Friday 24 May 2019

New life for Grieg's last work.

The Grammy-nominated Edvard Grieg Choir is a familiar sight during the Bergen Festival, and the vocal group has a repertoire that cuts across genres. A number of works by composers such as Jonathan Rathbone and David Lang have been dedicated to the choir. In Håkonshallen, Grieg's work Four Psalms is on the programme, in a revised version written by Tyrone Landau.

When the Norwegian hymnal was to be created in the 19th century, composer Ludvig Mathias Lindeman traveled around the country to collect religious melodies and hymns. Grieg fell for the folk tunes' "touching depth and sincerity", and took these as a starting point when he created Four Psalms . The work, which was his last, remains one of the most important church musical works of late Romanticism. Landau has gone back to Lindeman's notes, adapting his melodies for fiddle. Edvard Grieg Choir performs this version in Håkonshallen, accompanied by Silje Solberg on harding fiddle. The concert also marks the release of the choir's first solo album.