Weigl’s comic opera, L’amor marinaro ossia Il corsaro , a tune which became so popular that people were heard humming, whistling, and singing it in Vienna’s Gassen (lanes).


Many piano trio ensembles—i.e., violin, cello, and piano—include op. 11 in their surveys of Beethoven’s canon of standard piano trios, designating it No. 4, which results in the trios following it being bumped up in number by one: the “Ghost” becomes No. 5, op. 70/2 becomes No. 6, and the “Archduke” becomes No. 7. The work is performed here in its original scoring for clarinet, and, like its companions on the disc, it’s beautifully done. Leif Arne Pedersen’s clarinet is as sweet as honeyed nectar, and while Beethoven’s writing for the cello is not as technically challenging as it is in the op. 5 sonatas, which were composed for Jean-Pierre Duport, one of the great cello virtuosos of the age, cellist Bjørn Solum finds felicities of musical detail in the part that are often glossed over by other players. For clarinet versions of the trio, this performance easily matches in stature another recent favorite of mine by David Shifrin, David Finckel, and Wu Han.


Adding to the pleasure of the Oslo’s disc are the refinement and elegance of sound achieved by this Lawo SACD. Very strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

BEETHOVEN Octet in E?, op. 103. Rondo in E?, WoO 25. Symphony No. 7 • Oslo Kammerakademi • LAWO 1036 (SACD: 61:52)


The Oslo Kammerakademi, a wind octet, was formed in 2009. This is their first CD. They are members of a variety of Oslo-based ensembles, including the Oslo Philharmonic and the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Each player performs with the caliber of a soloist, and together they make a beautiful sound. The Artistic Director is oboist David Friedemann Strunck. Their CD is very distinguished. In Beethoven’s early Octet (for unexplained reasons titled the “Parthia” on this CD), the opening Allegro is sprightly and full of charm. The natural horns, employed throughout the CD, contribute spice—even barking at times. The ensemble’s balances here are especially good. In the next movement, an Andante , the playing is mellifluous and lyrical, with distinguished solos. Occasionally a shadow falls over the music, which the players render sensitively. The third movement’s Menuetto features especially fine ensemble, while the Trio has a ghostly tinge. The Octet finds a chattering, comic element in the Finale. It is hard to imagine the Octet being played better. For the Rondo, the group performs Beethoven’s original version with expanded horn parts. The horn playing is particularly nimble, while the group’s other members contribute subtle and gracious solos.


The apparently anonymous arrangement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for wind octet and double bass was published in 1816, the same year as the original work. On the assumption that a piece with trumpet parts, in this arrangement taken by natural horns, always would include timpani, the Oslo Kammerakademi has added the original timpani part to their version. The result may not be particularly authentic, but it does make the pulse race. In the arrangement, the final movement is substantially cut. The Oslo Kammerakademi’s speeds for the whole Symphony are basically leisurely, more Bruno Walter than Roger Norrington. The tempos permit much expressive playing. The introduction to the first movement has an especially warm sound. The flute solo at the start of the Vivace is given here, perkily, to the oboe. The Vivace sounds alternately exciting and convivial. The players take the exposition repeat. What Carl Maria von Weber considered the Symphony’s madness still comes across, and the movement’s coda sends a shiver up your spine. In the Allegretto , the opening tune is played beautifully by the two bassoons and the double bass. The tempo almost is dirge-like. In the second subject, the ensemble performs with uncommon warmth. The movement’s fughetto passage features ghostly clarinets. The Presto sounds like Rossini, with chattering pairs of winds. In the Trio, the arrangement evokes the sound of the original very well. In the last movement, the clarinets take on the original violin parts with licks that are almost klezmer-like. The arrangement very cleverly maintains the original’s excitement. The Oslo Kammerakademi gives us a wonderfully new and insightful way to listen to this great work. This is highly distinguished playing.


The sound engineering of the CD layer is superb: full, warm and excellently balanced. I was unable to hear the SACD layer. Let us hope for more CDs by the Oslo Kammerakademi. Their Beethoven offers playing that is as accomplished as that of any chamber music ensemble in the world, regardless of genre.


FANFARE: Dave Saemann

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both SACD and standard stereo players.

"Bach: Sonatas" is the fourth recording in Kåre Nordstoga's series of Bach's complete organ works. The main works on this double-CD are the six "Trio Sonatas".
As a definitive collection of etudes, the trio sonatas are for classical organists what Czerny’s studies are for pianists. Playing the organ requires the ability to manoeuvre independent lines in both hands and the pedals, and this is perfected playing Bach’s sonatas. In the words of Bach connoisseur Albert Schweitzer:
"To this very day they are the Gradus ad Parnassum for every organist. Whoever has studied them thoroughly will thereafter encounter scarcely a single difficulty. The slightest unevenness in touch is heard with appalling clearness in this complicated trio playing.
The sonatas are a book of study not only for performers, but for composers as well. Bach’s private lessons for gifted students required a repertoire for the study of the noble art of polyphony. At the same time, this is concert music and art in its full complexity, where the art of polyphony is cultivated alongside the most moving melodie."

After having worked on several pieces for bandoneon and orchestra in recent years, I felt the urge to present some of my chamber music. All music featuring the bandoneon inevitably conjures up associations with tango, and yes, my music is no exception, most apparent here in my works for bandoneon and string quartet, Violent Tenderness and Polaco. In opposition to these two works it was important for me to find as much contrast within the ensemble and the works as possible. So I landed on piano, cello, baritone voice and bandoneon in my ensemble GLO2020, for the piece Kykelipi, with lyrics by Jan Erik Vold. My aim is to expand the repertoire of the bandoneon by bringing in new sources of inspiration such as French chansons, German ‘lieder’, soul, contemporary music, Norwegian lyric and folk music, and even the Polish national anthem.

I’ve also brought in a new percussion instrument, the lurk. The desired result is to create something completely fresh where the listener can recognize the bandoneon sound and the tango rhythms but also be knocked out by the modern tonality, unpredictable chord combinations, the madness, humor, as well as some serious existential questions. Since I’m known to often use somewhat dissonant intervals such as tritones and seconds, I jokingly call my music TANGST (a combination of the words tango and angst). This can easily be translated into other languages too, such as Tanguish (in English), Tangústia (in Spanish), Tangoisse (inFrench) and Tansia (in Italian). Let me stress though, that this music is Tangst con brio or Tangst giocoso! (Per Arne Glorvigen)

“Impromptu — Works By The Young Signe Lund” is the last of two albums featuring the composer’s total output for piano. The first one, “Étudespoétiques” (LWC1196), was released in 2020.The works on this recording date from the years of Signe Lund’s youth up to her breakthrough around 1900. Piano music that could not be included for lack of space is available on the digital release Malgré moi accessible on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal and other digital platforms. Rune Alver has many years of experience performing Grieg’s music at the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen. He maintains an extensive concert schedule as soloist and chamber musician with performances throughout Europe and in Russia, China and South Africa. In 2013 he per-formed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Rune Alver collaborates with leading musicians, actors and visual artists in traditional and more experimental contexts. He has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums, among them the complete piano works of Johannes M. Rivertz and David Monrad Johansen.

Ssens Trio is out with its third release on the LAWO Classics label. This release spotlights Norwegian music. With this deep dive into the Norwegian repertoire, Ssens Trio wishes to call attention to four works for string trio deserving of inclusion in the international string trio repertoire. The album is called “Ricercare”, the title of the last work on the album, composed by Bertil Palmar Johansen, but it could have been used for the other three works as well. “Ricercare” means to search out or explore, the very elements we find in Johan Kvandal’s String Trio, op. 12. The work stands out in Kvandal’s longlist of piano pieces and songs from this period. It is his search to find his own musical expression in a new European music. Finn Mortensen’s Trio, op. 3 was the first of his works ever performed in a public concert. The three instruments follow distinct lines in their dynamic interplay, each retaining its individual tone. We find many of the compositional means from this debut work further developed in Mortensen’s later works. In Edvard Fliflet Bræin’s “Trio”, op. 15, variations are created by twisting and turning the musical motifs and themes. The entire work is composed in one movement, with a fresh rhythmic playfulness between the instruments, and with metric shifts and changes in sound and register. Bertil Palmar Johansen’s string trio begins with an old-fashioned “Ricercare”, set up as an expansive instrumental narrative in which the texture alternates between free and strict linearity. Inherent in the work is a search for new paths in an effort to weed out our tonal expectations.

The music on this release has been written by composers who often work within the audiovisual medium. When working on their creations, they are in dialogue with a starting point, a story, an expression, their surroundings, and an emotion – a series of images and actions that require interaction. This is a premise which fascinates me. This release is a collection of music by composers who quite specifically relate to music through dialogue. At the same time, I wanted the composers to concentrate on the cello as a solo instrument and make music that at least in this context does not necessarily conform to a cinematic expression.

When the uncompromising duo Elisabeth Holmertz and Kenneth Karlsson finally release their long-awaited album on LAWO Classics, we find Norwegian and German contemporary music on the menu. On “Botschaft des Ridicolas” we hear “Got Lost” by Helmut Lachenmann - a 30-minute-long wild and poetic work that has become a modern classic, and which is supposedly one of the composer's own favorites; the quiet, sensual, melancholic “Meditasjon over Georges de La Tour XVII” by Jon Øivind Ness; and finally Rolf Wallin's desperate, punk work “...though what made it has gone.” The texts performed here are by eminent poets such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Fernando Pessoa, Paal-Helge Haugen, and Osip Mandelstam.

Holmertz and Karlsson have closely collaborated for many years: first and foremost as a duo, but also in their more experimental group, Vollen United, where they perform a mixture of baroque, improvisational, and contemporary music. Elisabeth Holmertz elegantly jumps between styles and expressions, her repertoire ranging from classical lute ballads to opera and avant-garde contemporary music. In 2020, she completed her PhD in artistic research at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Kenneth Karlsson has been the Artistic Director and pianist of Cikada since 1989. He has also performed in several improvisation groups over the years, most recently in the quartet Point 4 with Jon Balke, Ingar Zach, and Bjørn Rabben. He has toured all over the world, both as a soloist and with various ensembles.

On the album “Light Shall Shine” organist Anders Eidsten Dahl performs three works of Herman Vogt on the magnificent Carsten Lund organ in Bragernes Church. The release is the result of a collaboration over more than ten years between the performer and the composer. The music spans a wide palette in its tonal language, everything from simple and naivist music to complex polyphony. Vogt says himself about the music: “Working together with Anders has resulted in a very personal and inner-directed music and represents in large part a spiritual journey for me as composer.” The musical expression ranges from an inner, contemplative stillness to eruptive bursts of raw power, in many ways the church organ presented in all its symphonic breadth. Eidsten Dahl’s playing expresses the music’s true essence while allowing its power and vitality free rein. The works are presented here in reverse chronological order. The most recent of them — “Light Shall Shine Out of Darkness” from 2020 — is a wide-ranging composition in five movements, while the two earlier works — “Ré-sur-Ré...exit” from 2016, and “The Marvel of Turin” from 2012 — are individual one-movement pieces. All the works are based on Christian ideas and phenomena. The thematic content embraces central elements of Jesus’s teachings and Christian tradition, apocryphal texts, German Passion literature, Jesus’s resurrection, and something as concrete as a Christian relic. Herman Vogt has a master’s degree in composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music. His music has been performed in Norway and abroad by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, BIT20 Ensemble, Oslo Sinfonietta, pianist Ian Pace, violinist Geir Inge Lotsberg, and cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, among others.

On “Sonata Norwegica” recorder player Caroline Eidsten Dahl and Ensemble Freithoff present three Norwegian composers and one who is Swedish: Johan Henrik Freithoff, Georg von Bertouch, Johan Daniel Berlin, and the Swede, Henrik Philip Johnsen. The ensemble has selected music written in Norway and Sweden around 250 years ago, and it is virtuosic, ardent and original. Does a clear definition of Norwegian baroque music exist? Can one hear that the compositions on this recording are from Norway and Scandinavia? We believe the answer to both questions must remain ‘no.’ This music was composed a hundred years before National Romanticism’s clear definition of national character. Even so, there is little doubt that being outside the center of things can lead to a certain originality, perhaps more or less deliberately from the side of the composer. In spring 2007 Caroline Eidsten Dahl was one of three winners of Concerts Norway’s international programme “Intro-klassisk.” Since then she has distinguished herself as a soloist and chamber musician and has toured in Russia, China, India, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Her debut album on the LAWO Classics label received glowing reviews. This is her second album with LAWO.

Gisle Kverndokk writes: “Melody is something I have been passionate about throughout my career as a composer. Crafting a melody that is captivating yet simultaneously original and unpredictable. What, exactly, makes a melody "good"? I've been looking into this for years. From studying Palestrina's strict rules, all the way to studying the American songwriters who created the great “Evergreens” catalogue. Writing for the voice is of great interest to me – especially musical drama. Throughout my years as a composer, I've composed songs. Everything from opera arias to simple songs. This album unites several of the genres I've worked on. The songs are based on opera, musicals, theatre, folk song programs and poetry evenings. What unites them is my love for poetry. And on this album, you will make the acquaintance of some of the poets I admire the most. Summer is the main theme you’ll sense here. The bright summer. The light that gives life, but which eventually turns into darkness – the summer that passes into autumn. The cycle of life and nature. Liv Holtskog’s poem «So short is the summer we all have» tells us that everything is perishable. Summer is short. Life is short. But as Ruth Maier writes: "The days get brighter when you’re in love with someone." Shakespeare writes "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", while in sonnet 33 he describes how the sun is darkened by clouds when his beloved deceives him. In his poem “Don’t Ask For Love" Wildenvey writes: “After a spring and a summer, autumn crushes it all – heavy and hard and cold.”

“Concerto for Orchestra” was commissioned by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered in 2014 with Peter Szilvay as conductor and Peter Herresthal as violin soloist. The performance marked the end of Matre’s engagement as the season’s featured composer. “Concerto for Orchestra” is, as the title implies, a work for orchestra, but it is also a work about the orchestra. As in a number of works with the same title, all instrumental groups are properly explored and challenged. But in studying the names of the movements, one sees that the work explores overlapping meanings between “concert” and “concerto.” Very many orchestra concerts have the same structure: an overture, a solo concerto, an intermission and a symphony. “Concerto for Orchestra” follows this format. The overture presents material on which the rest of the piece is based; Herresthal plays extracts of Matre’s violin concerto, which also exists as an independent work; and the four movements “preSage revisited,” “Lament/Berceuse,” “Minuet” and “Finale” can be considered in this context as constituting a small symphony. For the first performance of this work Matre approached the concerto form as a physical and social space. The recording attempts to communicate something of this experience via the medium of recorded album by using audience sound from Oslo Concert Hall and a recording of Arne Nordheim’s iconic pre-concert bell composition from the same hall. Orjan Matre has distinguished himself as a distinct voice in Norwegian music and has, in a short time, been awarded high-profile commissions from leading musicians, ensembles and orchestras.

The title of the CD had to be “Soccorsi” – this mellifluous Italian word, also the title of one of Morten Eide Pedersen’s piano works. “Soccorsi” means supportive, helpful, and so was Morten: he who supported, created, and helped when called upon. With his deep and extensive knowledge, he became a mentor to many and an artistic force within society. He filled many roles: educator, writer, lecturer, and cultural entrepreneur. In 1996, when the chance arose, he seized the opportunity to create a new composition program, a program where there should be space for the entire spectrum of budding composers, and also for those voices that just quite didn’t fit in. He entered into dialogue-based guidance with a burning passion to help students find and develop their own artistic voices. And new ideas emerged: international composers’ meetings in Bergen, a concert series for the city’s composers and composition students, a contemporary music festival. “Everything is connected,” he said, and in his own unpretentious way, he constantly erected new arenas and forged new connections. And at the foundation of this all was an expressive force – his own composer’s voice. With the album “Soccorsi”, it is this voice that shall emerge – a seeking, singular composer’s voice that shines with its own power and poetry.

"Unexpected Songs" is the debut recording of Norwegian countertenor Daniel Sæther. The works on this release are juxtapositions of old (texts) and new (music). The songs are written by some of the most important Norwegian composers of contemporary music and religious music in the 20th and 21st centuries. The texts are mostly religious; hymns, bible texts and excerpts from the classical mass. The Norwegian counter-tenor, studied at Birminghan Conservatoire and at The Royal Academy in Den Haag. He made his operatic debut with the Norwegian State Opera Company in 2006, followed shortly thereafter by his UK debut with Handel’s Messiah. Based in Oslo, he has worked alongside well-known ensembles like Barokkanerne, Oslo Barokk, Pro Musica Antiqua, and more.