Nils Mortensen, Stavanger SO, Ruud - Geirr Tveitt: Piano Concerto No. 5; Variations on a Folk-song from Hardanger (2004)

Naxos recorded both of these pieces very successfully and coupled them differently, but questions of price notwithstanding, this newcomer edges out the competition in two respects. First, the characteristically first-class BIS sonics eclipse even the otherwise excellent Naxos productions, offering more natural instrumental perspectives and a richer bass response, so important in this colorfully scored music. Second, Nils Mortensen and Ole Ruud take just a bit more time with each work, and rather than lowering the level of tension, this extra maneuvering room brings to the surface even more ear-catching detail while permitting a touch more bounce to Tveitt's folk-influenced rhythms.

Both pieces have as their basis the Hardanger folk songs that provided the inspiration for so much of Tveitt's music, and pianists Mortensen and (in the Variations) Sveinung Bjelland give impressive accounts of the very full solo parts. Let's hope that someone soon gets around to reconstructing the Third Piano Concerto, a tape of which exists along with, we presume, what remnants of score survived the fire that consumed so much of the composer's life's work. I've been singing Tveitt's praises for a couple of years now, and I see no reason to alter my view of him as one of the most enjoyable and important Scandinavian composers of the past century. Do get to know him.

Review by David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Tveitt’s First Piano Concerto dates from his student years in Leipzig and was premièred there in 1931. Not a typical brash tyro effort (compare, say, Prokofiev’s First), the opening Tranquillo sports a lovely, folksy opening melody. The middle Giocoso movement is more lively, after which the concerto closes with a long, beautiful Lento, very nicely realised by Sveinung Bjelland. It feels more like a concertino than a fully fledged concerto, especially when set next to his paean to the Northern Lights, No 4 (1948-49): a sequence of three symphonic poems full of dynamic contrasts and evocative textures.

Where in No 1, Bjelland and Håvard Gimse seem to be reading from the same expressive hymn sheet, in the Fourth Håkon Austbø takes a harder-edged, more explosive line. Given that Tveitt mentions ‘autumn colours’ in the title of the first movement, I think Austbø overplays and I prefer Gimse’s more restrained but no less atmospheric reading.

The text for the cantata The Turtle, composed for Kirsten Flagstad but never performed by her – it remained unheard, indeed, until 1994 – comes from the third chapter of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the famous allegorical passage describing the turtle’s indomitable will to survive while crossing a highway. Musically and expressively, The Turtle is in marked contrast to most of Tveitt’s scores that have survived; a remarkable work in its own right, it stands in his oeuvre not unlike Luonnotar in that of Sibelius. It is not surprising that Flagstad baulked at its demands (a virtuosic sing for almost 30 minutes); Ingebjørg Kosmo delivers it with considerable panache even though audibly taxed.

Tveitt’s Fifth Piano Concerto (1953-4) was premièred in what would have been a monster concert in Paris where the composer was scheduled to play the Brahms and Tchaikovsky Firsts (the latter, wisely, was cancelled at the last moment) before his new work. It scored one of his greatest triumphs as a composer and it is not hard to see why: right from its opening flourish (with its strong suggestion of ‘Uranus’ from The Planets), it is full of memorable ideas, brightly orchestrated with a virtuosic solo part.

Nils Mortensen has its measure, although he does not always impose himself as one might expect for this type of work (Gimse, on Naxos, gets a touch closer to the work’s heart). The coupling is of Tveitt’s wonderfully full 1949 treatment, luminously scored, of a Hardanger folk song (a mini- cantata describing the meeting of a farm girl and a traveller) Tveitt encountered – somewhat romantically – through a farm girl in the mountains.

Fine as the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra accompaniments are, I prefer Bjarte Engeset’s way with these scores and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are immaculate. As to sound, that of BIS is consistently spectacular. That said, the interpretative edge in Nos 4 and 5 and the Variations belong to Gimse and Engeset; in the First honours are even, though Tveitt fans will want The Turtle.

Review by Guy Rickards, Gramophone

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 14. July 2018, 20:14

NiIs Mortensen, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Ole Kristian Ruud / Tveitt - Piano Concerto No.5

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-07-21 18:17:00

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Analyzed: Nils Mortensen, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Ole Kristian Ruud / Tveitt - Piano Concerto No.5 (1-3)
Nils Mortensen, Sveinung Bjelland, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Ole Kristian Ruud / Tveitt - Piano Concerto No.5 (4)
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DR18 0.00 dB -23.35 dB 12:43 03-Piano Concerto No.5, Op.156 - III.
DR18 -1.34 dB -26.66 dB 30:52 04-Variations on a Folk-song from Hardanger
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