LAWO Archive

“Bergen Barokk: Suite Life” – Excerpts from var. suites composed by PHILIDOR, MARAIS, HOTTETERRE, CHEDEVILLE, COUPERIN – LAWO Classics

“Bergen Barokk: Suite Life” – Excerpts from var. suites composed by PHILIDOR, MARAIS, HOTTETERRE, CHEDEVILLE, COUPERIN – LAWO Classics

“Bergen Barokk: Suite Life” – Excerpts from var. suites composed by PHILIDOR, MARAIS, HOTTETERRE, CHEDEVILLE, COUPERIN – LAWO Classics multi-channel SACD LWC1096, 60:00 (10/14/16) ****1/2: European court music from the 17th century. The suites in this recording are taken from some of the many great music releases in Paris in the early 1700s. The releases, which were released “avec Privilege du Roy” (royal prerogative), reflecting ball, concerts, opera and ballet performances at the court and were well-received by a bourgeoisie filled with admiration for the luxurious lifestyles of the rich. Bergen Barokk was established in 1994 and is today among the leading early music ensembles. On this recording we hear Frode Thorsen on the recorder, Hans Knut Sveen on harpsichord, Thomas Boysen and Thor-Harald Johnsen on lute and guitar instruments and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola on viola da gamba. This is an attractive collection of court music, wonderfully played by the Bergen Barokk. It’s light music, very atmospheric. To my mind something to have on in the house rather than something I would sit in front of and engage in deep thoughts. The sound on the disc is very good. I listened to the 5.0 mix, and found the ensemble up front, […]

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI:29; Andante and Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6; Sonata in C Minor, Hob. XVI:20; Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50 ‒ Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO LWC1094; 67:46 (5/6/16) *****: A nicely-varied recital from a Scandinavian Haydn specialist. B01AB6UNWM Despite the highly evocative cover photo, this album is not all storms-a-brewing. However, two of the works on this varied program tap into the darker side of Haydn, one not often encountered since his latest, greatest works are usually in a sunny major mode. Of Haydn’s late large-scale compositions, consider that his greatest symphonic creations, the twelve London Symphonies, include only one work in a minor key, Symphony No. 95 in c. It is perhaps the least admired of the twelve, and as to its key signature, critics generally conclude that here Haydn is more interested in the minor key as a matter of sonority than as a matter of spiritual-emotional context, as it was in the great c minor works of Mozart and Beethoven. Then again, in that same decade we have the marvelous Lord Nelson Mass, or Missa in Angustiis, written during the frightening early years of […]

BRAHMS: Piano Trios – Vienna Piano Trio – MD&G; BRAHMS: Rhapsodies; Piano Sonata 3; Ballade – Mortensen, p. – LAWO

BRAHMS: Piano Trios – Vienna Piano Trio – MD&G; BRAHMS: Rhapsodies; Piano Sonata 3; Ballade – Mortensen, p. – LAWO

BRAHMS: Piano Trios No. 1 – Trio Op. 8  (Version of 1889); Trio Op. 87 ‒ Vienna Piano Trio ‒ MD&G multichannel SACD MDG 942 1962-6 (& 2+2+2); 63:31 (7/8/16) ***1/2: “In Finstrer Mitternach” = BRAHMS: Two Rhapsodies, Op. 74; Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5; Ballade, Op. 10, No. 1 ‒ Nils Anders Mortensen, p. ‒ LAWO multichannel SACD LWC1084; 58:00 (2/6/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Brahms at midnight and mid-afternoon. I decided to review these recordings together because they started me thinking about the fractious (mostly on one side of the equation) relationship between Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Thanks to Nicolas Slonimsky’s endlessly entertaining Lexicon of Musical Invective, we know that Tchaikovsky was not a fan of Brahms. In a diary entry from 1886, Tchaikovsky noted that he was playing some music by Brahms. His reaction? “What a giftless bastard!” Tchaikovsky did moderate his view when he met Brahms two years later in Leipzig, at the home of violinist Adolph Brodsky. Here, the Russian composer found Brahms a dignified, kindly man and generally had more complementary things to say about his German rival. However, auditing a run-through of Brahms’s new trio—presumably the Trio No. 3, Op. 101—Tchaikovsky was moved […]

KVERNO: Credo – A Composer Portrait of Trond H.F. Kverno – Bergen Cathedral Choir/ Arnfinn Tobiassen, organ – LAWO

KVERNO: Credo – A Composer Portrait of Trond H.F. Kverno – Bergen Cathedral Choir/ Arnfinn Tobiassen, organ – LAWO

KVERNO: Credo – A Composer Portrait of Trond H.F. Kverno – Bergen Cathedral Choir/ Arnfinn Tobiassen, organ – LAWO multichannel SACD (5.0) LWC1091 (11/13/15) [Dist. by Naxos] ****: Inspiring and ethereal music by Norwegian composer Trond Kverno. The new SACD/CD from Bergen Cathedral Choir and organist Arnfinn Tobiassen is a tribute to Norwegian contemporary composer Trond H.F. Kverno on his 70th birthday. The listener is introduced to both his choral work, as well as his works inspired by medieval ballads and Norwegian folklore. The works on this disc were composed in the 1970s through 2004. Most of the selections on this disc are based on Norwegian folklore. Some of the pieces are instrumental, and feature some powerful organ playing by Tobiassen. Some are choral works that are ethereal and beautiful. Translations are provided in the informative liner notes. Bergen is such a stunning and uplifting city, it’s not surprising to hear such inspiring music from musicians with ties to the locale. If you haven’t been there, search the web for some photos. Most of our readers, including me, won’t be familiar with Kverno’s music, but that’s not an excuse to fail to pick up this disc and give it a listen. […]

MOZART: Flute & Harp Concerto; Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds – Soloists/Oslo Philharmonic/Buribayev & Enegard – LAWO

MOZART: Flute & Harp Concerto; Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds – Soloists/Oslo Philharmonic/Buribayev & Enegard – LAWO

MOZART: Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C Major, K. 299; Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds in E-Flat Major, K297B – Per Flemström, flute / Birgitte Volan Håvik, harp / Pavel Sokolov, clarinet/ Per Hannisdal, bassoon/ Inger Besserudhagen, horn/ Oslo Philharmonic Orch./ Alan Buribayev (K. 299) / Arvid Enegård (K. 297B) – LAWO Classics multichannel SACD LWC1071, 57:53 (2/18/15) ****: A winning showcase for the first-chair talents of the Oslo Phil. Here are two musical souvenirs of Mozart’s ill-advised and even tragic sojourn in Paris during spring and summer of 1778. The ill advice came by way of Mozart’s father, Leopold, ever the impresario, who insisted that Mozart establish his credentials in the French capital. The tragedy involved the death of Mozart’s mother, who had accompanied him on the trip, an event that deeply affected the twenty-two-year-old composer. As it turned out, Mozart made little impact in Paris and ended up being saddled with a couple of commissions for which he was neither recognized nor paid. One of them was for the ballet Les Petites Riens; not only did the management stiff Mozart on this composition, his name didn’t even appear in the program. But then again, ballet was […]

“The First Beauty” Music by KLEIN, KYANDAL, YUN and AM – Oslo Kammerakademi/ David Friedemann Strunck – LAWO Classics

“The First Beauty” Music by KLEIN, KYANDAL, YUN and AM – Oslo Kammerakademi/ David Friedemann Strunck – LAWO Classics

“The First Beauty” Music by KLEIN, KYANDAL, YUN and AM – Oslo Kammerakademi/ David Friedemann Strunck – LAWO Classics multichannel SACD LWC 1093, 1:15:01 (3/4/16) 1:15:01 [Distr. by Naxos] ***1/2: Seldom heard contemporary wind music nicely played and recorded. This new SACD from LAWO Classics is a collection of contemporary wind music played by the Oslo Kammerakademi, a new ensemble with some of Scandinavia’s leading wind soloists. The Oslo Philharmonic’s solo oboist David Friedemann Strunck is the initiator and artistic director of the ensemble. The ensemble is unique in Scandinavia because it plays chamber music for wind instruments with the classical harmony music instrumentation as a basis, where the ensemble uses historical brass instruments of the baroque, classical and romantic repertoire to give the sound both authenticity and transparency. The ensemble had its debut in Oslo in December 2009. The disc contains four 20th-century works, including music by Gideon Klein (1919-1945), Johan Vandal (1919-1999), Isang Yun (1917-1995), and Magnar Äm (b 1952) While all the compositions on the disc are interesting, and all are well played, I thought the highlight work was the most recently composed – the first beauty for Wind Octet and Double Bass by Magnar Äm. Written […]

ACH: Schubler and Leipzig Chorales; Canonic Variations – Kare Nordstoga, organ – LAWO Classics

ACH: Schubler and Leipzig Chorales; Canonic Variations – Kare Nordstoga, organ – LAWO Classics

Beautifully crafted performances of some introspective works. BACH: Schubler and Leipzig Chorales; Canonic Variations – Kare Nordstoga, organ – LAWO Classics multichannel SACD LWC1056 (2 discs), TT: 210:53 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: The Canonic Variations on “From heaven above to earth I come” is not a long work, nor is it the most torrential the composer ever created. But at a time later in life when the cantatas were behind him, this curious “entrance exam” to the Society of the Musical Sciences, only three years before his death, strikes a chord of infused emotionality that breathes the composer’s piety in a way that few of his works do. The quiet contrapuntal mastery radiates from every bar in this fearless work, making it one of the seminal organ pieces ever created. We must travel back in time to the earlier Weimar chorales that Bach revisited when in Leipzig in the creation of his Eighteen Chorale Preludes of Various Kinds. The music is a more sophisticated reworking of pieces that might actually have been composed as early as 1708. The Schubler Chorales, Six Chorale Preludes of Various Kinds, are so-called because Johann Georg Schubler was the man who published them, making them […]