GRIEG In Folk Style from Two Nordic Melodies
ROSS EDWARDS Entwinings (World Premiere)*
GRIEG (arr. Henning Kraggerud and Bernt Simen Lund) Violin Concerto (Sonata) No.3 in C minor (Australian Premiere)
HENNING KRAGGERUD Topelius-Variations (From Topelius' Time) (Australian Premiere)
GRIEG (arr. Richard Tognetti) String Quartet No.1 in G minor
* COMMISSIONED BY ROB AND NANCY PALLIN TO CELEBRATE NANCY’S 70TH BIRTHDAY.
Finland has Sibelius. Denmark has Nielsen. Sweden has ABBA. And Norway has Grieg!
Norwegian violinist and Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Henning Kraggerud has built a reputation as the world’s leading interpreter of Grieg.
Kraggerud was troubled by the dearth of Norwegian works for violin and orchestra, so he arranged all three of Grieg’s violin sonatas as concertos with orchestral accompaniment.
Concerto No.3, which is replete with folk melodies and rhythms, is Nordic pastoralism at its very best. The String Quartet No.1 is Grieg at the vanguard of new music, with its exotic flavouring. And the melancholic hue of the Two Nordic Melodies, while local in origin, is universal in its appeal and completes this Arctic tableau.
Australian composer Ross Edwards’ new work, Entwinings, continues the Arcadian feel of the program, while bringing a distinctly Antipodean warmth to a concert that draws musical inspiration from opposite ends of the earth.
