The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Ensemble Allegria & Grete Pedersen – Lament (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:09 minutes | 922 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The Norwegian Soloists Choir and Grete Pedersen have made acclaimed recordings of music spanning a millennium from chants by Hildegard of Bingen (1098 1179) to the most recent compositions and in styles ranging from folk songs to Bach motets and Berios Coro. On their new album, the focus is on contemporary Norwegian music, with three works which all originate in words and challenge the relation between language and music. For his Lament from 2015, Lars Petter Hagen has chosen to set a short text by E. E. Cummings, written when the poet was 6 years old. The words of the poem are split up and stretched out into pulsating waves of grief, at once mysterious, beautiful and painful. Awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2018, Muohta (Snow) consists of 18 sections, each setting a single word in Sámi, the language of the indigenous people in the north of Norway. The words are all related to snow, and composer Nils Henrik Asheim has found inspiration in how indigenous peoples live with nature, as opposed to seeking to control it.
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The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Norwegian Radio Orchestra & Grete Pedersen – Berio: Coro & Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:26 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Luciano Berios Coro has been described as the work that exemplifies all the qualities that made him one of the leading composers of our time. The works full title is Coro for voices and instruments, and the 40 voices and 44 instrumentalists do indeed make up a single choir instrumentalists and singers sit together, with each singer paired with a particular player, and used both as soloists and combined in mass effects. Composed in 1976, Coro is also a strikingly global work: Berios use of texts (mainly translations of folk poetry) attributed to peoples Peruvian, Croatian, Sioux turns the work into a chorus of cultures. The texts are laid out in 31 separate sections of varying length, but the overall effect is cumulative, not episodic. Under its artistic director Grete Pedersen the Norwegian Soloists Choir has made acclaimed recordings of music ranging from Norwegian folk songs and Hildegard of Bingen to Bach, Brahms and Xenakis. Joined by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra it now takes on one of the major choral works of the past 50 years. The disc closes with Berios smaller scale Cries of London, performed by members of the choir.
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The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir & Grete Pedersen – Veni: Songs of Christmas, Vol. 2 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:15 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
December is a time of anticipation. We wait and we hope – veni, come! The songs on this album encompass many nuances and moods – from joy and jubilant celebration to deep melancholy and longing. They move between folk tunes, English carols and traditional Christmas songs from different times and parts of the world, between Bach and Ives, Bulgaria and Norway. Several of the songs refer to the passing of the year, the cycle of nature and rhythms of daily life: lullabies for peace of mind and comfort, and songs about surrendering ourselves to the unfathomable and unknowable in the midst of our everyday concerns: the stars will always shine in the sky – and dawn will come. In others, we meet the little child born in a stable – vulnerable and yet immensely powerful.
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The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Grete Pedersen – Alfred Janson: The Wind Blows (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:28 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
“the wind blows” is the title of this album with choral music by the rather unique Norwegian composer Alfred Janson. We are talking contemporary music here, but not the gritty kind. Here beautiful melodies blend with modern means of expression; music that has its root in the Norwegian folk music treasure. The composer himself participates with his well-loved melodica and there are several instrumental soloists as well. This is a worthy continuation of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s contribution to the recording of worthwhile music. The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir is one of Norway’s leading ensembles in any genre and among the foremost chamber choirs in Europe. The choir is equally at home in the classical/romantic repertoire and in contemporary music, making regular excursions into folk-derived music and National Romantic works. The Choir was founded in 1950 by the composer Knut Nystedt, who was its conductor for forty years. In 1990 he was succeeded by Grete Pedersen, who remains the choir’s artistic director to this day.
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