570840bk Spohr US 18/11/09 15:24 Page 5 Oslo Camerata Stephan Barratt-Due The Oslo Camerata was established in 1998, and has since then been much in demand in Norway and abroad. Stephan Barratt-Due is the third generation of violinists from a family with a Regular tours have brought them to prestigious festivals and concert-series in several European countries, India and long musical tradition. Since his début in 1981 he has been active as a soloist, South America. They have produced several commercial recordings as well as television recordings for NRK. The chamber musician and orchestra leader, participating in numerous national and repertoire of the ensemble spans from baroque to contemporary music, with commissioned works from both young international festivals both in and outside Norway, and has toured extensively in and established composers. From the very beginning there has been collaboration with artists such as Mischa Norway, the United States, Asia, South-America and Europe. His duo Maisky, Julian Rachlin, Truls Mørk, Christian Lindberg, Henning Kraggerud, Lidia Baich and Jeremy Menuhin. collaboration with violist Soon-Mi Chung has become well known over the Louis The Oslo Camerata is ensemble-in-residence at the renowned Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. From 2008 the years in Norway, through tours, television appearances and recordings, and ensemble has, through funding by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, been involved in, and supported many important Norwegian composers such as Arne Nordheim and Kjetil Projeto Aprendiz in Niteroi, Brazil, a music project for children and young people in the favelas. The internationally Hvoslef have written for this duo. During the course of his career Barratt-Due SPOHR renowned cellist Truls Mørk has from 2009 been associated with the orchestra as principal guest leader. Other has made several recordings. In 1985 he succeeded his father as artistic director recordings include Grieg’s Music for String Orchestra (Naxos 8.557890) and the soon to be released orchestral of the Barratt Due Institute of Music, a 500-student conservatory in Oslo arrangements of String Quartets by Grieg and Arne Nordheim. This recording brings the Oslo Camerata together founded in 1927 by his grandparents. Since he took over the Institute has with players from the Chamber Orchestra of the Barratt Due Institute of Music. evolved into one of the leading educational institutions in Norway, producing numerous highly distinguished musicians. Stephan Barratt-Due is today www.oslocamerata.no considered one of the leading violin professors in Scandinavia. Under his Concertos for leadership the chamber orchestra Oslo Camerata has become increasingly in demand both nationally and internationally. Stephan Barratt-Due plays a violin by J. B. Guadagnini from 1751, provided by Dextra Musica. Two Violins, Photograph: Dag Thorenfeldt Nos. 1 and 2 Henning Kraggerud and Øyvind Bjorå, Violins Oslo Camerata and Barratt Due Chamber Orchestra Photograph: Erik Berg Stephan Barratt-Due 8.570840 5 6 8.570840 570840bk Spohr US 18/11/09 15:24 Page 2 Louis Spohr (1784–1859) well as his championing of the works of J. S. Bach. who present the two themes of this sonata movement. Henning Kraggerud Concertante in A major, Op. 48 • Concertante in B minor, Op. 88 • Duet, Op. 3, No. 3 Indeed, the two works have more in common with The second movement begins with the soloists playing Bach’s concerto for similar forces in its use of Baroque double-stops, the result sounding like a string quartet. Born in Oslo in 1973, the Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud was a Concertos for multiple soloists were rare in the romantic works of Beethoven, Weber, and the young Wagner (he ideals inherited from the Concerto Grosso. The last movement is again in Rondo form with a theme student at the Barratt Due Institute under Stephan Barratt-Due, and also era. The cult of the solo-virtuoso dominated the genre conducted early performances of The Flying Dutchman Spohr uses the term concertante to describe these of darker hue, perhaps reflecting the fatal illness of his studied with Camilla Wicks and Emanuel Hurwitz. He is a recipient of with its strong focus on the unique individuality of a and Tannhäuser) that best illustrates his opposition to two works for two violins and orchestra. Each wife Dorette. Norway’s prestigious Grieg Prize, the Ole Bull Prize and the Sibelius Prize. specific performer’s contribution to what is essentially contemporary tendencies, which lay in his desire to Concertante is in the traditional three movements. The Louis Spohr’s Violinschule, published in 1833, was He is a professor at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, and appears an argumentative form. While excelling in this type of promote what he considered to be the true art of first, the Concertante in A major, Op. 48, was composed one of the founding pillars of the German violin as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras in Europe, North concerto as well, with four Clarinet Concertos and the composition. He demanded structural discipline and the in 1808. The introduction is in a mellow A minor, tradition. The work consists of violin duets for teacher America, Asia and Australia, collaborating with many leading conductors. eighteen solo Violin Concertos, Louis Spohr sought to subservience of the virtuosic to the musical utterance. containing wisps of the main contour appearing before and pupil. The Violin Duet in G major, Op. 3, No. 3 A committed chamber musician, Henning Kraggerud also performs both on place musical integrity ahead of superficial This does not mean that his works do not display the Allegro begins in earnest presented by the two included here is, in contrast, written for two equal violin and on viola at major international festivals, appearing with musicians showmanship in the relationship between soloist and instrumental brilliance. The music is extremely violinists playing in octaves. The second, the partners, enjoying a lively dialogue. such as Stephen Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jeffrey ensemble. demanding technically and the glittering solo passages Concertante in B minor, Op. 88, written in 1833, is a Kahane, Truls Mørk and Martha Argerich. His recordings include an When Spohr was eighteen years old, a concert-tour overwhelm the listener with feelings of satisfaction and mature work that predates many of the stylistic traits acclaimed release of the complete Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas of Ysaÿe took him to St Petersburg in Russia where he witnessed contentment. Spohr’s style has been accused of being copied later by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Mahler. The for Simax, which brought him the Spellemann CD Award. His recordings an Orthodox church ritual. He was fascinated by the “feminine”, but there is no tasteless excess and, at the orchestral introduction sets the stage for the two soloists Olav Anton Thommessen for Naxos include Grieg’s Violin Sonatas, Norwegian Favourites for violin antiphonal singing of the church choirs, and a life-long same time, the music is harmonically advanced with a and orchestra, works by Sinding for violin and piano and the violin interest in the responsorial possibilities inherent in strong emphasis on chromatic invention. The forms he concertos of Sinding and of Sibelius. He plays a 1744 Guarneri del Gesù dialogue became a driving inspirational force in many of chooses for his concertos are classical but never routine. instrument, provided by Dextra Musica AS, a company founded by his compositions. This interest manifested itself in At the other extreme, he developed the art of through- Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR. works such as the beautiful Mass, Op. 54, for two choirs composition and pioneered the use of the Leit-motiv in of 1821, and the gorgeous collection of four double his operas (Faust 1813 and Jessonda 1822) before string-quartets. It culminated in his Seventh Symphony Wagner. The over-riding tendency, however, was his written for double orchestra. The two Concertanti emphasis on good taste, solid craftsmanship and Øyvind Bjorå recorded here belong in this category, where two equally emotional restraint. This aesthetic has been problematic important forces share the stage and enter into a for his subsequent reputation, in that concert-goers have Øyvind Bjorå formerly studied at the Barratt Due Institute under Stephan civilized conversation with one another. demanded a more extrovert sensationalised form of Barratt-Due. He is a versatile solo violinist who has also distinguished himself One can notice a nostalgic tendency in Spohr’s expression. The subtleties inherent in Spohr’s style have as a leader of orchestral ensembles. Formerly concertmaster of the Trondheim aesthetic which coincided with the rise of “bourgeois often been regarded as his weakness. This is certainly Symphony and Bergen Philharmonic, he currently leads the Norwegian historicism” in the other arts. It has often been called the not the case, but the listener must attune him/herself to a National Opera Orchestra. As guest leader he has appeared with the Biedermeier style, and is characterized by elegance, sonic world inhabited by a delicate sensibility, to small Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Danish National Symphony, the Oslo sturdy workmanship, and emotional reticence; this style shifts in thematic emphasis. Spohr is a master of the Philharmonic, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Real Orquesta was to be maligned in the rise of the sensational in art. developmental possibilities inherent in a clear melodic Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Trondheim Soloists and Oslo Camerata, and he has Louis Spohr opposed the superficiality of the national contour, which is usually presented unadorned at the also given solo performances with major symphony orchestras in Norway. As a romantic school of composition, which he considered beginning of each composition. chamber musician, he has had the honour of performing at Troldhaugen and vulgar, repetitive, blatant and bombastic.