LAWO Classics presents here an entire album devoted to a selection of Kjell Habbestad’s sacred choral works. The music on this release was written over a period of 35 years and ranges from the composer’s opus 1 to opus 90. Textually, the works constitute a cycle of the church eyar, from the Annunciation to Christmas, and from Lent and Passion Week to Easter and Pentecost. The Latvian Radio Choir, one of the world’s leading choirs, performs music from all periods, but has specialized mainly in contemporary music. There is hardly another choir that would be able to master the tonal challenges presented by certain works on this album. Thus the recording session in Riga turned out to be a very special experience both for the composer and the recording company. Other contributors to the recording are Oslo Cathedral Choir, conductor Vivanne Sydnes, and Kare Nordstoga at the organ. The reason for this is that the first three tracks, in the midst of a Latin and English language landscape, present Anglican chants with new Norwegian text. As one could not expect the Latvian Radio Choir to take on this task, the Latvan and Norwegian choirs pass the baton back and forth in the three works Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and Benedictus Dominus. Composer Kjell Habbestad studied church music and is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He has an earlier album of organ music, and has other releases planned.

Classical Music

The first in a series of nine CDs featuring Ketil Hvoslef 's collected chamber music! Ketil Hvoslef (b. 1939) is a productive, versatile, and undogmatic composer, who - well into his seventies - continues to write music at a furious pace. Hvoslef 's style is characterized by an economy of means, the accumulation of latent energy, rhythmical ingenuity, and, often, an element of humor. The idea of documenting all 37 chamber music works on CD was initiated by violinist Ricardo Odriozola and pianist Einar R�ttingen, both with backgrounds spanning many years of cooperation with the composer. Most have not been recorded prior to their inclusion in this series.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Predicting which musical currents would sweep the young William Walton along in the mid 1920s must have been tricky. The composer had already given birth to the acerbic, neo-classical take on texts by Edith Sitwell that was Façade (1922). Two years later he spent a season knocking out foxtrots for the Savoy Orpheus Band, and even started work on a concerto for two pianos, jazz band and orchestra. Four years after that, Walton hatched plans for his first orchestral concerto proper: a score that would take elements from both those pieces but would stand with at least one foot in the late Romantic tradition of Elgar, Bax and others. After being drawn to the viola as an instrument of depth, Walton decided that a Viola Concerto was viable. In the words of the composer’s biographer Michael Kennedy, the ‘dark and huskily passionate sound of the viola became the perfect medium for the [concerto’s] prevailing mood of plaintive melancholy. Coupled with this work is Christian Sinding’s Suite Im Alten Stil.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The project “Ketil Hvoslef’s Chamber Music” was initiataed 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 that, in view of their consistently high quality, deserved larger international attention and exposure. Thus, the idea to document 38 works on a single album arose, and the record company LAWO Classics came 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 recorded process.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The combination of clarinet, viola and piano has not been used much by composers throughout the ages, and the most representative works are on this recording. Featured on this fourth release of Oslo Philharmonic Chamber Group are solo clarinetist Leif Arne Pedersen, violist Henninge Landaas and pianist Gonzalo Moreno. Mozart heard the clarinet in the large cities and became ever more ardent in his enthusiasm for it. After settling in Vienna in 1781, he made the acquaintance of clarinetist Anton Stadler, and the two had an important influence on the instrument's increasing popularity. "Kegelstatt Trio" was composed in jovial company, in the context of a house concert at which Mozart himself played viola and Stadler clarinet. Schumann composed "Marchenerzahlungen" in the spring of 1854, and his fairy tale images were composed in a three-day rush of creativity. The antiquated, more inward style of Bruch's eight pieces for clarinet, viola and piano is perhaps due to the fact that he was 70 and soon to retire when he composed the work.

Classical Music