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Norge, mitt Norge
Various composers

Luftforsvarets musikkorps & Christiania Mannskor

Norge, mitt Norge

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020181332
Catnr: LWC 1121
Release date: 02 June 2017
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Label
Lawo Classics
UPC
7090020181332
Catalogue number
LWC 1121
Release date
02 June 2017

"There are good things here, ... splendid singing, though."

Musicweb, 21-11-2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
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DE

About the album

NORWAY, MY NORWAY
The combination of band and male choir is perhaps not so common today, but it was rather widespread around 1900. In addition to the works on this album, Friedrich A. Reissiger and Ole Olsen composed for band and choir in Norway, and from abroad we know works for this combination by Anton Bruckner, Franz Liszt, Gustav Holst and Kurt Weill.

The repertoire consists in the main of music written for solemn occasions usually held outdoors. The choice of pure wind instrumentation in addition to the choir probably was due to both acoustic and meteorological considerations related to an outdoor performance. Moreover, we must not forget that military bands were Norway’s only professional full-time ensembles when these pieces were written and, then as now, were the obvious choice for making music on days of national celebration.

There are no earlier recordings of most of the pieces on this album, and we are not sure whether or not some were ever performed again after being premiered. This makes it all the more satisfying to shed light on them now in the hope that they may once again find their way back into concert programmes. A special thank you to Professor Harald Bjørkøy, who drew our attention to Johan Selmer’s “Hilsen til Nidaros” and put us onto this project.
NORWEGEN, MEIN NORWEGEN
Die Kombination von Band und Männerchor ist vielleicht nicht so gebräuchlich, war aber um 1900 ziemlich weit verbreitet.
Das Repertoire besteht in erster Linie aus Musik, die für feierliche Anlässe geschrieben wurde, die gewöhnlich im Freien stattfanden. Die Wahl der reinen Blasinstrumentierung neben dem Chor war vermutlich auf akustische und meteorologische Überlegungen im Zusammenhang mit einer Outdoor-Performance zurückzuführen. Darüber hinaus dürfen wir nicht vergessen, dass zur Zeit der Kompositionen Militärbands Norwegens einzige professionelle Vollzeit-Ensembles waren.
Es gibt keine früheren Aufnahmen der meisten Stücke dieses Albums und wir sind nicht sicher, ob irgendwelche nach der Uraufführung jemals wieder aufgeführt wurden. Das macht es umso befriedigender, sie jetzt in der Hoffnung zu beleuchten, dass sie wieder in Konzertprogramme zurückkehren könnten. Ein besonderer Dank gilt Professor Harald Bjørkøy, der unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf Johan Selmers "Hilsen til Nidaros" lenkte und uns auf dieses Projekt brachte.

Artist(s)

Christiania Mannskor (vocals)

Christiania Mannskor, established in 2009, is Norway’s professional men’s choir. It is made up of 18 singers under the direction of conductor Marius Skjølaas. The ensemble has regular engagements in Oslo and countrywide and has performed at the invitation of, among others, the Norwegian government and parliament.   Christiania Mannskor is dedicated to the renewal and revitalisation of men’s choir singing in Norway. “Like Father, Like Son” is the ensemble’s fifth release on the LAWO Classics label. Previous releases are “Something New” (2014), “Something Blue” (2016), “Norge, mitt Norge” (2017), together with the Royal Norwegian Air Force Band, and “Something Borrowed” (2019).
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Christiania Mannskor, established in 2009, is Norway’s professional men’s choir. It is made up of 18 singers under the direction of conductor Marius Skjølaas. The ensemble has regular engagements in Oslo and countrywide and has performed at the invitation of, among others, the Norwegian government and parliament.
Christiania Mannskor is dedicated to the renewal and revitalisation of men’s choir singing in Norway. “Like Father, Like Son” is the ensemble’s fifth release on the LAWO Classics label. Previous releases are “Something New” (2014), “Something Blue” (2016), “Norge, mitt Norge” (2017), together with the Royal Norwegian Air Force Band, and “Something Borrowed” (2019).

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Luftforsvarets musikkorps (vocals)

The Royal Norwegian Air Force Band was established in 2006, yet it will celebrate its bicentenary in 2018. Founded in 1818 as the Band of the Trondhjem Brigade, and later called the Band of the Fifth Division and the Band of the Armed Forces Trøndelag, it was for over one hundred years Trondheim’s only professional ensemble. After the transition to the Air Force, the band has expanded its arena of activity from Central Norway to the entire country. At its main venue, Byscenen in Trondheim’s city centre, the band has performed with Elise Båtnes, Hilde Louise Asbjørnsen, Randi Stene, Tora Augestad, Australian jazz trumpetist James Morrison, and the jazz-rock band, PELbO. Other projects have included the children’s theatre performance Musika Mobile,...
more
The Royal Norwegian Air Force Band was established in 2006, yet it will celebrate its bicentenary in 2018. Founded in 1818 as the Band of the Trondhjem Brigade, and later called the Band of the Fifth Division and the Band of the Armed Forces Trøndelag, it was for over one hundred years Trondheim’s only professional ensemble.
After the transition to the Air Force, the band has expanded its arena of activity from Central Norway to the entire country. At its main venue, Byscenen in Trondheim’s city centre, the band has performed with Elise Båtnes, Hilde Louise Asbjørnsen, Randi Stene, Tora Augestad, Australian jazz trumpetist James Morrison, and the jazz-rock band, PELbO. Other projects have included the children’s theatre performance Musika Mobile, together with the free theatre group, Cirka Teater, and the stand up concert Lufta er for alle (The Air Is For Everyone), in collaboration with Åsleik Engmark. The band performs under the motto "No genre unfamiliar to us".
The Royal Norwegian Air Force Band collaborates closely with the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy and Ørland Main Air Station, and it gives regular guest performances at air force bases and centres around the country.

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Leif Arne Pedersen (conductor)

Leif Arne Pedersen, born 1964 in Porsgrunn, is principal clarinet of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has held since 1990. Pedersen studied with Knut Henriksen, Bendt Neuchs Sørensen in Copenhagen, and Larry Combs in Chicago. In 1987, after having performed for two years with the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, he was hired as co-principal clarinet of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He joined the OPO as co-principal clarinet in 1988. In 1996 Pedersen and the Oslo Philharmonic premiered Rolf Wallin’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, for which the composer received the Nordic Council Music Prize. Pedersen’s orchestral solos often receive special at­tention in the Norwegian and foreign press. He has on numerous occasions performed as soloist with...
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Leif Arne Pedersen, born 1964 in Porsgrunn, is principal clarinet of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has held since 1990. Pedersen studied with Knut Henriksen, Bendt Neuchs Sørensen in Copenhagen, and Larry Combs in Chicago. In 1987, after having performed for two years with the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, he was hired as co-principal clarinet of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He joined the OPO as co-principal clarinet in 1988. In 1996 Pedersen and the Oslo Philharmonic premiered Rolf Wallin’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, for which the composer received the Nordic Council Music Prize.
Pedersen’s orchestral solos often receive special at­tention in the Norwegian and foreign press. He has on numerous occasions performed as soloist with Norway’s principal symphony orchestras, and by vir­tue of his position with the OPO he has collaborated with a number of the world’s leading soloists and conductors. Pedersen is active as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He has made guest appear­ances as chamber musician and teacher at festivals in Europe, South America, and Asia. From 2003 to 2008 he was Music Director of the Royal Norwegian Navy Band, and today he holds the same position with the Royal Norwegian Air Force Band. He is pro­fessor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, teaching clarinet and chamber music. Pedersen has several previous releases on the LAWO Classics label, both as clarinettist and conductor.

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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...
more
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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Johan Svendsen

Johan Svendsen, along with his exact contemporary Grieg, represents Norwegian Romanticism at its apex. Outside of Norway, where his status has never been questioned, Svendsen, despite his eclipse by Grieg, has nonetheless retained a cult of admirers and it may be only a matter of time before he receives the same belated international interest accorded to Berwald and Nielsen. Svendsen was the son of a military bandsman who instructed him on a number of wind instruments and the violin. This led him, while still a boy, to perform in both a regimental band and dance orchestras, respectively, as well as him composing music for both. His exposure to symphonic classics came with his appointment to the position of first violinist in the Norwegian Theatre Orchestra and the subsequent...
more

Johan Svendsen, along with his exact contemporary Grieg, represents Norwegian Romanticism at its apex. Outside of Norway, where his status has never been questioned, Svendsen, despite his eclipse by Grieg, has nonetheless retained a cult of admirers and it may be only a matter of time before he receives the same belated international interest accorded to Berwald and Nielsen.

Svendsen was the son of a military bandsman who instructed him on a number of wind instruments and the violin. This led him, while still a boy, to perform in both a regimental band and dance orchestras, respectively, as well as him composing music for both. His exposure to symphonic classics came with his appointment to the position of first violinist in the Norwegian Theatre Orchestra and the subsequent discovery of Beethoven's music. Further study of the masters developed through his lessons with Carl Arnold, as well as his organizing a small orchestra of his own. Procurement of a royal stipend enabled Svendsen to go the Leipzig Conservatory to study. Svendsen originally aimed for violin virtuosity, but shifted to composition due to nervous problems of the left hand. However, his musicality led to his being allowed to deputize as conductor in the conservatory orchestra. He left the conservatory with honors in 1867, having meanwhile completed his Symphony No. 1 and string quintet. Svendsen returned to Norway where a concert of his own music drew praise from a review by Grieg. Local response, however, was tepid and Svendsen, another stipend in hand, traveled back to Leipzig and then Paris, the latter the scene of increasing performances of his works. The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 aborted a conducting position in Leipzig, but a successful performance of his Symphony No. 1 with the Gewandhaus, as well as his betrothal to an American woman named Sara whom he had met in Paris, seemed ample compensation. Svendsen returned to Norway in 1872 to share directorship of the Christiana Music Society concerts with Grieg. The generosity of a government grant helped create a conducive atmosphere for Svendsen, these years seeing the Symphony No. 2 and his series of Norwegian Rhapsodies. His star continued to ascend with him receiving directorship of the Royal Opera in Copenhagen in 1883. He traveled widely, meeting and working with Pasdeloup, Saint-Saëns, Sarasate, and even cultivating a friendship with Wagner. Sadly, his marriage had deteriorated to a point where his wife jealously flung the completed manuscript of a third symphony into a fire in 1882. Whether this was a catalyst or not, Svendsen's creativity severely tapered off at this point. He remarried in 1901. His international reputation continued until illness forced him to cease performing in 1908.

In his music, Svendsen prolifically composed in all idioms. With his bent toward classical forms, he forms a yin and yang of Norwegian Romantic music with the more overtly national Grieg. Yet there is a Nordic inflection present in the language, much as Tchaikovsky's Russian-ism shows through in his selected Western models. As such, he may rightly be placed in the august line of composers of the Nordic symphonic tradition.


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Press

There are good things here, ... splendid singing, though.
Musicweb, 21-11-2017

Music that revels in steady and sturdy fervour alongside effervescence and crackling confidence. It makes you wonder whether there is more to be heard. Volume 2?  
Musicweb, 25-9-2017

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Often bought together with..

Various composers
Våre favorittmarsjer
Luftforsvarets musikkorps

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