Geirr Tveitt composed five orchestral sets of Hardanger tunes, each containing fifteen pieces. Whether or not there were in fact ever a hundred written we...

Geirr Tveitt composed five orchestral sets of Hardanger tunes, each containing fifteen pieces. Whether or not there were in fact ever a hundred written we will never know, and the Third Suite was among the works destroyed in the terrible fire in 1970 that claimed so much of this fine artist's work. Restoring what survives has been a true labor of love, not to mention a delight to music enthusiasts. Anyone expecting from Tveitt a folksy cuteness à la Grieg is in for a shock. Though full of innate charm, these settings owe more to the ethno-musicological school of, say, Bartók and Kodály, with the composer making no effort to minimize their often-gruff character and tangy dissonances.


Suite No. 2 consists of fifteen "mountain songs," cleverly grouped with respect to mood and contrast. Outstanding here is No. 9, "Do you hear the song in the waterfall's roar," an elemental piece of orchestration as powerful as anything by Iceland's master of nature's musical fury, Jon Leifs. There's also room for comic relief towards the end, both in "The mountain girl skiing downhill" (and falling on her butt in the process), and in the marvelous evocation of the "Jew's harp melody" on muted trombone. Suite No. 5 is, if anything, even more evocative, consisting as it does of 15 "troll tunes," suggesting subjects magical and mysterious. Contrast the very long final number, "Doomsday," with its seven pounding timpani and pealing bells, to "The crooked harp that could talk" and you'll be amazed at the range and subtlety of these wonderful little pieces.


As with Naxos' recording of Suites Nos. 1 and 4 by these same forces, the performances are marvelous. Suite No. 2 has also been released by BIS with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ruud, but this performance is every bit as good interpretively and sonically, and marginally superior technically. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra in particular benefits from richer (more numerous?) strings, and a brilliant horn section that sports a powerful tone squarely in the grand British tradition. BIS' coupling is Suite No. 1, and for the price of that single disc you can own both of Naxos'. I'm happy to have more than one view of this marvelous music, but if you're on a budget, the choice is obvious.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com