The New Song by Marianne Beate Kielland

Various composers

Marianne Beate Kielland

The New Song

Format: SACD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020181097
Catnr: LWC 1097
Release date: 24 June 2016
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Label
Lawo Classics

UPC
7090020181097

Catalogue number
LWC 1097

Release date
24 June 2016

"01-11-2016 / Pizzicato"

Pizzicato, 01-11-2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

We know many of them — the German Lied, the French chanson, the Scandinavian song — works for voice and piano. Countless such musical pieces have been written throughout history, mainly from Mozart’s time on. But after a couple of hundred years, this form of composition fell “out of fashion”, and composers often used other ways to accompany singers.
How do we think of classical song today? I challenged three composers to each write his “Lied”, a piece of music for voice and piano, and received three remarkably different results. Two hundred years ago, the format was predictable; today, boundaries have dissolved, and the composer turns out whatever the heart desires. What these composers write about their own works appears later on.
In addition, we wished to include five wonderfully distinctive songs of Edvard Hagerup Bull — a composer of our own time, but one who was and remained controversial, and, as such, was essentially deprived of recognition and fame in Norway. Edvard Hagerup Bull was a grandnephew of Edvard Grieg, he studied with Messiaen and Milhaud, among others, and he lived a large part of his life in Paris.
Many are familiar with the short aphoristic poems of Piet Hein known as “grooks” — artful, thought-provoking texts with their unconventional way of looking at life. Coupled with Hagerup Bull’s playful, humoristic music, they become musical gems deserving of attention and performance. We are pleased to have these songs on the recording! To be on the safe side, I wish to point out that the “grooks” are written in Danish, but I have chosen to sing the texts with Norwegian pronunciation.
- Marianne Beate Kielland

Werke für Gesang und Klavier: Wir alle kennen sie in den verschiedensten Spielarten - Das deutsche Lied, das französische Chanson, das skandinavische Lied. Unzählige dieser Kompositionen wurden seit Mozart komponiert, gerieten doch nach einigen hundert Jahren aus der Mode und die Komponisten suchten neue Wege Sänger zu begleiten.

Aber wie klingt das Lied heute? Marianne Beate Kielland forderte drei Komponisten heraus, Stücke für Gesang und Klavier zu schreiben. Das bemerkenswerte Ergebnis finden Sie auf dieser Einspielung.

Artist(s)

Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo soprano)

“A singer with such charisma challenged her colleagues.” (Dreh-Punkt-Kultur) Mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland is famous for her strong stage presence and musical integrity. Gramophone Magazine writes about her: “The mezzo-soprano is quite outstanding: strong, firm, sensitive in modulations, imaginative in her treatment of words, with a voice pure in quality, wide in range and unfalteringly true in intonation.” She graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied with Svein Bjørkøy. Her other teachers have included Oren Brown and Barbara Bonney. Considered today one of Europe’s leading singers, she performs regularly on major concert stages in Europe, America and The East with conductors such as Masaaki Suzuki, Andrew Manze, Petr Popelka, Michel Corboz, Leonardo Alarcon, Herbert Blomstedt, Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi and René Jacobs.
In 2012 she received a Grammy nomination in the category ‘Best Classical Vocal Solo’ for her recording of Veslemøy Synsk by the composer Olav Anton Thommessen. In 2021 she received a prestigious OPUS Klassik nomination in the category ‘Female Singer of the Year’ for her recording of Schumann Lieder. With more than sixty other albums in addition to a demanding concert schedule, Marianne Beate Kielland is established as an exceptional performer with a wide-ranging repertoire from baroque to contemporary.
Together with pianist Nils Anders Mortensen she has previously released 12 recordings on the LAWO Classics label: Früh (LWC1033), Sæle jolekveld (LWC1040), Grieg (LWC1059), Young Elling (LWC1072), The New Song (LWC1097), Whispering Mozart (LWC1111), Songs: Kielland/Dørumsgaard (LWC1145), Einsamkeit – Songs by Mahler (LWC1157), Eivind Groven Songs (LWC1178), Schumann Lieder (LWC1197) with baritone Johannes Weisser, and Så kort ein sommar menneska har – Songs by Gisle Kverndokk (LWC1220), and Sigurd Lie Songs, Vol. 1 (LWC1256).
In 2015 she released Påsketid (LWC1077) with violinist Elise Båtnes and organist Kåre Nordstoga, in 2017 Terra Nova (LWC1125) with composer and pianist Jan Gunnar Hoff, in 2020 The Lofoten Oratorio by Ketil Bjørnstad (LWC1202) with Lofoten Voices and MinEnsemblet, in 2022 Lamento (LWC1226), a collection of baroque laments, with Oslo Circles, as well as Jean Sibelius: Orchestral Songs (LWC1239) with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

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Nils Anders Mortensen (piano)

Nils Anders Mortensen was born in Flekkefjord in 1971. He began playing piano at age three, and in 1986 he won the Norwegian Young Pianist Competition. He studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, École Normale in Paris, and Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. Other important teachers have been Tatjana Nikolajeva and Hans Leygraf.
Mortensen was the recipient of the prestigious Concerts Norway ‘Debutant of the Year’ award in 1996. He has won international prizes and grants. In 1998 he won the Mozarteum Prize in Salzburg. In 2004 Mortensen received the Robert Levin Memorial Prize.
Mortensen has appeared as soloist with Norway’s leading orchestras. He recorded piano concertos of Geirr Tveitt with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. His first solo album Im Freien (LWC1032), featuring music of Debussy, Grieg, and Bartók, was released in 2012 to glowing reviews.
Mortensen has also released 12 recordings with mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland on the LAWO Classics label: Früh (LWC1033), Sæle jolekveld (LWC1040), Grieg (LWC1059), Young Elling (LWC1072), The New Song (LWC1097), Whispering Mozart (LWC1111), Songs: Kielland/Dørumsgaard (LWC1145), Einsamkeit – Songs by Mahler (LWC1157), Eivind Groven Songs (LWC1178), Schumann Lieder (LWC1197) with baritone Johannes Weisser, and Så kort ein sommar menneska har – Songs by Gisle Kverndokk (LWC1220), and Sigurd Lie Songs, Vol. 1 (LWC1256.
In 2015 he released the solo recording In finstrer Mitternacht (LWC1084), featuring music of Brahms, and Tundra (LWC1092), a recording of solely Russian music, with double-bassist Knut Erik Sundquist. In 2016 he released Schumann: Violin Sonatas Op. 105 & Op. 121 (LWC1110) with violinist Arvid Engegård. In 2019 he released his third solo recording on the LAWO Classics label, Bach: Ouvertüre nach Französischer Art, BWV 831 / Sarabande con Partite, BWV 990 / Englische Suite Nr. 6 d-Moll, BWV 811 (LWC1174), and in 2020 he released Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op. 44 / Piano Quartet, Op. 47 (LWC1189) with the Engegård Quartet. His fourth solo recording, J.S. Bach: Partitas Nos. 1, 5 & 6 (LWC1249), was released in 2023.

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Composer(s)

Henrik Hellstenius

Henrik Hellstenius (born 1963), a Norwegian composer, studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music and with Gérard Grisey at Conservatoire Supérieur.
Hellstenius’s output encompasses a large range of works: chamber music, orchestral works, opera, electro-acoustic music and music for theatre and dance. His music has been performed frequently at concerts and festivals around the world by ensembles and musicians such as Cikada, BIT20, Oslo Sinfonietta, Court Circuit, Irvine Arditti, Peter Herresthal, asamisimasa, Hans Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Ensemble El Perro Andaluz, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Philharmonic Orchestra.
His first opera, Sera, received the Norwegian Edvard Award in 2000, and has been staged in Oslo and Warsaw. His second opera, Ophelias: Death by Water Singing, premiered in Oslo in 2005 and was staged in Warsaw, Oslo and Osnabrück, Germany. It was recorded in 2014 and released on the LAWO Classics label in 2016 (LWC1098). In 2022 he received a Spellemann Award (Norway’s Grammy) as ‘Composer of the Year’ for the release Past & Presence, also on the LAWO Classics label (LWC1229).
Hellstenius has been composer in residence with the Bergen International Festival 2011, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra 2013/2014, and the June in Buffalo Festival 2017.
In recent years Hellstenius has focused on the musical relationship between sound, words and movement in its many forms, ranging from staged concerts and performance works to musical theatre pieces. He is at present conducting an artistic research project, ‘Extended Compositon’, where he focuses on the possibilities in composition with movement, sound and language.
Hellstenius is also a professor of composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and has been a guest teacher of composition at festivals, conservatories and universities in Germany, the USA, Austria, France and the Nordic countries.

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