Key Releases

October 2011

Bjarte engeset
conducts

GRIEG

and

IRGEns-JEnsEn

If the value of Griegs music lay only in presenting a Norwegian national identity, then I frankly think we should forget him. In the short descriptions of him on the net, youll find that he was a lyrical nationalistic poet, writing miniatures. But as I never tire of demonstrating, he was very, very much more than that. Bjarte engeset on Grieg

GRIEG Music for string orchestra

Malm Symphony Orchestra Bjarte Engeset

griegs beautiful works for string orchestra often owe their origin to poetic inspiration or to mountain vistas. some were based on piano originals, including the Holberg Suite, a masterpiece of invention. all of these pieces show griegs assimilation of norwegian folk culture and his lyrical mastery, through which he sought to give expression to the hidden harmonies in our folk melodies. Volume 4 in this series (8.570236) was described as containing performances as fine as any in the catalogue. these are gorgeous, perfectly paced and thrillingly recorded. (ClassicsToday.com) Booklet notes in english Catalogue no: 8.572403 total Playing time: 71:13 Listen on www.naxos.com

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IRGEns-JEnsEn symphony in d minor

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Bjarte Engeset

the two main works on this recording are among the peaks of twentieth-century norwegian orchestral music. Irgens-jensens Passacaglia won second prize in the nordic section of the 1928 schubert centenary composing competition, behind only the eventual winner, and its admirers included stravinsky and toscanini. His only purely orchestral Symphony, recorded here for the first time in the three-movement form that Irgens-jensen originally conceived, expresses the depth of his feelings about the human and natural world during the dark days of World War two. the disc is completed by his brief, touching orchestral Air. Booklet notes in english Catalogue no: 8.572312 total Playing time: 1:06:46 Listen on www.naxos.com
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47313 23127 0

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Key Releases | 1

Key Releases

October 2011

Bjarte engeset
Talks to Jeremy Siepmann
Ulf Palm

a jack of all trades but a master of none. not generally a compliment. But for mastery of one trade, its not a bad training. a conductor without some first-hand experience of several instruments is significantly disadvantaged. Bjarte engeset has no such problem. I was educated as a flutist at the grieg academy in Bergen, norway, and in the Us. In my conservatory years I also studied several second instruments: piano, recorder, violin, viola and singing. Im not really very good at any of these, actually, but studying them was invaluable in my later work as a conductor. engesets musical tastes range wide, but his name has become indelibly associated with that of his greatest musical compatriot. It was there, then, naturally, that we began. grieg, I remarked, is a very popular composer. But could it be that he is also, in some ways, misunderstood? I think he is, actually in some ways. Yes. and I try to make people open their ears and minds to new and unknown sides of his music reaching beyond the nationalism and postcard lyricism. Has his nationalism, I wondered, been something of a two-edged sword? Might it even have detracted from his reputation? I find this is a very difficult concept to discuss with a clear mind. and the devastating tragedy in norway this summer, caused by a mass murderer expressing right wing nationalism (and sometimes using the pseudonym of sigurd jorsalfar, both the name of a Viking King and the title of a grieg/Bjrnson work) has made it even more difficult. nationalism in griegs lifetime took many directions, but its important to remember the humanistic, democratic sides of norwegian nationalism before 1905. these were built on French and american ideals of freedom, identity, and the right to ones own language and culture, while at the same time acknowledging internationalism. grieg often tried to ensure that his nationalism was not misunderstood. He was also an internationalist, and not at all on the right wing, politically. Its true that hes been identified historically with the idea of bringing national identity into music, but in many countries this actually added to his popularity. the same thing happened with sibelius. For many people, grieg symbolised the little nation fighting against oppression, and he demonstrated that such nations could create and advance their own culture with deep-rooted pride. I dont, of course, deny for one moment his importance with regard to national identity, but I do think writers and researchers often put too much emphasis on it especially, I have to say, researchers from outside norway. If the value of griegs music lay only in presenting a norwegian national identity, then I frankly think we should forget him. My great hope is that performers, audiences and scientists alike can also focus on his

important musical and human messages. If you google edvard grieg youll find a lot of postcard photos of norwegian nature in good weather. In the short descriptions of him on the net, youll find that he was a lyrical nationalistic poet, writing miniatures. But as I never tire of demonstrating, he was very, very much more than that. grieg was a distinguished pianist, and he wrote a great deal of piano music. Is this detectable in his writing for orchestra? His output of solo piano music, songs with piano, and chamber music with piano, is far more extensive than his orchestral music, a good deal of which is actually arranged from piano originals. theres no doubt, I think, that the piano and the voice (personified by nina grieg, his wife) were the focal point of his composition. still, when I tell fellow musicians that there will be as many as eight CDs in the naxos series of his orchestral music, theyre always surprised. grieg himself thought he wrote better for the orchestra when the music was not first conceived as piano music. When he did orchestrate his piano pieces, he didnt add many new musical elements, like independent orchestral counter-melodies. Ultimately, his musical mind in general was very much focused on colour, and I think even today his sense of orchestral colouring is too little acknowledged. In terms of both technique and imagination, how would engeset rank grieg as an orchestrator? Im not much interested in ranking him, or anybody else. as an interpreter I look first of all for the specific quality and intention of whatever music Im performing. Of course it can be argued that grieg as an orchestrator doesnt reach the levels of virtuosity achieved by a Berlioz or a richard strauss. nor did he copy Wagners virtuoso string writing. Most of the effects and orchestral techniques he employed had already been used by others. In spite of this, though, I see strong individuality and recognisability in his instrumentation. Most of his orchestrations he refined during his life, after extensive experience of conducting them. It was crucial for grieg that technique be the servant of the message. He never pursued sensation and virtuosity for its own sake. Everything derived from his ideas. In this way his style becomes both personal and original, without creating a school. there are two common misconceptions about griegs orchestration. One says Its weak, so we dont need to talk about it. In the literature of grieg scholarship remarkably little is written on this subject. Well I think his orchestration is not weak, and that we should talk about it! the other suggests that his orchestration is very german in character, and thus unsuited to his personal musical style. the fact is, though, that after writing his early symphony in C minor he abandoned the mixed classical sound of

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Key Releases
the Leipzig school. He was inspired by his friend Johan Svendsens more contrasting style, opposing the winds and strings more than mixing them. Yes, to some degree he did become influenced by Wagners orchestrations, but he rejected the dense polyphonic style of the modern Germans around him (Wagner, Strauss, Reger and so on), where every part is given a mixed sonority of instruments. Does he, I wondered, pose any challenges to the conductor that are typically, if not definitively, Griegian? Im especially concerned with the more general aesthetic challenges posed to anyone performing Grieg, since his aesthetic universe is highly complex, with many contrasting and opposing elements. He was a poet, interested in the paradisiacal harmony between man and nature, trying to lift the audience upward, into better worlds. While he searched for a special kind of clarity, he was also drawn towards more dangerous and barbaric sounds, marked by strong contrasts and sharp articulation. In his often-hymn-like climaxes theres usually a notable element of activity his bursting flames of tremolo for example. Also typical is the contrasting of his naivet and objective simplicity with strong emotional outbursts and mysticism. I think he was both a populist and an aristocrat, drawn equally to folklore and nobility. I personally also feel the dualism of Christianity in his music, with an undercurrent of an older, nature religion, where darkness and light are united. There are important distinctions here between trolls and Belzebub! So the performer has to be a kind of spiritual/emotional chameleon, changing shape and character at different times: a child, an angel, a lover, a troll, a devil sometimes we must be several at the same time! From the general we turned to the specific, and to the substance of Engesets latest Grieg CD. Griegs special interest in sonorities, that we were talking about earlier, is shown in his substantial use of a string orchestra within the context of his symphonic works, and in his many pieces for string orchestra alone. Our latest Naxos release features the latter, especially in the Lyric Suite. Many people, like Jay Hilfiger in his article Grieg and the Chamber Orchestra, believe that these are specifically works for chamber orchestra. But theyre really not. Grieg expressed many, many times in letters and diaries that he wanted a large group of strings, preferably around sixty players. And this is the size we use in our recording. Its also worth noting that Grieg himself often included some of these works in the symphonic concerts he conducted around Europe. The Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34, and The Holberg Suite, Op. 40, were often included in such programmes. Here Grieg explores the exciting spectrum of sounds that you get in the really large, symphonic string orchestra, with all its fullness, fusion, power and depth of sonority. These scores usually have nine or more staves, the strings divided in many different combinations for instance, where he divides the violins into four sections, the large number of players gives every group a truly symphonic, tutti sound. Its also very rewarding for the players (Griegs numerous notated effects and dynamic markings encourage performers to explore the finest of nuances). And behind many of these works, too, theres also a song, with a text that can inspire the interpretation. Of course these pieces can be played by chamber orchestra, but I think a performance with sixty strings, focusing on dynamics and contrasts of colour, can really result in something very special. Grieg is among the most famous composers in the world. The same can hardly be said of Ludvig Irgens-Jensen. Yet Engeset is in no doubt of his stature. He was a European, (born 1894; died 1969) who was influenced by both German and French culture and spent extended periods in Berlin and Paris. Unlike Grieg, he never aimed to create a specifically Norwegian musical identity. As well as being a sensitive lyric poet he was also a sceptic and a rationalist, and much of his music has a characteristically elegiac melancholy.

September 2011

When he was young, he was seen as one of the modernists; later on, some saw him as a conservative classicist. The two main works in our new CD are among the peaks of twentieth century Norwegian orchestral music, and for many years in the mid-twentieth-century they attracted a lot of attention, both nationally and internationally, and were quite frequently performed. The Passacaglia (original version 1928) was played with great success by many orchestras in the US and around Europe, and the Berlin Philharmonic played it twice between the two world wars. Unsurprisingly, it had a very high status in Norwegian music. He was something of a humanistic philosopher, with an allembracing vision of art. Throughout his life he grappled with the big questions about human existence. His only Symphony (which is also included in this new CD) was created before and during the Second World War years. But I feel very strongly that its not only about the war. The pessimism inherent in his original concept of the work also points towards the terrible knowledge and cataclysms that came after 1942, most recently, of course, the tragedy inflicted on our country this summer. The Symphony has mostly been played in a two-movement form. In this new release, however, all three movements of the symphony can be heard for the first time on CD. Engesets great experience embraces both the public concert and the ever-challenging world of recording. As a conductor, however, he sees relatively little of the studio. When recording with orchestra we normally use concert halls the only differences from concerts being that theres no audience and we can play the music many times. The lack of audience, of course, is a liability since it can lead to a lack of inspiration, which does no-one any good. In almost any repertoire there must be a state of urgency in the music-making, so for a recording we must marshal all we can of our insights, emotions, talents, energy and intensity. But the fact that we can play the music many times, of course, can be a real virtue. Since we have more chances, we can be brave! The quest for perfection should never take away the element of bravery and risk. Its much harder to reach a person through loudspeakers than to do it live. So whatever we play must have strong conviction. It must say something important. However challenging, whatever the risks, its in the realm of recording that Engeset has reaped many of his richest artistic rewards: There are of course many concerts that I remember with the greatest joy, but I have to say that the Naxos project of recording everything by Grieg for orchestra, including the choral/orchestral works, has been especially rewarding. Among other things I used the opportunity to read a lot of the literature about Grieg, not least his own writings, in so many well written letters, diaries, articles etc. This project has made it possible for me to really delve deeply into Griegs aesthetic universe. Ive conducted his music for years, basically from an intuitive basis. Because of this project I now maybe have some more knowledge about this music. For example I must say that performing and recording the complete theatre music for Peer Gynt was a very special period for me. Such a project of course also makes you feel humble, and you always know it can never be The Ultimate Recording. Happily for us all, such a thing does not exist! But since when was a true artist fazed by attempting the impossible? Schopenhauer once made a telling distinction between talent and genius. Talent, he said, or words to this effect, is like a marksman who hits a target others cannot hit. Genius hits a target that others cannot even see. Genius or otherwise, the artist at least tries to see. And in the trying sometimes succeeds. Jeremy Siepmann is an internationally acclaimed writer, musician, teacher, broadcaster and editor.

2011 Naxos Rights International Limited

Bjarte Engeset Talks to Jeremy Siepmann | 3

Key Releases

October 2011

Previous releases of Griegs Orchestral Music conducted by Bjarte Engeset

8.557279 UPC: 747313227921

8.557854 UPC: 747313285426

8.557991 UPC: 747313299126

8.570236 UPC: 747313023677

8.570871-72 UPC: 747313087174

Piano concerto, symphonic dances with Havard Gimse, piano Royal Scottish National Orchestra

norwegian dances, Ballade, sltter (suite for orchestra) with Royal Scottish National Orchestra

symphony in c minor, three Pieces from sigurd Jorsalfar with Malm Symphony

Peer Gynt suites, six orchestral songs with Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano Palle Knudsen, baritone Malm Symphony

Peer Gynt (complete Incidental Music) with soloists, Malm Chamber Choir & Malm Symphony

Bjarte Engeset conducts more Norwegian orchestral music

8.555078 UPC: 747313507825

8.555770 UPC: 747313577026

8.555077 UPC: 747313507726

8.555761 UPC: 747313576128

8.554497 UPC: 636943449721

a Hundred Hardanger tunes suites nos 1 & 4 with Royal Scottish National Orchestra

a Hundred Hardanger tunes suites nos 2 & 5 with Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Piano concertos nos 1 & 5 with Havard Gimse, piano Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Piano concerto no 4 aurora Borealis with Havard Gimse, piano Royal Scottish National Orchestra

norwegian Violin Favourites with Henning Kraggerud, violin Iceland Symphony Orchestra

About Bjarte Engeset

the norwegian conductor Bjarte engeset completed his training with jorma Panula at the sibelius academy in Helsinki in 1989. In 1990 he was a prize-winner in the nordic Conducting Competition and since his participation in the 1991 tanglewood seminar he has conducted leading orchestras throughout scandinavia, as well as in Britain, germany, Belgium, the Czech republic, romania, slovakia, estonia and the United states. He made his London dbut with the royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997. at home he continues to play a leading part in festivals throughout norway, working both in the concert-hall and in the opera-house. He has frequently conducted the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and shared conducting duties with Mariss jansons during the orchestras three-week tour of asia. He has been music director of the troms symphony Orchestra, the norwegian Wind ensemble, artistic director of northern norways northern Lights Festival and Opera nord, and permanent guest conductor of the Flemish radio Orchestra. since 2007 he has served as chief conductor of swedens Dalasinfonietta. His acclaimed recordings for naxos include works by svendsen, Photo: Ulf Palm tveitt, grieg, Irgens-jensen, sibelius and sinding.

About Malm Symphony Orchestra

the Malm symphony Orchestra (MsO) consists of a hundred highly talented musicians who demonstrate their skills in a wide range of concerts. In the summer of 2008 the MsO founded a youth orchestra the MsO Ung (MsO Young) with talented young string musicians, entrusted in the 2009/2010 season with the chamber music series with MsO musicians as soloists. the record labels naxos and BIs have brought the orchestra to a worldwide audience and several of its recordings have gained international awards such as the Cannes Classical award and the Diapason dOr. the MsOs recording of Berwalds Symphonies, under the direction of sixten ehrling, was nominated for the Gramophone award, and a release of music by the american composer Charles Ives (naxos) was editors Choice/recording of the month in October 2008 in Gramophone. the recordings of Franz schmidts Symphonies (naxos) with former principal conductor Vassily sinaisky has won similar praise in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. sinaisky is now honorary conductor of the MsO, and Marc soustrot becomes principal conductor from the season 2011/2012.

2011 Naxos Rights International Limited

Key Releases | 4