Hvoslef Chamber Works No. VII by Hvoslef Chamber Music Project

Ketil Hvoslef

Hvoslef Chamber Music Project

Hvoslef Chamber Works No. VII

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020182223
Catnr: LWC 1200
Release date: 12 June 2020
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Label
Lawo Classics

UPC
7090020182223

Catalogue number
LWC 1200

Release date
12 June 2020

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

“Trio for Soprano, Alto and Piano” was written the same year as “Kvartoni” (LWC 1117), one of Hvoslef's early masterpieces. Not surprisingly, then, the two works are based on similar melodic material. Both compositions fit comfortably within Hvoslef's early production (by the time they were written Hvoslef had only been composing for ten years). The choice of ensemble (two female voices and piano) is very telling in regard to Hvoslef's musical ideals. We have two innocent and playful voices set against one of the largest and potentially most overpowering instruments. Hvoslef's love of contrast is, thus, readily served from the outset.

What on earth, you may ask, might trombones and string instruments have in common? They do share one property: they are unchallenged among musical instruments in their ability to produce continuous glissandos. String instruments, however, can cover a much larger range than trombones can.
In “String Quartet no. III”, large glissandos occur, collectively (the ensemble indeed functioning as a unified group) four times. In the third of these the gliss. changes direction at the end, presaging the end of the piece: an upward glissando preceded by a quagmire of small simultaneous slides at different speeds and in different directions.

Whereas the third string quartet appears to be music of the city, the “Sextet for Flute and Percussion” seems to take place in the jungle. As was the case in “Trio for Soprano, Alto and Piano”, the instrumental forces here are ostensibly right out of balance: a vulnerable flute (and occasional alto flute) against five potentially fierce and merciless percussionists. The latter (incarnated as a bass drum quartet and a timpanist) do, in the end, beat the flute into submission, rendering it “voiceless”: when the percussion finally recedes, we are left with the rhythmical sound of the flute's keys.

Artist(s)

Hvoslef Chamber Music Project

The recordings draw from the vast pool of performers in Bergen, where the composer lives and works, in order to facilitate a closer collaboration between composer and players on every single work up to the time of the actual recording. The performers are primarily from the Grieg Academy (University of Bergen) and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, with the addition of some musicians from other Scandinavian countries. The aim of the recordings is to help promote the establishment of a performance practice for Hvoslef’s music.

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Ricardo Odriozola (conductor)

Composer(s)

Ketil Hvoslef

Now in his 80's, Ketil Hvoslef continues to write music at a furious pace. He has written for many thinkable and unthinkable ensembles, often relishing the challenge of working with potentially «hopeless» instrumental combinations. He is Norway’s most prolific composer of concertos, with 20 to date. He has three operas, numerous works for orchestra, and a wealth of chamber music. Hvoslef’s vocal music is of particular interest in that it includes, for the most part, «nonsense texts». Aware of the main pitfall of the Bel Canto tradition, where the beauty of tone in the vowels often results in the unintelligibility of the text, Hvoslef usually constructs his own «meaningless» words in order to underline the character of the music. He...

Now in his 80's, Ketil Hvoslef continues to write music at a furious pace. He has written for many thinkable and unthinkable ensembles, often relishing the challenge of working with potentially «hopeless» instrumental combinations. He is Norway’s most prolific composer of concertos, with 20 to date. He has three operas, numerous works for orchestra, and a wealth of chamber music. Hvoslef’s vocal music is of particular interest in that it includes, for the most part, «nonsense texts». Aware of the main pitfall of the Bel Canto tradition, where the beauty of tone in the vowels often results in the unintelligibility of the text, Hvoslef usually constructs his own «meaningless» words in order to underline the character of the music. He has also composed an impressive collection of works for solo instruments and a fair amount of incidental music.
Hvoslef’s style is characterized by an economy of means, the accumulation of latent energy, rhythmical ingenuity and, often, an element of humour. He has repeatedly said that he wishes for his listeners to lean forward on the edge of their chairs rather than sit back. There is, in Hvoslef’s music, always a sense of anticipation, a feeling that it is on its way to somewhere unknown, which in turn makes the experience of each moment all the more intense. There is always transparency in the music, allowing it to breathe and making it possible for the listener to follow what is happening in it.

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