Mezzo-soprano Bettina Smith and pianist Jan Willem Nelleke invite us into a somewhat forgotten and seldom performed repertoire with their release, “The Artist's Secret.” The release contains works for voice and piano, written by female composers. The title of the disc is taken from Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans’ work “The Artist's Secret,” with text by Olive Schreiner (1855-1920). Here the artist's secret is that he paints his works with his own blood. This recording is the result of the performers' intensive work throughout an entire year, mapping out the repertoire of these female composers within the art song genre, and the choice of title reflects the performers' feeling of having gained insight into these well-kept, “secret” songs. The composers on this album – Anna Cramer, Henriëtte Bosmans, Borghild Holmsen, Cécile Chaminade, Marguerite Canal, Poldowski, Lili Boulanger, Rebecca Clarke, and Luise Greger – were all renowned and enjoyed fame in their time, either as performers, composers, or conductors. Despite this, most have been forgotten after their deaths. There is a desire to bring these composers back into the spotlight, into the concert halls, and to make this repertoire a natural programming choice, on par with music composed by their male counterparts.

The Vertavo Quartet is recognized as one of the most exciting and experienced string quartets of our time. On this new release, the Quartet tackles works by Giuseppe Verdi and Jean Sibelius. While Verdi does not attempt to emulate the rigorous developmental processes exercised by the great quartet composers, he does create on his own terms a highly individual work distinguished by abundant craftsmanship. He wrote his only string quartet during the same period in which he wrote Aida and the Requiem, but it wasn’t premiered until years later. Sibelius composed his only major string quartet, entitled Voces Intimae, between late 1908 and April 1909, the happiest time of his life. The work’s moving melodic lines are reflective of this peace.

These works for wind octet - by Klein, Kvandal, and Yun - are regarded as cornerstones of the recent literature. Oslo Chamber Academy is a new ensemble featuring some of Scandinavia's leading wind soloists. Oslo Philharmonic's solo oboist, David Friedemann Strunck, is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble.

This new release is the last installment in Petrenko's fortunate survey of Scriabin's symphonic output. Gramophone writes: “Kirill Gerstein is just the sort of 'thinking pianist' to take it on [Scriabin’s Piano Concerto] and he does a terrific job, and Vasily Petrenko and the Oslo Phil are highly sympathetic partners.” The multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has rapidly ascended into classical music’s highest ranks. With a masterful technique, discerning intelligence, and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and styles, he has proven to be one of today’s most intriguing and versatile musicians. His early training and experience in jazz has contributed an important element to his interpretive style, inspiring an energetic and expressive musical personality that distinguishes his playing.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) composed his Symphony No 6 in E flat minor, Opus 111 between 1945 and February 1947, though his sketches date from 1944 - before his completion of the Fifth Symphony. The scoring is for large orchestra including piccolo, cor anglais, E flat clarinet, contrabassoon, harp, piano, celesta and an array of percussion. Although the key of E flat minor is extremely rare in the symphonic literature, Myaskovsky also wrote a sixth symphony in that key. On this release, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6 is paired with Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 27 in C minor. The works are performed by the Oslo Philharmonic.

Prokofiev described his Fifth Symphony as “...the culmination of an entire period in my work. I conceived it as a symphony on the grandeur of the human spirit.” He regarded this symphony, composed in the summer of 1944, as his finest work. The first movement opens quietly and lyrically with a rising theme for flute and bassoon, but with the introduction of brass and percussion the hard-edged side of Prokofiev’s language becomes more evident. Prokofiev may be considered by many to be among the major symphonists of his time, though his contribution to this genre is uneven. Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881–1950) was certainly one of the most prolific symphonic composers of the twentieth century. Myaskovsky’s twenty-seven symphonies are diverse in style, character and form, ranging from a single movement to five movements, but generally he was a traditionalist, especially in terms of tonality and structure. Myaskovsky composed his Twenty-first Symphony, sub-titled Symphony-Fantasy in F-sharp minor, in response to a commission from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. (Other composers who were commissioned for this occasion included Stravinsky, Kodály, Milhaud, Roy Harris and Walton.) Frederick Stock, the orchestra’s conductor at that time and an admirer of Myaskovsky’s music, performed this work many times. Alexander Gauk conducted the USSR State Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere in November 1940. The first performance in America was given by Frederick Stock with the Chicago Symphony just a few weeks later.

The world’s oldest academic female choir has sought out choir music for women by five male Norwegian composers- compositions that challenge and expand conceptions of Norway’s cultural heritage. There is here scarcely a trace of a mountain or fjord or traditional folk music, or of Grieg, Kjerulf and Nordraak. The gentlemen on this recording chose other routes to the concert hall, cathedral and the cultural canon. One of them had as strong a faith in his uncompromising counterpoint as in the Almighty Creator, while sitting alone between the mountains and fjords of Western Norway. Another was a central figure of European contemporary music and musical life in the capital city, but his work was dismissed as “Pling-Plong” by Norwegian cultural conservatism’s self-appointed generals.Fartein Valen, Arne Nordheim, Egil Hovland, Knut Nystedt and Bjorn Kruse, each in his own way and with either the Bible or world poetry in his inside pocket, created sounds that convey a different history of Norwegian music. Placed in women’s voices, they provide the possibility of entering worlds of sound, words and lines that for many remain undiscovered, unanticipated and unprecedented.

While Prokofiev's first violin sonata was meant to sound "like wind in a cemetery", the second, written as a flute sonata, is characterized more by cloudless skies and an absence of concerns. Both are dedicated to the legendary violinist, David Oistrakh, who played parts of the first sonata at Prokofiev's funeral. On this recording, the Five Melodies serve as the transition between light and darkenss. The work was originally a wordless vocalise written while Prokofiev was living in the USA. It was arranged for violin and piano during his years in Paris.

 

REVIEW:

 

Båtnes and Gimse are recorded much more closely than Ibragimova and Osborne, but on top of that their playing has in general a sharper edge to the projection, which is by no means out of place in this music. One might, at first, question the measured tempo for the Moderato first movement of the Second Sonata, which adds well over a minute to the timing on the Ibragimova and Osborne disc. But on repeated listening it works, somehow bringing a touch of unease to the melody’s sultriness. In fact in the entire programme, while Ibragimova and Osborne offer telling insights into the music’s dynamic and emotional shading, the more forthright approach of Båtnes and Gimse has a valid point to make as well—not that they are in any way wanting when it comes to the allure of lyrical restraint, either in the sonatas or in the Five Melodies. Maybe this is not a decisive verdict, but I shall happily live with both versions.

 

– Gramophone

In his orchestral work Degrees of White (2006), composer Nils Henrik Asheim invites an author, an actor, and a noise musician into the symphony orchestra. ”I wanted to work with (or against) a stream of text and thought of this text as its own sound, close to the soundscape,” Asheim writes on his website. He commissioned a text from author Johan Harstad, who then wrote Degrees of White, a script that vacillates between the novel and the stage. In the preface to his book B-sides (2008) where the text is published, Harstad writes about how he consciously “...searches for a positive side to monotony, forcing the prose to become drama and forcing the drama to retain an element of prose[.]”The narrator in the text is a woman, and in retrospect, we understand that she has long fantasized about freezing to death. In the present time of the text, she is skiing across Greenland with her husband, and the reader follows her through an inner monologue. She declares early on that she has removed her coat. “And I am beginning to freeze to death. That’s the kind of thing I know.” The orchestral work allows the frost and the stark whiteness to be expressed in several ways. The work consists of four parts. The color white is explicitly introduced early in the first section, when a recording of the actor’s voice complements the small outbursts in the orchestra, with the words “White. In the white.” Within the orchestral landscape we find the winds placed into three groups, each containing both woodwinds and brass, creating a sound more uniform across the room. A quartet, plucked out of the string section, lies far ahead within the soundscape, with musical material consisting of short, pale white tones and friction sounds.

The Norwegian opera literature is a well concealed and all too little known gem in our national cultural heritage. There is general agreement that it begins with the Waldemar Thrane/Henrik Bjerregaard Singspiel The Mountain Story from 1824. And throughout the nineteenth century there were a number of Norwegian composers who wrote operas, most of them now long forgotten. With this release we wish to make the music accessible to listeners in the hope of generating new interest in and discussion about why this part of our cultural heritage has been left to lie untouched.

With this release, the Engegård Quartet completes its recordings of the six string quartets that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dedicated to his paternal friend Joseph Haydn. Written in Vienna in Mozart’s “mature” years — from age 25 until he died 36 years old in 1791 — they are a gift to a friend that hardly has its equal. He worked on them alongside many other works from 1782 to 1785 and proudly presented them to friends and colleagues, often in his own home. His own son believed he would have become immortal had he written nothing else. Mozart was himself a remarkable violinist and violist. His father Leopold made him aware that being as brilliant a violinist as pianist was simply a matter of the will. There are solo passages in his divertimenti requiring exceptional virtuosity on the part of the concertmaster, passages he very likely performed himself. He played the quartets with some of Vienna’s best musicians. Joseph Haydn, himself an able violinist, was among them. We are left to wonder what it sounded like. The level of sound was weaker than that of the Engegård Quartet. The instruments had sensitive gut strings, and the rather straight bow had fewer horse hairs than today. In addition, with probably less string tension, the instruments had a gentler feel, and playing technique was somewhat different. There is evidence for this in Leopold Mozart’s own violin method from 1756, the year Wolfgang was born. Thus we would expect the sound to differ from what we hear today, and efforts to recreate it can help us in our conceptions. As a matter of fact, Mozart’s own viola can be viewed in Salzburg in the house on Getreidegasse in which he was born.

REVIEW:

The music’s range and richness of invention seem to be endless, yet never forced, qualities that are happily conveyed at every point by this Norwegian-based quartet. Their collective approach is subtly different for each work in line with its overall tone. Engegård is a commanding personality, of the engaging kind who makes things happen around him without in any way domineering proceedings.

– BBC Music Magazine

This recording is a result of Alpaca Ensemble’s close collaboration with two living composers. Both write music that reflects on humanity's place in a world profoundly greater than us. In the first work on the recording, Karin Rehnqvist takes the listener into outer space, while on the last track Ellen Lindquist paints us a vast landscape. In the music of Karin Rehnqvist, esoterism, mythicism and tradition are fused together with modernism’s propensity for resistance and estrangement. At the same time, its dialogue with traditional music, liturgy, rituals and folklore and adherence to vocal musical practice, allows the music to break into open forms and address the listener very directly. The music is intrinsically linked to voices, language, movement and the body. In the music of Ellen Lindquist, individual instruments and parts merge into large, sonorous landscapes. The composer often works in tandem with other art forms such as dance, poetry, performance and music theatre. In these interdisciplinary constellations, her music is allowed to insist on what is particular to instrumental music compared to other art forms, on its abstract, permeable qualities, which those other disciplines can approach, but never really achieve.

It is easy to imagine Dietrich Buxtehude’s enthusiasm when he received into his hands the texts to Membra Jesu Nostri, which has been ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux. The text forms an account of the crucified limbs of Christ and its sensitive style relates strongly to sixteen and seventeenth century Pietism, the central focus of which is emotion and passionate expression. Membra Jesu Nostri has come to be known as Buxtehude’s possibly best vocal compilation, which is not surprising as it combines great intensity and fervor with his masterly ability to achieve vocal equilibrium in the most pleasing form. Solistensemblen Vox Scanienis has been active in the Malmo-Lund region for over 15 years. The ensemble was founded by Peter Wallin in connection with a television series production called Andetag (Breath) which was broadcast on Swedish television in 2002 and 2003. From the start the ensemble’s repertoire was comprised primarily by music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but with time it has extended to include both Gregorian chants and contemporary musical pieces by Arvo Part, Johan Magnus Sjoberg, Olivier Messiaen and others.

The project “Ketil Hvoslef’s Chamber Music” was initiated in 2012 by violinist Ricardo Odriozola and pianist Einar Rottingen, both with backgrounds spanning many years of cooperation with the composer. The catalyst for the idea was the fact that most of Hvoslef’s chamber works had not been recorded, and, in view of the consistently high quality, deserved larger international attention and exposure. Thus, the idea to document all 38 works on CD arose, and the record company LAWO Classics agreed to come aboard. Collaboration with the performers is intrinsic to Hvoslef’s work as a composer. By trying out his ideas in dialogue with the players, a higher refinement of the details is achieved and the score is altered accordingly. This is an important part of the compositional procuess. The recordings draw from the vast pool of performers in Bergen, where the composer lives and works, in order to facilitate a closer collaboration between composer and players on every single work up to the time o the actual recording. The performers are primarily from the Grieg Academy (University of Bergen/Bergen University College) and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, with the addition of some musicians from other Scandinavian countries. The aim of the recordings is to help promote the establishment of a performance practice for Hvoslef’s music.

“Kvandal heading for stardom” proclaimed local northern newspaper Helgeland Arbeiderblad when Johan Kvandal’s name first materialised in a radio program in August of 1940. The backdrop for this announcement was that several of Kvandal’s songs were performed on the radio program “Young and New”. Listeners were promised to expect a precocious talent in the following show, and the Haugtussa songs found on this recording confirm that this 20-year-old clearly knew his craft and the music has proven to withstand the test of time. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Kvandal focused on composing chamber music, concerts and sym- phonic music. He continued to compose music for lyrics, but taking on the position of organist at and Oslo church iinspired him to embrace biblical and religious texts. However, his tonal constancy was the bedrock for everything he wrote. Not even during the mid-1960s avant-gardism was he led off-track. It can therefore be said that there is a common thread in his vocal music, from the very first songs of 1939 up until the Knut Hamsun opera Mysteries in 1993, by which time his many years of experience in writing melodies for voice had reached its peak. Isa Katharina Gericke is known as a versatile and colourful artist in concert, chamber music and opera; her solo engagements have included collaborations with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Akademie fur alte Musik Berlin, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with conductors Sir Andrew Davies amongst others. She is accompanied by pianist Joachim Knoph, an active soloist and chamber musician who has performed in a number of countries.