Geirr Tveitt

Sinfonia di Soffiatori - Sinforietta di Soffiatori - Selections from A Hundred Hardanger Tunes

The Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Bjarte Engeset

Sinfonia di Soffiatori
Prinds Christian Frederiks Honnørmarch (Marche d'honneur du Prince Christian Frederik)
Det gamle Kvernhuset (Le Vieux Moulin sur le ruisseau), op. 204
Hymne til Fridomen (Hymne à la Liberté)
Sinfonietta di soffiatori, op. 203

Hundrad Hardingtonar (100 Chants folkloriques de Hardanger), op. 151 (extraits, transcr. Stig Nordhagen)

Suite n° 2 "Femtan Fjelltonar" (15 Chansons montagnardes) :

N° 20. Med sterkt Øl te Fjells (La bière forte dans la montagne)
N° 23. Rjupo pao Folgafodne (Le chant du perdrix des neiges)
N° 29. Fjedlmansjento upp i Lid (La jeune montagnarde descendant la colline à ski)

Suite n° 4 "Brudlaupssuiten" (Suite nuptiale) :

N° 47. Friarføter (Le chemin du prétendant)
N° 52. Graot og Laott aot ain Baot (Larmes et rires)
N° 60. Haringøl (La bière de Hardanger)

Suite n° 5 "Trolltonar" (Mélodies trolls) :

N° 70. Garsvoren dansar (Danse des sabots de Garsvoren)
N° 72. Tussmyrke (Crépuscule)
N° 75. Domedag (Jugement dernier)

Thanks to ongoing series from BIS and Naxos, Geirr Tveitt (1908-1991) has emerged from the shadow of Edvard Grieg as one of Norway's finest composers. A virtuoso pianist, he honed both performance and compositional skills at the prestigious Leipzig Conservatory, but blossomed as a composer when studying in Paris with Honegger, Villa-Lobos, and Nadia Boulanger. Intensely big-hearted and emotional, his music is brooding and nostalgic and often enlivened by references to the scenery, people, and folklore of Western Norway. Tveitt absorbed many influences during extensive travels in Europe, especially the French Impressionists, Stravinsky, and Bartók, but unlike near-contemporary Fartein Valen, his style remained firmly rooted in native folk music, especially the distinctive music of his own Hardanger district.

This single disc presents all of Tveitt's surviving scores for wind ensemble. The Sinfonia de soffiatori is a late masterpiece. Structurally simple, but tonally and psychologically complex, a characteristic conflict between pervasive gloom and wistful aspiration that animates many of his later work is presented definitively here. The central "Alla marcia" is still tinged with the folk-inspired grotesquery of Peer Gynt, but the work ends enigmatically with glowering brass, bells, and harp glissandos creating an arresting tonal and spiritual ambiguity. Tveitt called this his third symphony, which offers the hope that there are more among the damaged scores that await restoration efforts after the disastrous fire that destroyed his home and most of his life's work in 1970. The Sinfonia was, sadly, one of only a few works that he wrote after that cataclysm.

The Prince Christian Frederik's Honor March was written earlier in 1970. It celebrates one of Norway's heroes of freedom, who served as elected king of a democratic Norway for five months in 1814, until obliged by force of arms to abdicate in favor of union with Sweden. The march is simple and forthright, with subtle undercurrents, as befits this visionary. The remaining works composed for wind ensemble were all written for a Norwegian Band Federation competition in 1962. Tveitt took first, second, and third prizes for, respectively, the Sinfonietta di soffiatori, The Old Mill on the Brook, and the Hymn of Freedom. The Hymn of Freedom is celebratory, but musically slight. The painfully nostalgic Old Mill and the moody Sinfonietta are powerful but melancholy works, reflecting again the aging Tveitt's pessimism and sense of loss. It is good, therefore, that Naxos includes transcriptions of a selection of Tveitt's earlier, exuberant 100 Folk-Tunes from Hardanger. Not only did Tveitt obviously find great joy in the modal folk melodies, but here--as in the orchestral originals--one can discover some of his most original composition. The nine miniatures, grouped in three suites, celebrate good ale, wooing a bride, downhill skiing, and the trolls of Norwegian folklore. Full of orchestral novelty and infectious rhythms, these are irresistible.

The Old Mill and the Sinfonietta are the only works here that are currently available in a competing version, on Chandos 10038. Fine as the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra's versions are, Bjarte Engeset and his Norwegian musicians are the more idiomatic advocates. The Chandos Old Mill is disqualified, in any case, by editing which unnecessarily lightens the gloom of the original orchestration. Norwegian conductor Engeset has been a guiding force behind the uniformly excellent Naxos Tveitt edition and leads all of the orchestral releases. This is not, perhaps, the most likely starting point for exploration of this fascinating composer's work--I'd choose his glorious Fourth Piano Concerto for that--but this CD comes highly recommended nonetheless

Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981)

Orchestre de la Marine Royale Norvégienne

Direction Bjarte Engeset

Quelqu’un a dit que le Norvégien Geirr Tveitt (1908 – 1981) méritait de figurer au panthéon des plus grands compositeurs-pianistes de ce siècle, aux côtés de Bartók, Britten, Prokofiev ou Rachmaninov. J’ignore si l’auteur de cette déclaration – le pianiste norvégien Leif Andsnes, comment dit-on « cocorico » en norvégien, køkørikååååå ? – pense plutôt à Tveitt pianiste, dont on dit qu’il fut en effet phénoménal, ou à Tveitt le compositeur, dont hélas les 4/5 de la production ont été perdus, compactés, lors du catastrophique incendie de sa maison, où il avait sagement rangé tous ses manuscrits – tous inédits – dans de jolies boites en bois. Miné par le désespoir, Tveitt sombra dans l’alcoolisme avant de s’éteindre, oublié, en 1981. Certes, il ne fut pas le compositeur que tout le monde attend, mais sa musique mérite considérablement mieux que les flammes. Au cours des années, des copies ont été retrouvées par-ci, par-là, des partitions reconstituées d’après des matériels d’orchestres et, plus épineux encore, d’après des enregistrements d’archives.

Le langage de ce compositeur a assimilé toutes les influences auxquelles il s’est volontairement exposées, à commencer par ses maîtres Honegger, Villa-Lobos, l’inévitable Nadia Boulanger, ainsi que d’illustres modèles tels que Bartók, Ravel, Stravinski et même Debussy. Sans jamais oublier ses racines norvégiennes, d’ailleurs, puisqu’il intégra de nombreux accents folkloriques ou populaires dans ses œuvres, à l’image de Kodály plus que de Bartók qui, lui, préférait inventer une sorte de « folklore imaginaire ».

A vous de décider si Geirr Tveitt mérite de renaître de ses cendres, et des cendres de ses partitions que l’on essaye, grâce aux techniques les plus modernes, de restituer et de reconstruire.

Dmitry Shostakovich

24 Preludes and Fugues Op.87

Tatania Nikolayeva

Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 1 in C major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 1 in C major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 2 in A minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 2 in A minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 3 in G major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 3 in G major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 4 in E minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 4 in E minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 5 in D major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 5 in D major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 6 in B minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 6 in B minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 7 in A major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 7 in A major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 8 in F sharp minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 8 in F sharp minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 9 in E major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 9 in E major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 10 in C sharp minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 10 in C sharp minor: Fugue 
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 11 in B major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 11 in B major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 12 in G sharp minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 12 in G sharp minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 13 in F sharp major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 13 in F sharp major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 14 in E flat minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 14 in E flat minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 15 in D flat major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 15 in D flat major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 16 in B flat minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 16 in B flat minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 17 in A flat major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 17 in A flat major: Fugue 
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 18 in F minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 18 in F minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 19 in E flat major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 19 in E flat major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 20 in C minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 20 in C minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 21 in B flat major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 21 in B flat major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 22 in G minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 22 in G minor: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 23 in F major: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 23 in F major: Fugue
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 24 in D minor: Prelude
Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87: No. 24 in D minor: Fugue



 

Tatiana Nikolayeva's recording is simply hypnotic. Anyone familiar with Shostakovitch will also know that he was a sensitive pianist, and Mrs Nikolayeva frames the composer's persona perfectly. She manages to identify and personify the romantic melancholy, the reticient joy and dramatic tension of Shostakovitch. Her playing evokes a kind of wordless poetry, transporting you to settings that are almost physical: a moody apartment on a gray day, a solitary contemplation on the riverbank, a stroll through an empty park, an afternoon in a sad cafe, the beautiful face of a stranger too shy to return your unspoken advances. Magical.

Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Schubert, Sergey Prokofiev, Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner...

Transcriptions 2

Accentus

L'hiver  
Litanei  
Le Champ des morts  
Scheiden und Meiden 
Im Treibhaus  
Grablied  
Der Wegweiser 
Nacht und Träume  
Die zwei blauen Augen
Busslied
An Babels Wasserflüssen  
Jerusalem 
Des pas sur la neige 
La Flûte enchantée
L'Indifférent 
Si comme la lune 
La lune paraît
Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant
Le Jardin féerique

Accentus, the superb French choir, follows up its successful Transcriptions disc with a second one of 19 inventive transcriptions of works by composers ranging from Vivaldi to Ravel. Some are of keyboard works, others, of orchestral pieces, still others, of songs. In each the arrangers have used the original texts or poetry that fits the music, a striking example being Franck Krawczyk's arrangement setting the text of the Requiem to the Winter concerto from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Like others in this collection, it proves surprisingly appropriate in its choral guise, the transcription closely following the original score. Perhaps even more impressive is the way pieces by Scriabin, Debussy and Ravel are fitted with texts that fit the music with uncanny exactitude. What might seem like a far-fetched exercise is transformed into an exciting exploration of choral sonorities that add a new dimension to the originals. The result is an enjoyable and thought-provoking disc that will delight lovers of choral music.

Globe and Mail
"10/10" & "This is the choir's second album of Transcriptions, and much of it is quite astonishing"

Billboard
This album is so convincingly natural that you just might forget the originals, if just for a moment.

San Francisco Chronicle
"The French ensemble Accentus sets out to transform a wide range of music"

Carl Rütti

Requiem

The Bach Choir, Southern Sinfonia, David Hill

Requiem: Introitus
Requiem: Kyrie
Requiem: Offertorium
Requiem: Sanctus - Benedictus
Requiem: Agnus Dei
Requiem: Communio
Requiem: In Paradisum

A good argument could be made that the most influential choral religious work ever written--as well as one of the most beautiful-- was the gentle Requiem of Gabriel Faure, which may have forever eliminated grandiloquence from the musical vocabulary of death. So much 21st century choral music seems its relative--whether by Part or Gorecki or Gavin Bryars or this exceptionally beautiful piece by a 60-year-old composer who was born in Switzerland but seems to have adopted the English tradition entirely. As with Bryars, you can hear jazz and blues in his gorgeously melodic and entirely consonant music too (which, very much unlike Bryars, sounds as if 20th century music never really happened). In this piece, which was commissioned by the Bach Choir, composer Rutti was specifically asked to write for the same forces as the Faure Requiem. The result is, depending on how you look at it, either almost entirely derivative or fascinating proof of exactly how magnificent a tradition the Faure Requiem actually began. Frankly, I tend to believe the latter.

Carl Rütti (né en 1949)

Olivia Robinson, soprano
Edward Price, baryton
Jane Watts, orgue
The Bach Choir
Southern Sinfonia
Direction David Hill

Carl Rutti, Requiem performed by soloists, The Bach Choir, Southern Sinfonia and organist Jane Watts conducted by David Hill (Naxos). A good argument could be made that the most influential choral religious work ever written--as well as one of the most beautiful-- was the gentle Requiem of Gabriel Faure, which may have forever eliminated grandiloquence from the musical vocabulary of death. So much 21st century choral music seems its relative--whether by Part or Gorecki or Gavin Bryars or this exceptionally beautiful piece by a 60-year-old composer who was born in Switzerland but seems to have adopted the English tradition entirely. As with Bryars, you can hear jazz and blues in his gorgeously melodic and entirely consonant music too (which, very much unlike Bryars, sounds as if 20th century music never really happened). In this piece, which was commissioned by the Bach Choir, composer Rutti was specifically asked to write for the same forces as the Faure Requiem. The result is, depending on how you look at it, either almost entirely derivative or fascinating proof of exactly how magnificent a tradition the Faure Requiem actually began. Frankly, I tend to believe the latter.

Délibérément calqué sur le format orchestral du Requiem de Fauré (chœur, cordes, harpe, orgue), le Requiem du compositeur suisse Carl Rütti en reprend également les grandes lignes du format liturgique : pas de Séquence (donc pas de Dies irae, de Rex tremendae ni de Lacrimosa), ajout de l’antienne In Paradisum. Les parallélismes s’arrêtent là, si ce n’est l’infinie douceur du langage : ce n’est pas un Requiem de pleurs et de terreur, mais un d’émerveillement et d’espérance. Bon, le Kyrie eleison s’énerve un peu, normal, l’on demande quand même au Seigneur et au Christ de prendre pitié.

Quant à la musique de Rütti, elle s’inscrit dans la lignée de John Rutter et de John Tavener – une grande partie de ses œuvres, chorales en particulier, appartiennent au grand répertoire des chœurs anglais –, mais Rütti inscrit dans son langage les influences du jazz et du blues, quand bien même de manière particulièrement diaphane. Ce n’est absolument pas du gospel écrit, par exemple, mais bel et bien de la musique contemporaine d’essence classique, tonale, harmonique et polyphonique.

Maximo Diego Pujol

Complete Guitar Duos

Giorgio Mirto & Victor Villadangos

Maximo Diego Pujol (né en 1957)

Tango, milonga y final : I. Tango de Abril - II. Milonga de Junio - III. Final Feliz
Tiempo del hombre
Truco Suite : I. Primera - II. Falta envido - III.Truco - IV. Vale cuatro
Tres piezas de Otoño : I. Arbolado - II. Sombrío - III. Avenida Centenario
Cafè para dos
Sonatina caótica

Giorgio Mirto & Victor Villadangos, duo de guitares

Il n’y a pas que le tango et la milonga qui ont fait école auprès des musiciens « classiques » d’Amérique Latine ; ainsi, Maximo Diego Pujol (* 1957), digne successeur de l’incontournable Astor Piazzola, a-t-il également introduit les influences du candombe (une danse d’origine africaine, développée en Uruguay, à ne surtout pas confondre avec candomblé qui est une religion afro-brésilienne) et de la chacarera, née dans les provinces du nord de l’Argentine et jusqu’en Bolivie et au Paraguay, là où se mêlent les trois pays dans l’extraordinaire région du Gran Chaco. Mais ce sont là les influences populaires sur l’œuvre de Pujol, qui s’adosse par ailleurs sur Bach dans la rigueur du langage et sur le grand luthiste Silvius Weiss dans son écriture guitaristique. Bach et Weiss qui, en leur temps, n’hésitaient pas à transformer les danses de village – gavottes, gigues, courantes, sarabandes, menuets – en des œuvres parfaitement savantes. Ainsi Pujol…

Le compositeur lui-même remercie chaudement les deux interprètes, Giorgio Mirto et Victor Villadangos, de leur excellente interprétation, et de leur compréhension de cette musique qui exige, comme le baroque, une grande capacité à l’ornementation ex nihilo, car la partition n’est « qu’un matériau brut » écrit, tandis que l’âme du discours se situe, justement, dans l’art de la liberté.