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Geirr Tveitt: Hundrad Hardingtonar, Suite nr. 1 & Suite nr. 4
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bjarte Engeset (Naxos)

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Gramophone  Nov 2001
More suites from Tveitt's seminal A Hundred Hardanger Tunes, with a première recording of the delightful (revised) Wedding Suite
Readers who have discovered previous releases of the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt's music will need no recommendation to acquire this splendidly played new addition to his discography.

These two suites are largely collections of short movements ( 15 apiece),brilliantly scored, of folk-like tunes and dances from Tveitt's native region, although, as David Gallagher points out in his excellent accompanying essay, it is a highly moot point precisely where real folksong ended and Tveitt's own invention began.

Several numbers appear in Marco Polo's earlier piano discs of the 50 Folk Tunes from Hardanger; (3/ 98, 8/ 98), but  in these bolder guises they take on quite different characters. Several movements in the First Suite seem to share motivic connections (Tveitt, like Bartók and Szymanowski, wrote his own folk melodies at times, which bear family resemblances). The overall effect is of a set of variations, but on the concept of folk music rather than a single, picturesque tune. In the Fourth, Wedding, Suite (also known as 'Nuptials'), cross-connection,indeed integration,extends to the subject matter, the music describing a lively rustic courtship and wedding from the initial wooing to the wedding guests' drunken jabberings (and some shattered crockery). Engeset's new account is a delight from start to finish, revealing Tveitt's delicate yet robust invention without a hint of the twee, though with a suggestion of Khachaturian in the finale.

The RSNO (remember Norway is as much their neighbour as Sassenach England) are on top form, and Naxos's recording, engineered by Tim Handley, is excellent. Great fun,warmly recommended.
Guy Rickards
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Grammophone january 2002
(...) I've left the best until last - and very good it is: two suites of Hardanger Tunes by the 20th-century Norwegian Composer Geirr Tveitt. Despite Guy Rickards warm recommendation I can't say I put this disc into my machine with any great hopes, having suffered in my time from Constant Lambert Syndrome (the one about folksongs having nowhere to go except louder) (...), but Tveitt proves Lambert's judgement to be not just vulgar but wrong. (...) These pieces are, as Guy Rickards says, "great fun", but at times I found them more than that. "Bridal voyage", for instance, from the Wedding Suite, is deeply moving with its Messiaenesque harmonies put to quite another use. "Warmly recommended",says GR; to which I would add "unmissable".
Roger Nichols
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Classics today.com
(About Suite 4): (...) This account uses the recently completed edition by Bjarte Engeset, who directs a capable and attractive performance and secures a colorfully idiomatic response from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Suite No. 1 (un-titled) has been recorded previously on the Simax label by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Per Dreier. Although Dreier's is marginally better-engineered than Engeset's Naxos disc, there's little to choose between these two well-paced, evenly-balanced performances. If you're interested in Tveitt's music, try out this budget CD; the music is entertaining enough to fully justify the minimal outlay, and you can't go wrong with Engeset's strongly committed readings of both suites.
Artistic quality 9 ( Sound quality 9)
Michael Jameson
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Classical CD Reviews Mar02
What a wonderful discovery! And more of the suites coming soon! (...) Perhaps it is the richness of these original folk melodies, but Tveitt's suites make other composers who have claimed to draw on their culture's folk music sound pale in comparison.
John Sunier
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TVEITT 100Tunes, Suites 1&4 [GH]: Classical Reviews- October 2001 MusicWeb(UK)
Don't be alarmed there are certainly not 100 Hardanger tunes on this CD in fact there are just 30 all beautifully orchestrated. David Gallagher's informative and witty booklet notes explain that there are four suites in all each of fifteen tunes. They are numbered 1,2,4 and 5. Suite 3 is incomplete and there are sketches for Suite 6. Even so that does not add up to 100, but never mind. So what we have are two attractive orchestral suites which use folk material from the Hardanger region of Western Norway where Tveitt lived, or which were composed in a folk style. It is impossible to tell which are which and it doesn't matter. The style of the music is consistent throughout.

Geirr Tveitt was amazingly prolific. He studied in Vienna and Paris with such composers as Honegger and Wellesz. He retained his strong emotional connection with an area of his native Norway where he spent many a childhood holiday and where he had seen at first hand the local instruments played and heard the local music. In 1942 he settled permanently on his family farmstead in Vikey in the Hardangerfjord. The CD booklet has a lovely photograph of the composer and his wife in local costume dated about 1954.

Sadly a great deal of his music was lost in a tragic fire at this farmstead in 1970. Naxos has recently released the two Piano Concertos and there are discs, if you look carefully, of his piano music. Nevertheless we shall never know the extent of his considerable output. These melodies are peculiar to the area. Due to the difficult terrain intercommunication between villages and towns was only possible in summer. Some tunes were known only within the family itself. Tveitt uses a few here, for example in Suite 1 No 10 'Echo from the summer hillfarm'. There are, in fact, several very personal touches. I particularly liked this movement with its gunshot cracks as the family fired "to awake the echoes from Husalait crag".

The Suite No 4 here receives its world premiere recording. Note, slightly confusingly, that the fourth suite tracks 16-30 are labelled as 46-60 in the booklet. Remember that this is suite 4 and the movements of each suite the composer numbered from 1 up to presumably 100. This suite is delightful and great fun. It tells a story of a wedding. The couple falls in love; the man has to propose three times, each time more vociferously, until he is accepted. The families set off to the wedding. The bride arrives by boat. There is a toast. The male wedding guests create havoc, and an old flame of the bride appears and mixes her drinks. She becomes quite inebriated and gives off a great fart. Then everyone drinks the local home brew Hardanger Ale. There are also some lovely touches musically. The boat trip (track 23'The bridal voyage') is orchestrated magically, with rustling harp, various percussion, glissandi on the piano and some other fascinating sounds I cannot recognise in detail. This is a man with an ear from the orchestra. In 'The bride's drink' (track 28) bassoon trills belch out the laxatives effect in her stomach, a drunkard slips under the table pulling off the cloth and glasses with him, and sleeps, snoring, Tveitt seals this testimonial to atonal music by marking the tuba's final note "Fis"- Norwegian for F# or Fart.

Naxos are continuing their excellent policy here of using a conductor and/or an orchestra from the country from which the composer comes. This has happened whether the music is from Spain (Balada), America (Antheil), England (Bax) and I think that this is a very good idea. Of course music is an international language and you are just as likely to come across a superb performance of Elgar by an American or Dutch Orchestra as you are by British forces. However there is also a feeling that with music, which is basically nationalist, it is wise to find a conductor at least who is 'in sympathy' with the repertoire especially when it is as rare as this. Bjarte Engeset cares for and loves this music. The Scottish Orchestra have a natural rapport with the music of the north and between them they coax this gorgeous material into shape without effort or artificiality. Highly recommended.
Gary Higginson
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paru láctualité du disque classique
L'Orchestre national d'Écosse, dirigé par Bjarte Engeset, s'est piqué au jeu avec une empathie que nous n'oserons qualifier de nordique ; il a su laisser transparaître ­ notamment dans l'emploi grave et théâtral des cuivres et de la percussion, les glorieuses progressions chromatiques, le rôle mélodique des vents ­ le souvenir de Grieg et l'influence de Sibelius, et atteint, dans la tonitruante pièce finale, une splendide euphorie.
Olivier Philipponnat
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Kulturspeilet 1.9.2001
(...) Dette er en viktig del av den norske musikkhistorien. Det er mer enn prisverdig av Naxos at de gir ut denne musikken, samtidig som det også må ha kostet en del strev med redigering og systematisering. En velkommen utgivelse - og en alldeles herlig musikk!
Kjell Moe
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Sunnmørsposten 11.12.2001
(...) Bjarte Engeset utnytter alle muligheter i de romantiske partiene til å få frem et suggererende inntrykk. Men vi synes likevel at de norske orkestrene har mer intuitiv forståelse for Tveitts musikk ennn Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Kjell Flem
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VG 17/11 2001 | FINT RESTAURERTE HARDINGTONAR 
Tyve år etter Geirr Tveitts død er musikken hans mer levende blant oss enn noen gang.
Det har ikke manglet på hindre for komponisten. Først havnet han i en uheldig stilling i kulturlivet i starten av 2. verdenskrig, så brant gårtden og store deler av notene hans opp i 1970. Heldigvis er nå det nasjonale ryktet og mer og mer av musikken hans restaurert. De beste orkestrene og utøverne våre setter Tveitt på programet i inn- og utland. Og flere fagfolk har lappet sammen brannskadede noterester, komponert ut det som mangler etter smakfullt skjønn, og sørget for nye fremførelser og innspillinger av verk som ikke har vært å høre før  -eller på flere tiår.
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Dirigent Bjarte Engeset har i et år med flere fine slike utgivelser nok satt kronen på verket ved å både sy sammen og spille inn "Brudlaup-suiten" fra "Hundrad Hardingtonar" for første gang. Royal Scottish National Orchestra spraker av farger under hans ledelse. Miniatyrbildene av både "Friarføter", "Glitrefjord" og "Brura-drammane" har både røff humor og skimrende klangpoesi i seg. De er så levende at de nesten stiller den første og mest kjente suiten - den med "Velkomne med æra" - i skyggen. Enda så mange fine nyanser det er der også
Astrid Kvalbein