Johan Halvorsen 1 ORCHESTRAL WORKS Marianne Thorsen violin Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra CHAN 10584 Neeme Järvi Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek / Griegsamlingen Johan Halvorsen (1864 –1935) Orchestral Works, Volume 1 1 Bojarernes Indtogsmarsch 4:30 (Entry March of the Boyars) for Orchestra premiere recording 2 Andante religioso* 5:57 for Solo Violin and Orchestra Andante – Andante con moto – Più mosso – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Tempo I Suite from ‘Mascarade’ 27:54 3 1 Holberg-Ouverture. Allegro moderato – Poco meno mosso – [Tempo I] – Più mosso (un poco) 5:35 Intermedium 4 2 Cotillon. Introduktion Allegro – Allegro – Un poco meno mosso – Coda 2:21 Norwegian composers at the Bergen Music Festival, 1898: Johan Halvorsen, right, with, from left, Christian Cappelen, unidentified, Ole Olsen, Gerhard 5 3 Menuetto. Introduktion ad lib. – [ ] – Più mosso 4:14 Schjelderup, Iver Holter, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Edvard Grieg, Christian Sinding and Johan Svendsen 3 6 4 Hanedansen. Allegro moderato – Con grandezza – Un poco animato – Coda 3:41 7 5 Gavotte. [ ] – Musette. [ ] 2:42 14 II Andante – Più mosso – Tempo I – 8 6 Molinasque (Grotesk dans). Allegro moderato – Molto più mosso – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Coda. Più mosso 2:34 Più mosso – Pesante – Tranquillo – Adagio 8:18 15 9 7 Kehraus (Bachanal). Vivace molto 1:04 III Scherzo. Lento – Allegro con spirito – Allegretto – Più mosso – Meno mosso – 10 8a Arietta. Andante con moto – Più mosso – Poco meno – Tempo I (Allegro con spirito) – Lento – Allegro molto 6:38 Più mosso – Meno – Largamente – A tempo I – Adagio – 3:37 16 IV Finale (Rondo). Introduction Andante – Allegro deciso – 11 8b Passepied. Allegretto grazioso – Meno mosso 2:04 Un poco meno mosso – Tranquillo – Molto tranquillo – Tempo I (Allegro deciso) – Poco meno mosso – 12 La Mélancolie 2:28 Un poco meno mosso – Allegro molto 8:24 Mélodie de Ole Bull (1810–1880) TT 76:48 Andante Melina Mandozzi violin Marianne Thorsen violin* Symphony No. 1 35:25 Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in C minor • in c-Moll • en ut mineur Melina Mandozzi leader Hjalmar Borgstrøm tilegnet Neeme Järvi 13 I Allegro non troppo – Un poco più mosso – Poco meno mosso – Agitato – Tempo I – Animato – Meno mosso – Largamente – Più mosso 11:50 4 5 (The Entry March of the Boyars), which was compatriots Johan Svendsen (1840–1911) Johan Halvorsen: soon to become a success worldwide. The and Christian Sinding (1856–1941). Originally Orchestral Works, Volume 1 work had a peculiar history. Halvorsen had written for violin, organ and string orchestra, just turned down an offer to be ‘Professeur the piece was first performed at a church Beginnings a very strong impression on the city’s supé rieur’ at the Conservatory in Bucharest; concert in Bergen in 1899. The musical talents of Johan Halvorsen musicians and music lovers, and after less but curious to learn more about the city, he (1864 –1935) were evident from an early age. than a year two local mentors gave him a loan borrowed an encyclopaedia and read about Work in the theatre Christian Jehnigen, a German musician who so that he could undertake further studies the Romanian boyars (i.e. the landowning During the six years of at times strenuous had settled in Norway and conducted a semi- in Leipzig. Here he spent two years playing elite) and their entry into Bucharest in the work in Bergen, Halvorsen developed military band as well as a string orchestra with the famous Russian violinist Adolf eighteenth century. This scenario acted enormously as a conductor. When he in Drammen, Halvorsen’s hometown, taught Brodsky. During the years which followed, so strongly on his imagination that he felt conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra the boy to play the violin, the flute, the Halvorsen combined work as a violinist and a ‘forced’ to make music out of it. He had just at the Bergen Music Festival in 1898, his cornet and other brass instruments. When violin teacher, living for one year in Aberdeen sketched the march when his friend and colleague Johan Svendsen told him: ‘You he was fifteen years old, Halvorsen left for (1888–89) and three years in Helsinki colleague, and native of Bergen, Edvard Grieg are a maestro.’ In 1899 Halvorsen moved Kristiania (now Oslo) where he spent four (1889–92). The flourishing musical life of the dropped by for a short visit. Spotting the to the new National Theatre in Kristiania, years playing the violin in the orchestra pit Finnish capital inspired Halvorsen to start manuscript on the piano, he looked through where he had at his disposal the largest at the Christiania Folketheater. On arrival, he composing, and during the winter of 1893 he it with some care, then burst out: ‘That was professional symphony orchestra in Norway. also enlisted as a pupil and a triangle player in received a few lessons in counterpoint from damn good!’ Halvorsen prepared the piece to Six nights a week he conducted the entr’acte the brigade band, but quit this position after Albert Becker in Berlin. be played as incidental music in the theatre and incidental music during theatrical a year. From now on his priority was the violin, the next day, and two years later published performances, having composed much of it and Gudbrand Bøhn, the leading orchestral Bojarernes Indtogsmarsch the version for full symphony orchestra. himself, as well as symphony concerts, folk and chamber violinist in Kristiania, gave him Primarily known as a virtuoso on the violin, concerts, matinées and so forth: a total of lessons. He made his debut as a solo violinist the young Halvorsen had hardly held a Andante religioso around 300 concerts up to 1919. The National in Drammen in 1882, and in the spring of conductor’s baton when in the summer of Halvorsen remained an active performer on Theatre was also Norway’s most important 1884 left for Stockholm to study at the Music 1893 he was appointed Director of Music at the violin throughout his stay in Bergen in opera house and Halvorsen had sole Conservatory. the theatre and Conductor for the Orchestra the 1890s and wrote a number of pieces for responsibility for rehearsing and conducting A year later Halvorsen was appointed as Harmonien in Bergen. Judging from local the instrument, among them a Passacaglia all the productions. leader of the Orchestra Harmonien in Bergen newspapers of the time he was an energetic for violin and viola (after Handel) and two (the former name of the orchestra playing and inspiring leader of the city’s musicians. Norwegian Dances. Another much-played La Mélancolie his works on this CD, still a semi-professional Shortly after his arrival he introduced a new piece is the Andante religioso, a romance Halvorsen wrote numerous arrangements institution in Halvorsen’s days). He made composition, Bojarernes Indtogsmarsch closely related to similar works by Halvorsen’s of works by other composers, one of the 6 7 most popular being La Mélancolie for string The ‘Arietta’ is a real gem among Halvorsen’s To get a handle on this awful winter I have in my own life. And if the composer feels orchestra of 1913. It originated as a piece for many compositions, while the ‘Kehraus’, started to compose as if I wanted to beat what he writes so strongly that it affects violin, Lament, by the famous Norwegian violin subtitled ‘Bachanal’, is an explosive display Beethoven off the ground. I have bought the people who listen to it, then he has virtuoso Ole Bull (1810–1880), to which of untrammelled joie de vivre. Halvorsen’s use lots of very attractive paper – manuscript achieved his purpose. Marcus J. Monrad later added the text of dance forms appropriate to the period in paper – which I have now started to notate, Halvorsen was nearly sixty years old ‘I ensomme Stunde’ (In moments of solitude). as which Holberg’s comedy was set may perhaps for the time being with a symphony. I have at the time, and the work is – as was to be is the case of many other beautiful melodies by be termed pastiche – but without any of that finished the first movement – a sketch of expected from his own statement – written Bull, the original harmonic setting was rather word’s negative connotations. The exuberant it –. It may be that the present time won’t in the style of late romantic composers such poor. In his version, Halvorsen incorporates personal style and sound musicianship like it, as it is not modern or anything like as Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Svendsen, whose many of his own harmonic features and make their effect felt to such a degree that that. Perhaps coming generations won’t symphonies he had conducted numerous La Mélancolie is thus an interesting example the music is eminently suitable for concert appreciate it either. But I have taken this times. Typical romantic features are the of one composer ‘re-composing’ another. performance, while in the theatre, as all good into account, for I write it because I want hemiola rhythm of the main subject of the stage music does, it enhances the audience’s to and don’t give a damn about either the first movement and the ‘cyclic’ recurrence Suite from ‘Mascarade’ enjoyment of the play. present time or posterity. of the first movement’s subsidiary theme in Due to financial difficulties the National As he was a musician of the theatre, the central section of the Rondo Finale. The Theatre had to disband its big orchestra Symphony No. 1 in C minor one would expect Halvorsen to have had a beautiful cantilenas in the second movement in 1919, but the following year saw the Halvorsen’s attitude towards writing music programme for his symphony, the first of recall Svendsen quite strongly, while the engagement of a smaller ensemble, consisting in prestigious genres such as the symphony three to be composed in the 1920s.