White Nights: Impressions of Norwegian Folk Music

• Audio Samples
• Album Summary
• Notes & Reviews
• Also Purchased
• Works Details

Audio Samples

Album Summary

Performers

• Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Jorunn Husan (Voice)
• Berit Versto (Piano)
• Gjermund Larsen (Hardanger Fiddle)
• Svein Korshamn (Voice)
• Jens-Erik Aasbo (Voice)

Conductor

• Pedersen, Grete

Ensemble

• 

Composers

• Norwegian Traditional
• Eivind Groven (1901 - 1977)
• Gjermund Larsen
• Eivind Buene (1973 - )

Notes & Reviews:

More than a century ago, the rhythms and harmonies of Edvard Grieg’s music enchanted a whole world. What Grieg himself readily admitted was that these rhythms and harmonies had been absorbed during his journeys along fjords and across mountains, and his encounters with fiddlers and folk singers – such as the dairy-maid Gjendine Slaalien, whose ‘bådnlåt’ (lullaby) Grieg turned into a piano piece. But although the most famous, Grieg is only one of many Norwegian composers who have found folk music a deep and decisive source of inspiration. Combining traditional folk songs with recent compositions springing from folk music, the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir on the present disc makes a compelling case for the powerful hold that this music has over the country’s cultural life, in performances that easily makes one understand why! The choir’s conductor, Grete Pedersen, has a constant eye open for the immediacy of folk music, but also its melancholy which, as she writes in her own introduction, ‘always shines through, whether the tune is a wedding march or a lullaby, and whether it accompanies a religious song or a tale of a maiden abducted by trolls.’ The choir’s previous recording for BIS was a programme of Grieg’s choral works, described as ‘a performance of breathtaking beauty’ in Le Monde de la Musique, and ‘a reference recording, the likes of which one doesn’t encounter every day’ on website klassik.com. Already on that disc the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir explored the music’s roots in folk music, and going a step further in this direction, Grete Pedersen has now invited one of Norway’s most respected folk singers, Berit Opheim Versto, and the fiddler and composer Gjermund Larsen to join her and the choir on their journey through ‘the intricate landscape of folk music’.

Notes & Reviews:

Recording information: Ris Kirke, Oslo, Norway (11/2009).

Reviews

There are currently no reviews, be the first one!

Also Purchased

Works Details

Larsen, Gjermund : Polonaise for fiddle

• Performer: Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 6 min. 1 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary

Traditional, Norwegian : Gropen, traditional dance melody from Verdal (after Asbjorn Indahl)

• Performer: Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 1 min. 56 sec.

Traditional, Norwegian : Gjendines bådnlåt (Gjendines lullaby) (after Slaalien, Kaia Gjendine)

• Performers: Jorunn Husan (Voice); Berit Versto (Piano)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 47 sec.

Traditional, Norwegian : Jeg lagde mig saa sildig

• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 2 min. 33 sec.
• Form: Vocal

Traditional, Norwegian : Jesus din sote forening å smake, hymn from Ryfylke

• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 12 sec.
• Form: Choral

Traditional, Norwegian : Nådigste Jesus (Merciful Jesus), hymn (after Ragnar Vigdal)

• Performer: Berit Versto (Piano)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 20 sec.
• Form: Choral

Groven, Eivind : Margjit Hjukse, folk song setting for fiddle, soloists & mixed chorus, Op. 48

• Performers: Berit Versto (Piano); Gjermund Larsen (Hardanger Fiddle); Svein Korshamn (Voice); Jens-Erik Aasbo (Voice)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 8 min. 7 sec.
• Period Time: Modern
• Written: 1964

Larsen, Gjermund : Solbonn (Sun Prayer), for fiddle & chorus

• Performer: Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 48 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary

Larsen, Gjermund : Solistvals (Soloist's Waltz), for fiddle

• Performers: Berit Versto (Piano); Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 59 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary
• Form: Waltz

Buene, Eivind : Allsang, for voice, violin, chorus & tape

• Performers: Berit Versto (Piano); Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 16 min. 24 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary
• Written: 2009

Traditional, Norwegian : Med Jesus vil eg fara (I will walk with Jesus), folk song

• Performer: Berit Versto (Piano)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 3 min. 32 sec.

Traditional, Norwegian : Bridal March from Valsoyfjord-Aure, traditional melody

• Performers: Berit Versto (Piano); Gjermund Larsen (Fiddle)
• Conductor: Grete Pedersen
• Running Time: 4 min. 9 sec.
• Form: March