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Extract from the Society's Newsletter, No.
28, April, 2002
Reviewed by Arthur C. Hall
"Choral Music from Scandinavia." Junges Vokalensemble Hannover;
Klaus-Jürgen Etzold, Conductor; Hans Bässler, Organ; Total time: 68'10;
Carus Records 83.147.
Choral singing has long been important to Scandinavian culture: readers
of this newsletter may recall a previous enthusiastic review of P.-B.
songs for mixed choir (Notes No. 6, February, 1991) performed by Stockholm’s
Michaeli Chamber Choir. Now we have the Junges Vokalensemble Hannover,
led by Jürgen Etzold, in works by Grieg, Peterson-Berger, Ludwig Norman,
and August Söderman, to Norwegian, Danish, German, and Latin texts. The
Hannover group, a mixed choir of some 45 singers founded by Etzold in
1981, has toured Europe to great acclaim. Their performance on this CD,
a capella except for the Söderman, leaves nothing to be desired.
Grieg is represented by two lovely songs (op. 156), a serene Ave maris
stella and Blegnet, segnet (O.P. Monrad), a lament upon the death of a
young wife. The third is Våren (Spring), op. 33, 2), which in various
arrangements is certainly one of the composer’s most popular compositions
(this setting omits the second stanza of A. O. Vinje's poem; solo versions
often omit the third as well). Piety, grief, resignation - the Hannoverians
convey each mood in turn.
Peterson-Berger's contribution, Eight Songs for Mixed Choir (op. 11),
is decidedly more upbeat. Five of the songs have to do with P.-B.'s fascination
with nature. Truly remarkable is Ved Havet (Beside the Sea, I. S. C. Welhaven),
a powerful evocation of the ocean's awesome power. På Fjeldesti (Bjørnstjerne
Bjørnson) is directly inspired by P.-B.'s love of hiking in the mountains
of Jämtland. Three of the songs are charming little narratives from daily
life: Killebukken (Little Lamb), Lokkeleg (Enticement), Dans, ropte Felen
(Dance! cried the fiddle), all poems of Bjørnson.
Fredrik Vilhelm Ludvig Norman (1831-1885) has been called Sweden's Grieg:
similar musical education, similar impact on a nation's musical life.
The first and longest piece, Jordens oro viker (Earthly troubles vanish,
op. 50), is a motet based on the shortest text, a religious couplet by
J. O. Wallin. This is followed by Seven songs for Mixed Choir, op. 15.
Six of these, like the P.-B. group above, are nature studies and human
interest tales pointing a moral. The seventh is a heartfelt prayer.
August Söderman, Norman’s contemporary, may be best remembered by
foreign listeners for his bravura solo songs, kept alive since his time
by a long line of great Swedish singers. Here, however, we have Sacred
Songs, seven in all, with organ accompaniment by Hans Bässler. Though
based on texts from the Mass, they were composed as incidental music for
stage works. In contrast to the drama of Söderman’s solo songs,
their mood is restrained. The choir is divided into as many as eight parts.
A soprano solo is added in the Kyrie and Virgo gloriosa.
The CD comes with an informative booklet with sections in German, English,
and French - the latter two being somewhat condensed versions of the first.
Well enough. But the full song texts are given only in Latin, Norwegian,
German, and Swedish. What about English? Alas, the indispensable language
of world commercial aviation, of the Internet, of international business,
of science - the de facto language of the European Union itself - gets
short shrift. Harking back to the bad, bad old days of opera and song
recitals during the 1940s and before, we are given for each song a one-sentence
"English summary." On top of this, some of the summaries are
misleading to the point of near irrelevance. It's rather like trying to
use a cookbook whose recipes specify only the ingredients in each dish,
while omitting their amounts and details of preparation. Well, it's not
really that bad, because anyone who enjoys choral virtuosity will be captivated
by the sound alone, with knowing the text as a possible bonus. Highly
recommended.
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