Search - Geirr Tveitt, Ole Kristian Ruud, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra :: Tveitt: Priller / Solgud-synfonien

Absolutely electrifying

G.D. | Norway | 03/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Geirr Tveitt revival is one of the most welcome revivals undertaken the last decade or so. His music is heavily indebted to Norwegian folk music, but cast in a musical language redolent of Ravel and Bartok; this is music of granitic power, fairy tale magic, snow and clear streams tumbling off tall, forbidding mountains, trolls dancing around fires in the depth of the earth, lush forests, thunder and blood - that kind of thing. It is truly marvelous music, inventive, atmospheric - mesmerizing even - superbly scored and always original and fresh.



Prillar is one of the most enjoyably vigorous and forward-moving scores I know; it is folk-melody based with themes that are always fresh and memorable and very eventfully scored and developed on imaginatively varied rhythmic ostinatos. A scintillating work - a major work even - of verve, atmosphere, color and momentum, always fresh and confident. The Sun-God Symphony is a suite of three pieces the musical material of which is drawn from the large-scale ballet Baldur's Draumar (also available complete on another masterly BIS recording). The orchestration is even more subtle and devious than in Prillar - more Ravelian, even - and the work as a whole is darker and more intense, moving from the calmly ominous first movement through to the wild climax of the third.



The performances are thoroughly superb. The Stavanger Symphony orchestra plays with all the verve, vibrancy and visceral energy asked for, and Ruud leads them in performances that are ebulliently colored (Prillar) and chillingly intense (Sun-God). The superb recording is the icing on what must be considered an essential acquisition for anyone with even a passing interest in 20th century music (Ravel and Bartók in particular), and is indeed - I think - a perfect introduction to this remarkable composer."