German premiere of Deep Toccata in Karlsruhe
On April 27, "Deep Toccata" for organ and orchestra is performed by Badische Staatskapelle, organist Carsten Wiebusch and conductor Johannes Willig. The location is Christuskirche, with its monumental Klais organ.
This piece was originally written for the Trondheim Cathedral in 2014. It has now been revised.
A few words about the music: A "Toccata" is a piece with lots of motion, normally executed by one performer. The prefix «Deep» may here indicate several layers of motion, different tasks being performed at different speeds. Together they form a «sea of sound» where fast and slow time are working in parallel.
From the start of the piece we can hear the organ diving down into the orchestra, transmitting motion and energy and then becoming immersed in the resulting sound web. This basic gesture recurs again and again, interpreted in different ways, in a variation form.
Apart from the improvisation-like detail work, the construction of the piece follows a simple architectural plan. Comparable to the paintings of Escher, with endless staircases, there is a harmonic structure moving slowly downwards at a constant speed through all the piece. Against this, there is a counterpoint of ascending lines that becomes more and more prominent as we approach the end.
There are many other sources of inspiration: the film «Inception» with its architecture that is mirrored upwards, where you finally are not sure what is up and down. Also, Gustave Doré’s exuberant illustrations to «Paradise Lost» have been in my mind.
Gloger concert 2017
Renaissance and Baroque chorale settings along with new improvised sounds - on a wonderful instrument. Live recording from Kongsberg, Glogerfestspillene, Jan 28, 2017. To be played at loud volume.
Read more about the concert (in Norwegian)
From 2016 to 2017
Entering 2017, my days are very much filled with studying repertoire and developing new concert programmes. There are festival appearances coming up on the historical instruments of Kongsberg and Røros. Also, there are nice projects in Germany. There are also recording projects. With organ, but also a Kitchen Orchestra project with Roma musicians from Slovakia.
Premiere: Beethoven-nummeret
I had the great pleasure to work again with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, this time for a commentary on Beethoven. The occasion was the Norwegian Culture Council's annual conference, which took place in Stavanger konserthus. I was asked to conceive something around the theme of The Critic, and contacted the author Øyvind Rimbereid. We had worked together before, on the Orgelsjøen project. I fed him with my ideas on deconstructing Beethoven, and my plan to include quotations from his contemporary critics (which varied between elevated praise and completely lack of understanding). I also wanted to create an involvment in the audience, asking them to use their mobile phones, both to disturb them a bit and to make them ideally participate in the large choir of opinions, the of critics, of likes and dislikes (even of the voices of the "millions" of the Ode to Joy).
Sudden Landscapes Premiered on Sept 15
It was an important milestone when Sudden Landscapes finally was performed for the first time in full length, after preparations that stretched over four years. Sudden Landscapes was originally planned as an organ concerto, but evolved to something more like a large-scale symphonic painting where the organ and the orchestra continuously exchange sounds and blend in different ways. The piece is conceived as an uninterrupted series of 30 scenes, and lasts for about 35 minutes.
On September 15, 2016, as a part of the Norwegian Organ Festival, the piece was performed by Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, cond.James Feddeck, and Nils Henrik Asheim on the organ. Sudden Landscapes is commissioned by Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, with support from the Norwegian Cultural Fund.
Orgelkraft
The first Orgelkraft festival is over - thanks to all contributors & to our wonderful audience!
http://www.ballade.no/sak/orgelfamiliedramaet-i-stavanger/
At the turn of 2015/16
Looking back: One of my main events in 2015 was the premiere of «Eg søv, men hjartet vakar». Ane Dahl Torp and Ensemble Allegria did a wonderful performance at the Bergen International Festival on June 4.
Since 2013 I have been planning a remake of Franz Schubert’s dances for piano. The first result of this work in progress - the Schubert Moment - was performed on April 14 in Oslo.
A very special and rewarding challenge was the commemorative concert for Knut Nystedt on Sept 05 in Oslo. My piece «Knut sine stemmer» involved choir singers on+off stage, string orchestra, quotations from Nystedt’s music and even his own voice, sampled from a TV interview.
A successful collaboration resulted in the premiere of the revised version of Cello Stories, with Marianne Baudouin Lie in the leading part along with the Trondheim soloists, Nov.26.
Solo organ improvisation concerts took place in 2015 in Oslo Cathedral (All Ears Festival) and in Eglise du Saint-Esprit in Paris (to be heard on this Soundcloud page).
The Orgelsjøen (Sea of Organ) concert where Øyvind Rimbereid reads his poems along with the organ family (pipe organ, harmonium, indian harmonium, melodica and slide whistles) was performed in Bergen on Oct 29.
In 2015, Stavanger Concert hall presented 2 editions of Orgelnatt, a genre-crossing format which I now will export to Bodø Cathedral for their Organ Festival on April 23.
For the same April 2016 festival in Bodø, I am working on a new piece for organ, sinfonietta orchestra and carillon.
Also coming up in 2016 is a pedagogical project for young organ players. It involves composing a selection of pieces on different levels, as well as creating a concert with the young organists on all 3 organs of Trondheim Cathedral in August.
A major organ project in 2015 was the performance of Carl Nielsen’s Commotio, with new choreography, Stavanger concert hall Sept 20.
And, one more work in progress - The Bass Machine project, premiered at Orgelnatt in Stavanger concert hall on Oct 16, very promising but still with a potential for development.
New release: Playing Games
Free improvised music with ZAS trio: Per Zanussi, Ståle Liavik Solberg and Nils Henrik Asheim.
"De tre musikerne finner hverandre fra første tone...En forfriskende frijazzinnspilling fra tre musikere jeg håper å høre mer fra i tiden framover" (salt peanuts).
"En forsvarsallianse til beskyttelse og fremme av de frie uttrykkenes bevegelsesmuligheter". (Aftenposten)