Anmeldelse

Pianopiece by Lasse Thoresen

«Invocation of Earth in the Reflection of Glory, Op. 52 no 4

Yejin Gil, klaver

Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival offseason

While the pandemic is soon making the situation unbearable for music life, a surprising amount of art survives by finding new outlets. Lasse Thoresen’s «Invocation of Earth in the Reflection of Glory» was never performed during this summer’s Virtuoso & Belcanto-festival in Lucca, Italy, but the work was nevertheless written and its first performance made available in a video...

Thoresen often brings in spiritual or metaphysical elements in his works, and this Invocation is the fourth one in a series of invocations. Here the theme is to look at creation «in the light of an illumined consciousness» - and much more. The tonal language is what Thoresen calls «spectro-tonal». Spectral music is based on analyses of overtone-series, and one may also regard tonality as originating from the natural overtones. The music is actually written in a much-expanded tonality, which makes it easy to relate to the tonal language. It begins with a single c-sharp in piano pianissimo (PPP), which is expanded by another note, and yet another till we have got an A-major chord. The sonorities are slim, ethereal, and the chord gives some weight and substance to the movement. By quietly adding bass notes crossing the regular and quiet pulse, Thoresen begins slowly to create motion. After three minutes there are quick passages under the chords that have grown denser, until a section in which only the accompanying parts are left, and where he just lets the textures tell a story about sound-color, and the virtuosity becomes the most important element in the narrative.

In this way Thoresen builds further, and does in no way restrain the demands he makes to the pianist. The pianistic technique he employs is rooted in the great pianistic masters, such as Liszt, Debussy and Messiaen. Although the music certainly is composed with intricate structures and the spiritual inspiration is fundamental, the musical sound plays with one’s senses.

Moreover, the music is an impressive reading of the pianistic techniques in a spectro-tonal perspective. Thoresen paints colours in all nuances imaginable, and often the speed is so high that one loses the grasp on the melody, leaving the kinetic dynamics in the foreground of attention.

The work is extremely hard to play, and Yejin Gil who gave the first performance of two of the other invocations, presents a performance at a very high level. She possesses a superabundance of technical a musical capability allowing Thoresen to draw textures, densities and colors in his great compositional work. We hope that many will find their way to the “festival”.

Magnus Andersson. musikk@klassekampen.no.

mandag 26 October 2021, Klassekampen

Via virtuoso.events the piano piece can be rented for a day at a time or bought for streaming/download whenever one might wish.

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Klaververk

With the Oslo Philharmonic from abyss to ecstacy.

The Oslo Filhharmonic showed the capability of contemporary music to penetrate the abysses of the soul during this year’s Ultima Festival.

Concert

‘Viaggio attraverso tre valli’ – ‘Journey through three valleys’

Oslo Konserthus

16.-17. September 2020

Eystein Sandvik Reviewer NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) Published 21. sep. 2020 kl. 15:59 Revised 21. sep. 2020 kl. 16:00

Wolf disguised as sheep

Lasse Thoresen monumental cello-concerto « Passage through three valleys» (2008), a co-commission between the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchèstre Philharmonique de Radio France, was the only work performed on the program during the Thursday night’s concert in Oslo Konserthus, the secondo of concerts with the Oslo Philharmonics during this year’s Ultima Festival.

Few of the present-day Norwegian composers enjoy a greater prestige than Lasse Thoresen, both nationally and internationally. Among the peaks of his career may be mentioned the Music Prize of the Nordic Council (2010), as well as the honour of being appointed «composer in residence» with the prestigious Festival Présences in Paris during a period of three years (2004-2006).

The interest for his music is caused by the fact that Thoresen has created an original synthesis between continental modernism and element from Norwegian folk music while at the same time his works appeal to a larger audience. Thoresen’s modernism has a human face with a friendly and inviting smile.

The title «Journey through three valleys» may nevertheless cause some concern. Being aware of Thoresen’s interest in folk-music one might fear that the work could come dangerously close to an uncouth celebration of chauvinist Norwegian nationalism at a time when hardly any other category is more controversial.

However, the cello-concerto is a wolf in sheep-skin. Behind the postal-card-like title is hidden a dark beast of a work that slowly builds towards one of the most awe-inspiring climaxes I can ever remember to have heard in a concert hall. The valley appears to be an abyss, a bottomless darkness. According to the composer each of the movements pass through « a mental landscape in which the slopes are so steep that one cannot look above the horizon».

Darkness does, however, in no way prevail in the psychological valleys of the piece. More than any other composer is Lasse Thoresen the composer of light and ecstasy, which I would assume originates from the composer’s status as a believing Bahá’í.

Already in the slow and meditative second movement light and darkness are held in an unstable equilibrium – at least before the tremendous catastrophe happens towards the end of the movement. As can be expected it is in the final movement that the fog clears up, and the hillsides are bathed in shimmering splendour.

«Travel through three valleys» shows the extent of Thoresens’s mastery; an almost naìve spontaneity is complemented by an enormous orchestral palette. Thoresen is above all a colorist of international format, and he was well supported by an orchestra that sparkled under the solid conducting of Ingar Bergby.

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REVIEW

Med Oslo-Filharmonien fra avgrunn til ekstase

Oslo-Filharmonien viste samtidsmusikkens evne til å trenge ned i sjelens avgrunner under årets Ultimafestival

Konsert

«Reise gjennom tre daler», «Second Symphony», «Onze Lieder»

Oslo konserthus

16.-17. September 2020

Eystein Sandvik Musikkanmelder

Publisert i går kl. 15:59 Oppdatert i går kl. 16:00

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To av Skandinavias mest anerkjente komponister sto på plakaten i Oslo Konserthus under Ultimafestivalen den siste uka. De fikk imidlertid skarp konkurranse fra en 94 år gammel fransk kvinne som på tampen av karrieren forhåpentligvis vil oppnå den internasjonale oppmerksomhet hun fortjener.

Ulv i fåreklær

Lasse Thoresens monumentale cellokonsert «Reise gjennom tre daler» (2008), opprinnelig en sambestilling mellom Oslo-Filharmonien og Fransk Radios Symfoniorkester, var eneste verk på programmet under torsdagens konsert i Oslo Konserthus, den andre av to med Oslo-Filharmonien under årets Ultimafestival.

Få nålevende norske komponister nyter større prestisje enn Lasse Thoresen, både nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Blant høydepunkter kan nevnes Nordisk råds musikkpris (2010), samt det ærefulle oppdraget som «composer in residence» ved den prestisjetunge Festival Présences i Paris over en treårsperiode (2004-06).

Oppmerksomheten skyldes at Thoresen har skapt en særegen syntese mellom kontinental modernisme og elementer fra norsk folkemusikk, samtidig som hans verker treffer et bredt publikum. Thoresens modernisme har et menneskelig ansikt med et vennlig og inviterende smil.

Tittelen «Reise gjennom tre daler» kan riktignok gi bange anelser. Gitt Thoresens orientering mot folkemusikken kunne man frykte at verket havnet farlig nær en ukomfortabel dyrking av «norskhet» på et tidspunkt hvor knapt noen kategori er mer omstridt.

Cellokonserten er imidlertid ulv i fåreklær. Bak den postkortaktige tittelen skjuler det seg et mørkt beist av et verk som langsomt bygger seg opp mot et av de mest fryktinngytende klimaks jeg kan huske å ha hørt i en konsertsal. Dalen viser seg å være en avgrunn, et bunnløst mørke. Ifølge komponisten selv er hver av de tre satsene reiser gjennom «et mentalt landskap hvor sidene er så bratte at man ikke engang kan se over horisonten».

Mørket råder imidlertid på ingen måte grunnen alene i verkets psykiske dalfører. Mer enn noen annen er Lasse Thoresen lysets og ekstasens komponist, noe jeg antar kan ha sin opprinnelse i komponistens status som troende Bahá’í.

Allerede den langsomme og meditative andresatsen holdes lys og mørke i en slags ustabil balanse, i hvert fall inntil den voldsomme katastrofen inntreffer mot slutten av satsen. Ikke uventet er det i finalesatsen at tåken for alvor letter, og åssidene bades av skimrende stråleglans.

«Reise gjennom tre daler» viser bredden i Thoresens mesterskap, hvor en nesten naiv spontanitet suppleres av en enorm orkesterpalett. Thoresen er fremfor alt en klangkunstner av internasjonalt format, og ble fulgt opp av et orkester som gnistret under Ingar Bergbys solide ledelse.

Fremragende solist

HØR FRA KONSERTEN: Amalie Stalheim som solist i Lasse Thoresens cellokonsert «Reise gjennom tre daler». Her utdrag fra siste sats. FOTO: Rune Bendiksen/OFO

«Reise gjennom tre daler» ble opprinnelig skrevet for stjernecellist Truls Mørk, som urfremførte verket sammen med Oslo-Filharmonien i 2008. Denne uken var cellokrakken overtatt av 27-årige Amalie Stalheim, som allerede har markert seg som en musiker på terskelen av en internasjonal karriere. Stalheims turnering av det ekstremt krevende solistpartiet var intet mindre enn fremragende.

Allerede fra åpningstaktene, hvor solisten nakent og alene setter an tonen i celloens mørke register, viser Stalheim seg som en musiker som omhyggelig pleier hver eneste frase. Til og med de mest halsbrekkende partier utover i verket ble avlevert med en sikkerhet og autoritet som avslører en sjelden begavelse.

Torsdagens fremføring har overbevist meg om at Thoresens cellokonsert er et av de beste norske orkesterverk skrevet på denne siden av millenniumsskiftet. I så måte er det helt på sin plass at forrige ukes fremføring ble foreviget

THORESEN Sea of Names, op. 47.

Stages of the Inner Dialogue, op. 9.2 With an Open Hand or a Clenched Fist?, op. 6.1 Solspill, op. 13.2 Invocations, op. 52: No. 3,Invocation of Crystal Waters.2 Interplay, op. 11 • 1Maiken Mathisen Schau (fl); 2Trond Schau (pn) • 2L 127 (SACD: 71:09)

Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949), professor of music at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, has been influenced by a number of diverse streams that meet in his music: Pierre Schaeffer’s acoustic research, Eastern music and Norwegian folk music are perhaps primary amongst these. The conflation of Western and Eastern influences and a keen ear for sonority ensure Thoresen’s music is always memorable. There is surprisingly little of his work reviewed on the Fanfare Archive, although there is an alternative version of Solspill (which rather beautifully translates as “Sun Glitter,” or “Sun Play”) on a Simax disc reviewed in Fanfare 19:4.

The sheer beauty of the tinsel-delicate opening to Sea of Names (2012) sets the scene. It’s beautiful to experience, before long the flute is asked to use multiphonics (stunningly well done here by Maiken Mathisen Schau). The material for the work comes from the cadenza to Fartein Valens’s Violin Concerto. The title refers to the soul returning to its starting point after a corporeal existence, and indeed the sound picture is mostly otherworldly. Schau’s command of her instrument is breathtaking, while Trond Schau provides at times a sonic ocean of serenity over which the flute can fly.

Dating from much earlier (1981) and therefore prior to his chair at Oslo, Stages of the Inner Dialogue for solo piano is about communications with one’s inner self (a kind of “interior duologue,” to quote Boulez). The darker shades of the opening lead to a brighter piano entry that sounds like metal glinting in the sun, representing the inner self providing a solution to a problem being pondered by the conscious mind. Schau is superb here, elucidation the argument with a real sense of direction and yet dispatching the actual musical surfaces with a glistening touch.

It’s good to have Thoresen’s first work for solo flute here, too: With an Open Hand or a Clenched Fist?, (1976), a piece whose extended techniques include rhythmic stomping of the foot and singing through the flute. There is a real feeling of a light, dance element. It is one of the shorter pieces on the disc; Solspill of 1983, heard here in its 1986 revision, is music originally composed for a slide show by a local nature photographer. The 1986 version is this music presented as a concert piece for solo piano and it is here that Thoresen’s interest in Norwegian folk music comes to the fore; the technique used is to take that material and examine it in minuscule detail from a number of angles (analogous, in fact, to some photography techniques). The harmonies, incidentally, around the nine-minute mark are simply luminous.

Written for the 13th International Edvard Grieg Competition, “Invocation of Crystal Waters” (2011) is one of three Invocations (the other two are of “Pristine Light” and “Rising Air”). This one takes water as a symbol for internal cleansing, so its basis is not a million miles from Sea of Names in working with spiritual images of water. The Invocation is split into two parts, an “Aqualudium” (five parts in mobile form) followed by a blissfully playful and, dare I say, fluid “Aqua Fuga.”

Finally, there comes Interplay for flute and piano of 1981. Initially commissioned from Thoresen’s teacher, Finn Mortensen, the composition fell to Thoresen due to Mortensen’s ill health. The music Thoresen produced includes extremes of expression (making severe demands on the players), and at least initially treats the two players as separate instruments, with long solo passages for each and minimal direct interaction between the two. Pentatonicism oscillates with dissonance to create a varied soundscape; during the course of the piece the two instrumentalists go on a journey of various levels of interaction towards a virtuoso climax; the occasional wit is particularly relishable in this performance. Contemporary music need not be po-faced.

Bilingual (English/Norwegian) notes are first-rank. The SACD sound is impeccable: the venue was the Sofienberg Church in the Grünerløkka district of Oslo. The composer’s web site, lassethoresen.com, is a veritable mine of information and fully worthy of a mouse click or two. A fabulous, fascinating, not to mention sparkling, release.
Colin Clarke

This article originally appeared in Issue 40:4 (Mar/Apr 2017) of Fanfare Magazine.

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Review of WP: PRISON POEMS op. 53, 18 March 2017-06-05.

Maiken Schau, Flute, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, reader, Oslo Cathedral Choir, cond. Vivanne Sydnes, sound design Mats Claesson. Texts by Mahvash Sabet and ’Abdu’l-Bahá

Lars O. Flydal
Vårt Land

Pasjon og poesi

En uvanlig og tett nærværende versjon av Johann Sebastian Bachs Johannespasjon åpnet Kirkemusikkfestivalen. Og urfremføringen av Lasse Thoresens Prison Poems ble et musikalsk rop om rettferdighet.

Lars O. Flydal
lars.flydal@vl.no
Vårt Land

De to verkene viser spennet i det festivalen står for. Én ting er å ta vare på de store kirkemusikalske skattene, det har festivalen lang tradisjon på. Johannespasjonen føyer seg inn i rekken av høykvalitetsfremføringer av de store verkene. Men som en av fem urfremføringer går Lasse Thoresens Prison poems inn som et godt eksempel på det festivalen er blitt mer og mer preget av; en vilje til å fornye tradisjonen med vår tids uttrykk. Å vise spennet fra nåtidsuttrykket til barokken – og videre tilbake til renessanse og middelalder, preger festivalen, og er to viktige anliggender som gjør den til en bærebro mellom nærmere 1.000 års musikktradisjon.

ANMELDELSE: Dikt smuglet ut av iransk fengsel gjenoppstår i tekst og toner

Fengselspoesi

Lasse Thoresens Prison poems er basert på tekster av den iranske poeten Mahvash Sabet. Hun er torturert og sitter fengslet på grunn av sin tro. Hun var aktiv bahai, en religion som er forbudt av regimet. Fra fengselet er det smuglet ut dikt der hun forteller om en tilværelse av fornedrelse og grusomheter. Men hun står oppreist og nekter å føye seg, i tekstene ligger det sterke beretninger – men de er samtidig sterkt poetiske og viser en urokkelig stolthet.

Det at hun står oppreist og nekter å gi seg, er tatt vare på i Lasse Thoresen musikk. Samtidig er musikken, særlig gjennom fløytesolist Maiken Mathisen Schau, også preget av fortvilelse og et skingrende rop om rettferdighet.

Ydmykelse og håp

Fløyten alene innleder verket, gjennom et uttrykk som først er hviskende og poetisk, men fort går over i noe hektisk som gir en sterk følelse av forfølgelse. Elektroniske lydkulisser og fløytetoner lå bak de sterkt personlige fortellingene som ble lest av Mahiyyih Nakhjavani. Tekstene handler om ydmykelse, men bærer et sterkt håp i seg.

Håpet kommer til uttrykk i verkets avslutning, der Oslo domkor synger en bønn om å gjøre mørke til lys.

Publisert: 19. mars 2017

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Klangkunst

Lasse Thoresen: Invocations & Stages of the Inner Dialogue. Ravel: Miroirs. Vebjørn Anvik, klaver. Utgitt på Fabra.

Vebjørn Anvik kjenner vi som pianisten i Grieg Trio. Men han er også en fremragende solo-pianist. Valget av Lasse Thoresen og Ravel er særdeles vellykket. Det er som om Thoresen har hatt Ravel i hodet da han skrev disse tre påkallelsene. Det er naturen som påkalles og omformet til klanger, rislende passasjer og triller. De kraftfulle trillene Anvik får frem hos Thoresen, er det bare å beundre.

Vi hører kirkeklokker i dalen, rislende, dryppende vann, lerkesang, lys. Fortolkeren gis forskjellig grad av frihet i de tre påkallelsene. I det siste stykket, Stadier i den indre dialog, er ørets oppmerksomhet vendt innover, som en kontrast til den avstand som de tre påkallelsene har. Det benytter en modus (toneart) av Messiaen, en komponist som forente natur og det spirituelle på en egenartet måte.

Ravels Miroirs (speilbilder) angår også natur, eller en fremmaning av natur: nattsvermere, triste fugler, en båt på havet, klokkene i dalen. Som Olaf Eggestad så treffende formulerer det i tekstheftet, er det både fjernklang og etterklang i Ravels instrumentelle malerkunst, der melankoli avløser enkel skjønnhet. Anviks Ravel-tolkninger er utsøkte.

Morgenbladet 16.12. 2016, Emil Bernhardt

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Fjord-impresjonene er en musikalsk gavepakke til Sandefjords befolkning

… Dagen etter, da pianisten spilte Lasse Thoresens Invocation of Crystal Waters, var flere i publikum på gråten. «Hvordan gjor han det» ble det hvisket bakover i kirken. Verket, som skildrer rennende vann, slutter med en rekke nesten uhørlige toner i diskanten – dråper som faller mot mere vann, stein eller glass, kanskje. De traff iallfall det åndeløst lyttende publikum rett i hjertet.

Mona Levin

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Review: Gramophone, May 2012.
Guy Rickards

Review: Morgenbladet 17. -23. December 2010.
Magnus Anderson

A World Class Christmas Concert

Nordic Voices is a top notch ensemble particularly when they sing with techniques in whose development they themselves have been actively taking part.

… The program i Gamle Aker Kirke opened with ”Solbøn” from Lasse Thoresen’s Opus 42, and it closed with ”Himmelske Fader” from the same opus. Earlier this year the composer received the music prize of the Nordic Council for the whole opus that was written for Nordic Voices. Their collaboration stretches back several years, during which time Thoresen has been prodding the ensemble on to refine vocal techniques that are very hard for singers to master.

A number of composers have taken part in this research into vocal techniques, and during the initial phase much music was written that sought for mere effects without a sufficiently interesting structure. Opus 42 is a temporary climax of this project, in that Thoresen does not overcharge the music with technical peculiarities, and accordingly is able to concentrate on the creation of the music’s overall form so it unfolds like a drama. Nordic Voices are unsurpassed in singing with these novel techniques. They have learnt to master the most outrageously difficult things, making them sound effortless and beautiful. Through dense microtonal sounds and a play on overtones that make us listeners wonder what notes we really do hear, the Nordic Voices draws up a sublime, beautiful surface – and it is incredible what depths can hide beneath such a refined surface.

Nordic Voices had also programmed older music at the concert… their performance and interplay deserves a mention that involves the word ‘World Class’. Nevertheless it is with the techniques that they developed in the collaboration with Thoresen and other composers in the so called Concrescence Project that they really feel at ease. Here they are not only best in what they are doing; they are active researchers through their approach to musicianship, and in this way they take the lead in the development of vocal ensembles generally.

For those that could not attend the concert the record Djsånki don is warmly recommended. It is brilliant even though the ensemble now is in even better command of the new techniques. What is more, contemporary music is brought down from its ivory tower and given a simple, sensual appearance, thus making it accessible to everybody that is prepared to sit down and listen.

Flûtes à la norvégienne à Paris

Fidèle à sa mission de création (près de 200 premières depuis sa fondation en 1985 !), l’Orchestre de flûtes français présentait un ambitieux programme franco-norvégien dans le cadre de sa résidence à la mairie du 3e arrondissement de Paris. … Pour conclure la soirée, une superbe réussite : la création de Quaternité de Lasse Thoresen, traite l’orchestre de flûtes à la manière d’une formation symphonique. S’intéressant à toutes les tessitures, du piccolo à la flûte octobasse, le compositeur scandinave a créé un tourbillon d’un lyrisme quasi post-romantique, qui converge dans une spirale intensément lumineuse.

(18 octobre) Laurent Vilarem (La Lettre du musicien).

Review: Mellom Modernisme og Folkelighet.

11.09. 2010. Torkild Baden, NRK.

Reportage dalla Norvegia 3 - Grieg e Thoresen spiccano nell’ultimo concerto dell’”Osa Festival”

Scritto il 29 Novembre, 2009 in MUSICA, Spazio Classica

I Reportage dalla Norvegia di Alessio Elia proseguono con la recensione dell’ultimo appuntamento musicale dell’Osa Festival di Voss, che ha visto trionfare il grande Grieg e il contemporaneo Thoresen.

(Voss, 25 Ottobre 2009) Il concerto, svoltosi nella Nain Salen della città di Voss, ultimo della serie dell’Osa Festival, includeva brani per violino solo, hardingfele solo (un violino norvegese di fattura folklorica), violino e danzatore, e violino e pianoforte.

A brani di estrazione folklorica si univano lavori dei compositori Sparre Olsen (1903 - 1984), Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907), Ole Bull (1810 – 1880) e Lasse Thoresen (1947 – viv.).

La serata si apre con tre pezzi folklorici per hardingfele. Den Vande latten, Mehanken e Valdresguten, questi i titoli, mettono in luce alcune delle caratteristiche tipiche della musica folklorica norvegese per questo strumento.

L’uso costante delle doppie corde, con una massiccia presenza di un suono bordone realizzato mediante l’uso delle corde vuote, l’impiego del battito del piede come elemento ritmico percussivo d’accompagnamento e le figurazioni ornamentali con cui viene arricchita la melodia. In questi lavori l’abilità tecnico-espressiva della violinista Ragnhild Hemsing emerge in tutta la sua chiarezza.

Il lavoro di Olsen, 6 bygdeviser fra Lom, è, come suggerito dallo stesso titolo, costituito da sei brani per violino e pianoforte.

Il primo, con andamento agogico lento, presenta forti elementi tardo romantici cui si legano allusioni alla tradizione folklorica. Il secondo, un poco più andante, fa uso costante di suoni armonici artificiali e presenta elementi aforistici sia nell’organizzazione del materiale con cui è costituito sia per la brevità della durata in se stessa. Il terzo brano è ancor più breve e si concentra su un ritmo più agitato. Andamento vivace e forte utilizzazione dei pizzicati caratterizzano invece il quarto brano mentre il quinto, decisamente più lento, impiega costantemente doppie corde. Il brano conclusivo è anch’esso molto breve e presenta un andamento vivace.

In questi lavori la Hemsing mostra di possedere una buona tecnica. Buono anche l’amalgama d’insieme e la coordinazione con il pianista Dimitris Kostopoulos.

Il lavoro di Olsen è di discreta fattura anche se gli squilibri formali sono evidenti, così come chiari appaiono i problemi di elaborazione del materiale.

Di Ole Bull viene eseguita la Polacca Guerriera pas de deux for gut og mjølkespann, lavoro dal dubbio gusto musicale.

Il brano si articola in sette sezioni con aggiunta di una codetta. La prima sezione si apre come un’eco di trombe e corni, a mo’ di fanfara e, in qualche modo fa presagire le bruttezze che si ascolteranno nello sviluppo. La parte introduttiva crea qualche piccolo problema al pianista che non riesce a mantenere la pulizia del tocco.

La seconda sezione ha un carattere lirico in forte contrasto con la prima parte del brano. Nelle regioni acutissime la Hemsing mostra di non gestire perfettamente l’intonazione e anche la qualità del suono perde di efficacia.

Un valzer lirico, misto ad echi della prima sezione, costituisce la terza parte del brano. La commistione di elementi da valzer con passaggi in stile bandistico mostra il gusto triviale di Bull, che non aspira a nessuna forma di arte.

Echi di Chopin affiorano nella quarta parte del lavoro come l’ennesima prova di una mancanza di stile personale.

Nella quinta sezione l’intonazione della violinista è perduta del tutto e anche la coordinazione ritmica tra il violino e il pianoforte è compromessa.

La sesta parte somiglia ad una chanson e l’ultima affida la melodia al pianoforte su ostinati del violino.

La coda è triviale e la sincronia dei due musicisti è smarrita.

Di Grieg viene interpretata la Sonata per violino n° 1 in Fa maggiore Op. 8.

Nel primo tempo l’amalgama d’insieme tra il violino e il pianoforte è discreto. Dal secondo movimento la Hemsing inizia a perdere il senso dei dettagli, il suono si fa sporco e impreciso.

Nei passaggi cromatici il rapporto semitonale è poco chiaro così come è sfocata l’esattezza dell’intonazione in generale.

Nel fugato del terzo movimento il rapporto tra le diverse entrate del tema non è chiaro e ne viene compromessa la solidità architettonica della forma.

Notevole l’impegno di Grieg nella costruzione della Sonata e nella scelta del materiale, seppur il pezzo decisamente non brilla né per originalità né per sapienza tecnica.

Chiude il concerto YR (op. 23) di Lasse Thoresen.

Sebbene il lavoro fosse in origine destinato alla solo esecuzione del violino, recentemente è spesso rappresentato con la presenza di un danzatore, e questa è la versione che viene offerta nel concerto.

Il lavoro presenta gli elementi di una danza folklorica. Il violino fa uso della scordatura, elemento riccamente presente nella tradizione folklorica norvegese: la terza e la quarta corda del violino sono abbassate di un tono, mentre le altre due sono accordate normalmente.

Nella seconda parte del brano, il violista si accompagna con il battito del piede nello stile delle danza rurali norvegesi.

Gli intervalli melodici ed armonici presenti nel lavoro si basano su parziali armoniche. Sono altresì spesso presenti suoni armonici e corde doppie e anche l’uso di una nota bordone, corda vuota, nello stile della musicale tradizionale norvegese.

Il brano mostra evidenti punti di contatto con la tradizione folklorica norvegese seppur si avvale di una tecnica esecutiva contemporanea.

Il danzatore Hallgrim Hansegård diverte il pubblico ma non lo stupisce.

La sua performance, discreta in alcune parti della coreografia, spesso scade in un mero intrattenimento dalle dubbie qualità tecniche.

Il pubblico si mostra comunque soddisfatto del concerto.

Alcune ultime osservazioni finali.

La violinista Hemsing mostra di avere un bel suono, generalmente ben distribuito nelle diverse regioni dello strumento. Peccato per alcuni difetti d’intonazione e per un senso ritmico a volte non troppo chiaro.

Il pianista Kostopoulos possiede una discreta formazione tecnica ma il suo senso dell’insieme non convince e neppure la pulizia del tocco.

I momenti più interessanti del concerto sono stati indubbiamente rappresentati dalla Sonata di Grieg e da YR di Thoresen.

Alessio Elia

As if sculpted in sound

During almost ten years the idea of ’Journey through three valleys’ have circulated in Lasse Thoresen’s mind. The result is a symphonic stretch of gleaming qualities

Ida Habbestad 08. november 2008, Dagsavisen

KONSERT

«Reise gjennom tre daler»

Verk av Lasse Thoresen og Joseph Haydn
Med: Truls Mørk, Oslo-filharmonien, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Oslo Konserthus

With a big orchestra at his disposition, - which however often was used in chamber music setting – a number of engaging dialogues took place between the cello solo and other solo instruments when Thoresen’s new work had its world premier Thursday. The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with maestro Jukka-Pekka Saraste were the final commissioners of project that partly has been left lingering between different institutions after Truls Mørk initiated the project in 1999. In 2008 Thoresen turned the usual placement of the orchestra upside down. He moved the strings to the back of the sate, and the winds to the front. This gave a refreshing visual variation and as a result of the instrumentation placed the soloist in the foreground of the sound.

This lays the ground for a colourful work. The composer could take his point of departure in the different registers of the cello, which he reinforced and elegantly complemented through the other performers. Through the encounter with different instruments various characters were lifted out; in one moment, the tenor register, seeming as an adult, in the next a tender and shining timbre – like a young person’s voice. In this way the work appeared to be a study in a number of shades founded in and sculpted by the sonorities.

As the title specifies the composition depicts a journey through three valleys – metaphorical ones, according to the composer who contends they refer to states of mind. This idea could easily be traced from the initial Ricercare (’search’), with its groping trills, glissandi, and hesitating melodic fragments – a consistent unrest that permeated the whole movement. In Serenata (here a song of love) there was a suggestion of solace, interrupted by a menacing escalation towards the Fuga (flight or escape). The instrumentation, that until this point had been slender, now extended itself to the full, corresponding to a similar climax in full orchestra in the Finale. The final cadence of the soloist was characterized by gleaming overtones. It was reminiscent of the opening, but now it had opened for a new other peacefulness.

At the same time the title gave association to external landscapes. The composer has worked much with traditional music from the East as well as that from his home country – and although one did not hear much of the folk music, the music easily gave associations to the natural images of wide mountain expanses and the endless ocean. The music gleamed and shone as sunrays on lapping waves, or as merciless winds over mountain ranges. And in the end: a bath of light as if it all was a mirage.

In whichever way one would interpret the many passages, the work was well presented. The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra played up to its very best, as did also Truls Mørk, who yet again gave proof of his admirable and multifaceted sound.

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Review: Dagbladet, Friday 7 November 2008

The Sculptor of Sound

Truls Mørk, cello with Oslo Philharmonic, cond. Jukka Pekke Saraste, Oslo Konserthus.

It is Lasse Thoresen’s strength as a composer that he constantly dares to challenge his own metier. Only rarely is he taking refuge in well known tricks of the trade and standard solutions. We perceive all the time how he listens his way, how he is seeking something new and unheard of, as if he is feeling his way through the music.

Therefore we never know for sure what we get when a new work by Lasse Thoresen is programmed, as it was in Oslo Konserthus yesterday night, when a new piece was premiered by Truls Mørk and the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Some basic features are invariant, for instance the fact that Thoresen is more of a sculptor of sounds than a story-teller.

But most importantly - what we immediately perceive - there is no uncertain fumbling in his music, but a will to reach forth into the unknown. This passion for exploration seizes us and carries us through, just till the last second of the forty minute long new cello concerto “Passage through three valleys”… The concert is first of all carried forth by the cello part, that Mørk played superbly. Little by little Thoresen unfolds one sonorous landscape after the other till they towards the end grow huge and luminous, without us at any point being too sure where he is leading us. The piece maintains our excitement and expectations even until the generous euphonies of the finale that embraces us and everything in the end.

STÅLE WIKSHÅLAND

Review: Aftenposten, Friday 7 November, 2008

Brilliant performance by the cellist Truls Mørk.
World premier of a first rate new cello concerto

Truls Mørk, cello with Oslo Philharmonic, cond. Jukka Pekke Saraste, Oslo Konserthus

To the extent that a concerto is based on the tension between to parties, the concert was the prototype of this musical form. Lasse Thoresen’s Passage through three Valleys. Symphonic Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra opus 38 was a revelation of beauty conveyed through fascinatingly rich and complex sound images, within which delicate details and extensive surfaces were moving.

The true art is to coordinate both details and the wholes, and this was exactly what Thoresen did. This could already be observed in the disposition of the orchestra at stage where the soloist was placed in the centre, surrounded by an instrumental septet of strings and wind instruments. Behind followed the percussion, and then the orchestra in a terraced formation.

Image. This placement suggested the idea to confront one group with another. The one to anchor all of this was Truls Mørk, who as a soloist conjured up the most delicate of details. He mastered and shaped the musical matters with passionate emotion. He projected authoritatively the role of the solo part as a leader and commentator, thus becoming the pivot in the alternation between the different orchestral groups.

Particularly fascinating was the interaction that developed when the instrumental group behind the soloist seized the material and projected it with visible force. The concert created a number of images, most of them tempting to interpret as landscapes.

Idar Karevold.

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