Thursday 28 April 2022

Thursday 28 April at 19.30 in the Grieghallen. Friday 29 April in Vigdartun, Sveio, Fartein Valen Festival.

The Fartein Valen Foundation will mark 2022 as a commemorative year for the composer, and the evening's program includes two of his most famous compositions.

The violin concerto was written in 1940 in memory of a young relative, Arne, who died three years earlier. Arvid O. Vollsnes writes that ''the music should describe the atmosphere from the night before the boy died and at the same time remind him of all the good things the boy had given him''. The concert was first performed by the Oslo Philharmonic with Ernst Glaser as soloist in 1947. The excellent concertmaster Alexander Kagan is the soloist.

Psalm 121 was composed as early as 1911 when Valen was a student in Berlin, and is based on the Bible's Psalm 121. The work was first performed during the Festival in 1984, by Harmonien and Bergen Cathedral under the direction of Karsten Andersen.

Johannes Brahms wrote his third, and in the opinion of many, Beethoven-inspired symphony in the summer of 1883. Clara Schumann wrote to the composer that the whole symphony appeared to be ''one heartbeat''.

The evening's conductor, Dmitry Matrienko, was born in Minsk and in 2021 won the prestigious Malko competition for young conductors.

Dmitry Matvienko, conductor
Ann-Helen Moen, soprano
Aleksander Kagan, violin
Edvard Grieg Choir
Bergen Philharmonic Choir
Håkon Matti Skrede, choir master

Program:
Felix Mendelssohn – The Hebrides, Overbull
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale: Jesu meine Zuversicht
Fartein Valen – Violin Concerto
Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 3
Fartein Valen – Psalm 121, for choir and orchestra