FOUNDATIONS
BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2017
053
Mad Songs Bach with Bugge k
World premiere
DATE / TIME Saturday 27 May at 20:30
DURATION 1:30
A world premiere with inspiration from the madhouse .
Total musical madness is the theme of the second concert of the evening . Music and words paint a historical picture of a time we can be glad is past . Mad Songs are songs written around a seventeenth century fascination for the abnormal , when composers exploited the popularity of visits to the madhouse as entertainment . To portray the madness they used new musical devices , and thus arose completely new means of expression . Alongside Peter Maxwell Davies ’ s work Eight Songs for a Mad King the description of madness covers a perspective of over 300 years !
This fascination for madness lives on today and composer Olav Anton Thommessen and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra explore the subject in this world premiere .
Christian Eggen conductor Eight Songs for a Mad King Eir Inderhaug soprano Nils Harald Sødal tenor
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN ( 1681 – 1767 ) Don Quichotte Suite , TWV 55 : G10 OLAV ANTON THOMMESSEN ( 1946 –) Mad Songs World Premiere HENRY PURCELL ( 1659 – 1695 ) Bess of Bedlam , Z 370 UNKNOWN ( 17TH CENTURY ) Tom o ’ Bedlam JOHN ECCLES ( 1668 – 1735 ) Restless in thought PETER MAXWELL DAVIES ( 1934 – 2016 ) Eight Songs for a Mad King m
DATE / TIME Saturday 27 May at 22:30
A marriage of classical and jazz .
The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra rounds off their evening of celebration with a twopart concert . It starts with a staged version of Schoenberg ’ s Verklärte Nacht ( Transfigured Night ), performed from memory and with lighting , which opens up for a completely new experience of the romantic narrative music . The magic is in the mood created by the stage effects and the musical dramaturgy .
With Bugge Wesseltoft at the piano , the orchestra completes the evening with a fusion of classical and jazz . Within the span emerges their interpretation of the Goldberg Variations – Bach swings well , even without bass and drums , and the orchestra plays around in a musical borderland .
Bugge Wesseltoft piano
DURATION 1:50 including interval
ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG ( 1874 – 1951 ) Verklärte Nacht ( Transfigured Night , string orchestra version ), op . 4 JOHAN SEBASTIAN BACH ( 1685 – 1750 ) Goldberg Variations , BWV 988 , Arr : Tønnesen / Wesseltoft
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