Tveitt: 100 Hardanger
Tunes No 1 & 4 / Royal Scottish National Orchestra
"The Royal Scottish National Orchestra plays with evident
enthusiasm for Bjarte Engeset, who has collated the various different
sources in preparing his edition. Nearly all these pieces are attractive
and some are quite captivating." Performance: 5 Stars, Sound: 5
Stars
- Robert Layton, BBC Music Magazine, November, 2001
“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.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 are on top form, and
Naxos's recording, engineered by Tim Handley, is excellent. Great fun,
warmly recommended."
- Gramophone (Guy Rickards) November, 2001
Tveitt: 100 Hardanger Tunes No 2 & 5 / Royal Scottish National
Orchestra
"Those who invested in the earlier CD of Geirr Tveitt's
Hardanger Tunes Suites need not hesitate. These are every bit as
imaginative and colorful, and are as expertly played as are the earlier
sets. For those who don't know him, Tveitt will be something of a
find." *****Performance*****Sound.
- Robert Layton, BBC Music Magazine July 2002
"Geirr Tveitt composed five orchestral sets of Hardanger tunes,
each containing fifteen pieces. Whether or not there were in fact ever a
hundred written we will never know, and the Third Suite was among the
works destroyed in the terrible fire in 1970 that claimed so much of
this fine artist's work. Restoring what survives has been a true labor
of love, not to mention a delight to music enthusiasts. Anyone expecting
from Tveitt a folksy cuteness a la Grieg is in for a shock. Though full
of innate charm, these settings owe more to the ethno-musicological
school of, say, Bartok and Kodaly, with the composer making no effort to
minimize their often-gruff character and tangy dissonances.
Suite No. 2 consists of fifteen "mountain songs," cleverly
grouped with respect to mood and contrast. Outstanding here is No. 9,
"Do you hear the song in the waterfall's roar," an elemental
piece of orchestration as powerful as anything by Iceland's master of
nature's musical fury, Jon Leifs. There's also room for comic relief
towards the end, both in "The mountain girl skiing downhill"
(and falling on her butt in the process), and in the marvelous evocation
of the "Jew's harp melody" on muted trombone. Suite No. 5 is,
if anything, even more evocative, consisting as it does of 15
"troll tunes," suggesting subjects magical and mysterious.
Contrast the very long final number, "Doomsday," with its
seven pounding timpani and pealing bells, to "The crooked harp that
could talk" and you'll be amazed at the range and subtlety of these
wonderful little pieces.
As with Naxos' recording of Suites Nos. 1 and 4 by these same forces,
the performances are marvelous. Suite No. 2 has also been released by
BIS with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ruud, but this
performance is every bit as good interpretively and sonically, and
marginally superior technically. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra
in particular benefits from richer (more numerous?) strings, and a
brilliant horn section that sports a powerful tone squarely in the grand
British tradition. BIS' coupling is Suite No. 1, and for the price of
that single disc you can own both of Naxos'. I'm happy to have more than
one view of this marvelous music, but if you're on a budget, the choice
is obvious."
- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Tveitt: Piano Concerto No 1 & 5 / Håvard Gimse /
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
"Characterful accounts of bright, colorful concertos from a
great but unsung Norwegian...Bjarte Engeset directs the RSNO very
sensitively...warmly recommended."
- Editor's Choice - Gramophone (Guy Rickards) June 2001
Tveitt: Piano Concerto No. 4 / Variations on a Folk Song / Håvard
Gimse / Royal Scottish National Orchestra
"In general, music for two pianos tends to suffer from
excessive banging and clanging, but even the most vigorous passages here
never degenerate into mere noise, and the balances between keyboards and
orchestra in both works are especially well judged by the players and
engineers alike. Toss into the pot brilliant orchestral accompaniments
under the sympathetic baton of Bjarte Engeset, as well as vibrant
recorded sound, and you have the perfect disc to convince yourself that
yes, there still is great music out there that has yet to see the light
of day. Fabulous! 10/10"
- David Hurwitz, classicstoday.com
"The performances, as with those on the coupling of the First
and Fifth Concertos, are again superb, Gimse totally in the Tveitt style
with exemplary support from the RSNO and Bjarte Engeset; Gunilla
Sussmann makes a splendid second soloist in the Variations. Excellent
sound once again from Tim Handley. Marvellous."
- Guy Rickards, Gramophone, Awards Issue 2002
"At Naxos's price it's a disc worth exploring by anyone with a
taste for late Romanticism. The two-piano Variations from 1939 are
delightful and, like the Piano Concerto, are superbly played and
recorded."
- James Jolly, Editor's Choice, Gramophone, Awards Issue 2002
Bjarte Engesets Tveitt Discography:
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555078
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555770
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555077
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555761