Tveitt: Sinfonia di Soffiatori; Sinforietta di Soffiatori; Selections from A Hundred Hardanger Tunes

Tveitt (Composer), Engeset (Conductor), Royal Norwegian Navy Band (Orchestra)

Product Details

• Orchestra: Royal Norwegian Navy Band
• Conductor: Engeset
• Composer: Tveitt
• Audio CD (December 16, 2008)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B001JNCOJC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #315,850 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Fanfare Archive, Ronald E. Grames , May/June 2009

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 (Naxos 8. 555761, Fanfare 26:6) for that--but this CD comes highly recommended nonetheless

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another in Naxos's 'Wind Band Classics' Series, January 4, 2009

By	J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

One has to admire the creativity of the Naxos label's marketing strategy. They have embarked on various series of releases to cater to the interests of any number of niche musical interest groups -- e.g., lovers of Greek or Spanish music -- and here they issue yet another in their 'Wind Band Classics'. Conductor Bjarte Engeset, whom I knew from an earlier disc of Grieg piano transcriptions for orchestra Grieg: Norwegian Dances; Ballade; Slåtter, and the Royal Norwegian Navy Band do themselves proud. On this disc they play both original and transcription versions of music by that most tragic of Norwegian composers, Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981). I say tragic because this meticulous and creative composer was emotionally crushed when 4/5ths -- of the manuscripts of his compositions, over 300 opuses, most of them unpublished, were destroyed in a house fire in 1970. He composed very little and with much difficulty afterwards. But he had been prolific and a good deal of valuable music survives. On this disc we get two of his major works for band -- Sinfonia di Soffiatori and the Sinfonietta di Soffiatori -- and some short pieces for band, as well as a group of transcriptions for band by Stig Nordhagen of his orchestral works called 'A Hundred Hardanger Tunes'.

'Sinfonia di Soffiatori' ('soffiatori' are wind instruments) was a late work written for Minnesota's St. Olaf College Concert Band. In three movements, its language is dense, mildly dissonant and evocative of sounds of nature, particularly in the first and third movements. The second movement is based on folkdance rhythms and oft-repeated figures. III reminds one of the mysterious rhythms of nature heard in I. Unusually the work employs the usual wind band instrumentation plus a prominent part for harp. 'Prinds Christian Frederiks Honnørmarch' ('Prince Christian Frederick's March of Honor') is short ceremonial march with a powerful conclusion. 'Det gamle Kvernhuset' ('The Old Mill on the Brook'), a piece that I've even heard performed here in the USA, is a gentle three-minute song-form tone poem with a prominent lyrical trumpet solo. 'Hymne til Fridomen' ('Hymn to Freedom') is a short march with a catchy tune and tricky trumpet-and-horn chordal interjections supported by a swinging rhythm in lower brass and percussion. It has a lyrical middle section.

'Sinfonietta di Soffiatori' is a thirteen-minute suite each of whose five movements evokes some aspect of autumn. Its harmonic language is compact and somewhat dissonant. It is tuneful, rhythmically alive and engaging. The movements are, respectively, I. Intonation of Autumn, II. Memories of Summer, III. Funeral Fanfare, IV. Alpine Joy, and V. Final Song. One notes with pleasure the impeccable tuning and balance Engeset obtains from his Norwegian band.

Finally, there are band transcriptions for nine of Tveitt's orchestral 'Hundred Hardanger Tunes'. Tveitt had arranged them in five large suites, of which four survive. (Hardanger is a district in southwest Norway with a rich tradition of folk music and its own musical instrument, the Hardanger fiddle ['hardinfele' in Norwegian] for which Tveitt wrote two concertos, sadly lost in the fire.) Titles include 'Bringing Strong Ale into the Mountains', 'The Song of the Snow Grouse', 'The Mountain Girl Skiing Downhill', 'Going A-Wooing', 'Tears and Laughter for a Boat', 'Hardanger Ale', 'The Brownie Dancing', 'Twilight', and 'Doomsday.' I particularly like 'Bringing Ale' and 'The Brownie Dancing', but all are brilliantly transcribed and beautifully played.

Tveitt's music is easy to like. It has often been said that he was the twentieth-century heir of Grieg and this has some truth to it. His harmonies are undoubtedly more advanced but his simplicity and closeness to folk melody and rhythm is similar. Band music lovers in particular will find this disc rewarding.

Scott Morrison