Eivind Groven (1901-70) was an oddity among Norwegian composers. He spent most of his life obsessing about the best chordal structures that would carry the sonority of just intonation into the standard, tempered system of modern tuning, thus reproducing the true sound of folk music more authentically. As with most composers who aren't geniuses and who adopt a restrictive harmonic system, the results have a limited emotional range, but the music is nevertheless curiously compelling: fresh, soulful, and, well, folk-like. Think of a mixture of Vaughan Williams in his pastoral style, but with Copland's feeling for sonority and that "open air" quality to the orchestration. If you like those composers, you're sure to enjoy Groven.
The Hjalarljod Overture was previously released in a collection of Norwegian orchestral favorites, but the remaining items are receiving their first releases by a major label. Groven's First Symphony actually had its premiere in New York. Its four movements show a non-traditional slow-fast-slow-fast approach to form, and have plenty of character otherwise. Of the two remaining works, both based on Norwegian folk dances arranged in single-movement, rhapsodic form (like Bartók's Dance Suite), the first actually borrows from the symphony. Groven apparently spent a good bit of time working out solutions to his harmonization theories by reusing the same material, but the results are sufficiently different to make the outcome interesting and certainly never dull. The performances are very sincere, not to mention well recorded, and are as freshly pointed as the music itself. Curious, quirky, but ultimately very enjoyable!
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
