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Aria
Various composers

Vegard Landaas / Anders Eidstein Dahl

Aria

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD Super Audio
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020180472
Catnr: LWC 1046
Release date: 13 February 2014
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1 CD Super Audio
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€ 19.95
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Label
Lawo Classics
UPC
7090020180472
Catalogue number
LWC 1046
Release date
13 February 2014

"Everybody likes a good tune. Here is an ingenious programme of mostly little-known melodies, performed by a soloist with accompanist. Unusually for "classical" music, the solo instrument is a saxophone and it is accompanied by another wind instrument - the Main organ of Bragernes Church, in Drammen, south of Oslo. Saxophonist Vergard Landaas was, in 2000, the first student of this specialisation to graduate from the Norwegian Academy of Music. He now is one of the most prominent saxophonists in Europe. The classical repertoire for the sax is fairly limited, and Landaas often has to use arrangements from music intended for other instruments, but he encourages modern composers to write for him; an imposing list of whom appears in the booklet notes. His accompanist, Anders Edsten Dahl, graduated from the Academy a year later than Landaas, and is much involved in solo and concert organ music. Since 2001 he has been organist at the large Bragernes Church in Drammen, south of Oslo, which is an important venue for regional festivals. The collection of short pieces, several with heart breaking melodies, is esoteric, as is the list of composers: David Bratlie (b.1972) Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) Geirr Tveitt (1908 - 1981) Johan Halvorsen (1864 - 1935) Eugène Bozza (1905 - 1991) Rolf Wallin (b1957) Ennio Morricone (b1928) Oskar Lindberg (1887 - 1955) Alessandro Marcello (1669 - 1747) Helge Horum (b1936) Some of the pieces are well-known (but not necessarily in their original formats); Grieg and Halvorsen provide two sets of three pieces from their Norwegian folk music collections, while the poignant 'Gabriel's Oboe' theme from film music by Erico Moriconi is played almost daily by one or more of the myriad classical music FM programmes around the globe. Alessandro Marcello's Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings and continuo is well-known by Baroque followers. It has splendid, memorable tunes in the outer movements, with a lovely languid Adagio between. Landaas and Dahl play an arrangement based on JS Bach's somewhat ornamented arrangement for solo harpsichord and this is highly successful. The one piece originally written for saxophone and organ is by Oslo's Big Band leader, Helge Horum's "Sunset", composed for the funeral of Horum's mother. A near-miss, as it were, is Rolf Rollin's 'Elegy for Trumpet and Organ', a fine melody imbued with shifting harmonies suggested by Xenakis and Ligeti and a startling few seconds in the middle when the organ lets loose with a sudden blast of anger, shaking a fist at the heavens. The composer gave permission for the transcription. Landaas has phenomenal technique in controlled breathing, required when the many pieces with long-breathed cantabile lines are executed. He is able to vary his tone from bright and snappy in the Marcello fast movements (and a Grieg march) to golden toned, sumptuously expressive; his instrument just sings. His artistry in presenting much slow, emotional music without making listeners fall asleep makes a number of these circa 3 minute pieces sound like little jewels. Dahl is a sympathetic accompanist, using appropriate registrations to match with the saxophone tone in use, and ensuring that there are no signs of the towering Queen of Instruments covering his soloist. This is fine chamber music-making, even if the chamber is a big church! That last comment brings us to the recording, in stereo only. Usually with organs, it is important to capture the mutual reactions of building tand organ, where a good multichannel recording is the best. For this aurally powermismatched pair, however, a chamber set-up is required, with just enough of the ambience to let the tone, particularly of the saxophone, to develop. The Lawo engineer seems to have set up for a near perfect balance, and for once I didn't crave a multichannel track. There is a somewhat quirky design for the digipak format: the track list appears diagonally in a tiny font on a rich green background. The sleeved booklet has an excellent guide, which usefully guides you through the music. This is an intriguing and highly enjoyable concatenation of short musical pieces with disparate origins . It shows how versatile the sax can be, in hands as skilled as Landaar's. I strongly recommend it. Copyright © 2014 John Miller and SA-CD.net"

SA-CD.net, 27-6-2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
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About the album

On their new record "Aria" Vegard Landaas and Anders Eidsten Dahl present some of the finest arias in music history, in an eclectic selection that ranges from Baroque composer Alessandro Marcello to contemporary, Norwegian composers.

An 'aria' is a solo song, usually with orchestra accompaniment. But the terms 'arie', 'aria', 'air' and 'arietta' can have another meaning as well. Throughout music history, composers have used them to signify instrumental music with beautiful, expressive melodies. Many of the pieces on this album were not written originally for saxophone and organ. Rather, they are special arrangements of these melodies, these 'arias'.
Die schönsten Arien der Musikgeschichte für Saxophon und Orgel.

Auf ihrem neuen Album „Aria“ präsentieren Vegard Landaas am Saxophon und Anders Eidsten Dahl an der Orgel einige der schönsten Arien der Musikgeschichte. Es wurde eine herrliche Auswahl beginnend beim Barockmeister Alessandro Marcello bis hin zu zeitgenössischen norwegischen Komponisten.

Artist(s)

Anders Eidsten Dahl

Anders Eidsten Dahl (b. 1976 in Drammen) graduated with a degree in church music from the Norwegian Academy of Music and later completed a Master’s degree in solo organ performance at the same institution. Following two years of solo performance study at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, he gave debut concerts in Copenhagen and Oslo in 2003. He has studied organ with Professor Terje Winge, cathedral organist Kåre Nordstoga and Professor Hans Fagius.   Eidsten Dahl is much in demand as organ soloist, chamber musician and harpsichordist, and he has given organ concerts at festivals in a number of European countries. His repertoire spans from the Baroque to the music of today, with emphasis on J. S. Bach and...
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Anders Eidsten Dahl (b. 1976 in Drammen) graduated with a degree in church music from the Norwegian Academy of Music and later completed a Master’s degree in solo organ performance at the same institution. Following two years of solo performance study at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, he gave debut concerts in Copenhagen and Oslo in 2003. He has studied organ with Professor Terje Winge, cathedral organist Kåre Nordstoga and Professor Hans Fagius.
Eidsten Dahl is much in demand as organ soloist, chamber musician and harpsichordist, and he has given organ concerts at festivals in a number of European countries. His repertoire spans from the Baroque to the music of today, with emphasis on J. S. Bach and organ music from the Romantic period. Since 2001 he has served as organist and director of music at Bragernes Church in Drammen, where he is artistic and administrative director of the church’s organ concert series.
A recipient of the Government Work Scholarship for Younger and Newly Established Artists, Eidsten Dahl has released a number of critically acclaimed albums on the LAWO Classics label. He is also Associate Professor of organ at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

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Vegard Landaas

Vegard Landaas (born 1973) received his diploma in 2000 from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with Harald Bergersen and was the first student with saxophone as principal instrument. Landaas has received sparkling reviews for his solo concertos. His repertoire features a number of solo and chamber concertos with works from the standard literature and a special emphasis on music of contemporary composers. Among those who have dedicated compositions to him are Jon Balke, Olav Berg, Therese Birkelund Ulvo, Håvard Caspersen, Roy Hellvin, Risto Holopeinen, Vidar Johansen, Bjørn Kruse, Mauritz Løvgren, Yngve Slettholm, Jens Wendelboe, and Øivind Westby. Landaas has been a soloist with various orchestras, choirs, and bands. The many major ensembles throughout the country with which he has...
more
Vegard Landaas (born 1973) received his diploma in 2000 from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with Harald Bergersen and was the first student with saxophone as principal instrument.
Landaas has received sparkling reviews for his solo concertos. His repertoire features a number of solo and chamber concertos with works from the standard literature and a special emphasis on music of contemporary composers. Among those who have dedicated compositions to him are Jon Balke, Olav Berg, Therese Birkelund Ulvo, Håvard Caspersen, Roy Hellvin, Risto Holopeinen, Vidar Johansen, Bjørn Kruse, Mauritz Løvgren, Yngve Slettholm, Jens Wendelboe, and Øivind Westby.
Landaas has been a soloist with various orchestras, choirs, and bands. The many major ensembles throughout the country with which he has performed include the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Oslo Sinfonietta, and the BIT 20 Ensemble (Bergen Ensemble for Contemporary Music). In August, 2004 Landaas recorded the saxophone concerto “The Nights Exist” with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (Aurora Records). The piece was composed by Yngve Slettholm and dedicated to Landaas, who premiered the work with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in the spring of 2000. As a member of NoXaS Saxophone Quartet, he premiered Olav Anton Thommessen’s “Tuba mirum” with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in the autumn of 2010. Landaas has previously participated on the recordings “Yngve Slettholm Chamber Music for Saxophone and Percussion” (LWC1017) and “The Golden Hindemith” (LWC1005). With organist Anders Eidsten Dahl he has previously released “Aria” (LWC1046). Landaas has also produced numerous recordings for classical artists.

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Composer(s)

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák did in Finland and Bohemia, respectively. Grieg is regarded as simultaneously nationalistic and cosmopolitan in his orientation, for although born in Bergen and buried there, he travelled widely throughout Europe, and considered his music to express both the beauty of Norwegian rural life and the culture of Europe as a whole. He is...
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Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák did in Finland and Bohemia, respectively.
Grieg is regarded as simultaneously nationalistic and cosmopolitan in his orientation, for although born in Bergen and buried there, he travelled widely throughout Europe, and considered his music to express both the beauty of Norwegian rural life and the culture of Europe as a whole. He is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues depicting his image, and many cultural entities named after him.
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Ennio Morricone

With the soundtracks for well-known movies such as A Fistful Of Dollars (1965), The Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966) en The Untouchables (1987), Ennio Morricone established himself as one of the best film composers of his generation. The Italian was born in 1928 in Rome and turned out to be gifted at an early age: he wrote his first composition when he was only six years old. (Source: Muziekweb.nl)
more
With the soundtracks for well-known movies such as A Fistful Of Dollars (1965), The Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966) en The Untouchables (1987), Ennio Morricone established himself as one of the best film composers of his generation. The Italian was born in 1928 in Rome and turned out to be gifted at an early age: he wrote his first composition when he was only six years old.
(Source: Muziekweb.nl)
less

Press

Everybody likes a good tune. Here is an ingenious programme of mostly little-known melodies, performed by a soloist with accompanist. Unusually for "classical" music, the solo instrument is a saxophone and it is accompanied by another wind instrument - the Main organ of Bragernes Church, in Drammen, south of Oslo. Saxophonist Vergard Landaas was, in 2000, the first student of this specialisation to graduate from the Norwegian Academy of Music. He now is one of the most prominent saxophonists in Europe. The classical repertoire for the sax is fairly limited, and Landaas often has to use arrangements from music intended for other instruments, but he encourages modern composers to write for him; an imposing list of whom appears in the booklet notes. His accompanist, Anders Edsten Dahl, graduated from the Academy a year later than Landaas, and is much involved in solo and concert organ music. Since 2001 he has been organist at the large Bragernes Church in Drammen, south of Oslo, which is an important venue for regional festivals. The collection of short pieces, several with heart breaking melodies, is esoteric, as is the list of composers: David Bratlie (b.1972) Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) Geirr Tveitt (1908 - 1981) Johan Halvorsen (1864 - 1935) Eugène Bozza (1905 - 1991) Rolf Wallin (b1957) Ennio Morricone (b1928) Oskar Lindberg (1887 - 1955) Alessandro Marcello (1669 - 1747) Helge Horum (b1936) Some of the pieces are well-known (but not necessarily in their original formats); Grieg and Halvorsen provide two sets of three pieces from their Norwegian folk music collections, while the poignant 'Gabriel's Oboe' theme from film music by Erico Moriconi is played almost daily by one or more of the myriad classical music FM programmes around the globe. Alessandro Marcello's Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings and continuo is well-known by Baroque followers. It has splendid, memorable tunes in the outer movements, with a lovely languid Adagio between. Landaas and Dahl play an arrangement based on JS Bach's somewhat ornamented arrangement for solo harpsichord and this is highly successful. The one piece originally written for saxophone and organ is by Oslo's Big Band leader, Helge Horum's "Sunset", composed for the funeral of Horum's mother. A near-miss, as it were, is Rolf Rollin's 'Elegy for Trumpet and Organ', a fine melody imbued with shifting harmonies suggested by Xenakis and Ligeti and a startling few seconds in the middle when the organ lets loose with a sudden blast of anger, shaking a fist at the heavens. The composer gave permission for the transcription. Landaas has phenomenal technique in controlled breathing, required when the many pieces with long-breathed cantabile lines are executed. He is able to vary his tone from bright and snappy in the Marcello fast movements (and a Grieg march) to golden toned, sumptuously expressive; his instrument just sings. His artistry in presenting much slow, emotional music without making listeners fall asleep makes a number of these circa 3 minute pieces sound like little jewels. Dahl is a sympathetic accompanist, using appropriate registrations to match with the saxophone tone in use, and ensuring that there are no signs of the towering Queen of Instruments covering his soloist. This is fine chamber music-making, even if the chamber is a big church! That last comment brings us to the recording, in stereo only. Usually with organs, it is important to capture the mutual reactions of building tand organ, where a good multichannel recording is the best. For this aurally powermismatched pair, however, a chamber set-up is required, with just enough of the ambience to let the tone, particularly of the saxophone, to develop. The Lawo engineer seems to have set up for a near perfect balance, and for once I didn't crave a multichannel track. There is a somewhat quirky design for the digipak format: the track list appears diagonally in a tiny font on a rich green background. The sleeved booklet has an excellent guide, which usefully guides you through the music. This is an intriguing and highly enjoyable concatenation of short musical pieces with disparate origins . It shows how versatile the sax can be, in hands as skilled as Landaar's. I strongly recommend it. Copyright © 2014 John Miller and SA-CD.net
SA-CD.net, 27-6-2014

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