Ketil Bjornstad - A Passion for John Donne (2014) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

Ketil Bjørnstad’s passion for the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. His settings of Donne’s verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace and the ECM album The Light. “After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years, I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences - a passionate quest for meaning and reconciliation. Donne's dramatic life is reflected in the texts and everywhere in them you will find the passion, melodies and sounds”. Bjørnstad wrote A passion for John Donne for the Oslo International Church Festival in the winter of 2011/2012 and the premiere performance – documented here – was at the Sofienberg Kirke in Oslo in March 2012.

A Passion for John Donne is pianist and composer Ketil Bjørnstad's fourth recorded encounter with the English metaphysical poet's work. The first was on The Shadow ‎in 1990, followed by Grace in 1999 and The Light in 2008. Bjørnstad has found a lifelong inspiration in Donne, and here, more so than on the earlier volumes, it is illustrated with the command and vulnerability it deserves. Bjørnstad is accompanied by percussionist Birger Mistereggen and noted tenor saxophonist Håkon Kornstad (formerly of Wibutee), who makes his debut recorded appearance as a tenor singer after three years of opera study. Fleshing out these musical settings is the Oslo Chamber Choir under the direction of Håkon Daniel Nystedt. This recording is the work's premiere performance at the Oslo International Church Festival in March of 2012. Bjørnstad employs the full breadth of Donne's writings to create this passion. The poet lived a full and dramatic life; it was spent mostly in poverty and indulging as many carnal pleasures as spiritual devotions. Famous poems such as "Thou Hast Made Me," "Death Be Not Proud," and "Farewell to Love" are offered alongside lesser known works to reveal the complexity of the poet's psychology, and his generation of meaning amid the most turbulent emotional and spiritual states in everyday living. While largely a work of classical crossover, Kornstad's trademark tenor and flute soloing add just enough of the unruly and expressive spontaneity of jazz to add complexity and texture. His beautiful evocation of Sonny Rollins in "Thou Hast Made Me" is a gorgeous juxtaposition to the choral voices. The other side of his persona can be heard in the vocal solos on "A Fever" and "A Valediction, Forbidden Mourning," which are among the more bracing selections here. There are three instrumental interludes separating each section, the first of which finds Kornstad's spacious, flowing phrasing and granular tone atop an elegant, athletic Chopin-esque piano melody. The pace and intensity increase as the entire trio erupts into spirited improvisation. "A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day" is the set's hinge piece. The saxophonist's tremulous solo atop Bjørnstad's melodic statement introduces, alternately, the male and female sections of the chorus in trading verses. Elliptical piano and stately tom-toms add weight, with the saxophonist using tongue-slapped multiphonics for textured tension in its conclusion. "Since She Whom I Loved Hath Paid Her Last Debt" is an elegy performed a cappella by the chorus, though the harmonic setting makes it a near hymn to resurrection in expression. The languid "Oh, To Vex Me, Contraries Meet In" is emotionally transcendent, carried out by melodic improvisation between pianist and saxophonist. Ultimately, A Passion for John Donne is not only a celebration of the poet's life and work, but a major entry in Bjørnstad's canon. It displays his gifts of restraint, elegance, and melodic invention without unnecessary indulgences, while simultaneously offering the full weight of aesthetic exposition and emotional depth.

Tracklist:

01 - Introitus - a passion for John Donne
02 - Thou hast made me
03 - A fever
04 - Death, be not proud
05 - Interlude no. 1
06 - The legacy
07 - Batter my heart, three personed God
08 - A nocturnal upon St. Lucy's day
09 - Farewell to love
10 - Interlude no. 2
11 - Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
12 - A valediction, forbidden mourning
13 - Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one
14 - Interlude no. 3
15 - There we leave you

Produced by Ketil Bjørnstad. Engineered by Jan Erik Kongshaug.
Recorded live in March 2012 at Sofienberg Kirke, Oslo at the Oslo International Church Music festival.

Musicians:
Ketil Bjørnstad - piano
Håkon Kornstad - saxophone, flute, voice
Birger Mistereggen - percussion
Oslo Chamber Choir, Conducted by Håkon Daniel Nystedt


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