Lofotoratoriet (The Lofoten Oratorio) by Marianne Beate Kielland

Ketil Bjørnstad

Marianne Beate Kielland

Lofotoratoriet (The Lofoten Oratorio)

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020182247
Catnr: LWC 1202
Release date: 21 August 2020
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Label
Lawo Classics

UPC
7090020182247

Catalogue number
LWC 1202

Release date
21 August 2020

"Mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland shows her skills as a conductor in addition to her vocal qualities."

Mania, 11-9-2020

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

As so often happens, it was during a delightful dinner one evening in 2013 with Ketil Bjørnstad, Wiggo Andersen, Knut Kirkesæther and Marianne Beate Kielland that an idea was hatched: Why not make a Lofoten Oratorio?

Lofoten has so much to offer. A majestic and heavenly nature – beautiful, dramatic and world famous. Light that changes momentarily from one minute to the next. Long, lavish summer days on the one hand. Violent winter storms on the other. A thousand years of traditional fishing culture that Norway is built upon. Local handcraft and gourmet traditions. Dramatic tales of the fishermen’s battle against the elements, of dangerous eddies that can swallow a boat whole. Last but not least all the artists who have sought inspiration for the canvas, the camera and the written word.

The Lofoten Oratorio has been a tribute. A tribute to Lofoten itself and what it never ceases to give us. A tribute to its residents, and to those who return again and again. And finally, a homage to nature and art. For without art we would despair of describing the raw Lofoten nature in the words, images, and music we have rendered for you here.

Artist(s)

Marianne Beate Kielland (conductor)

“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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MiNensemblet

Lofoten Voices (vocals)

Terje Brun (accordion)

Brage Tormaenen (percussion)

John Inge Johansen (vocals)

Composer(s)

Ketil Bjørnstad

Ketil Bjørnstad, a multi-talented Norwegian artist described by the Guardian as “a cultural prodigy”, was born in 1952 in Oslo. He trained initially as a classical pianist and made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic at the age of 16, playing Bartók’s third piano concerto. Exposure to the music of Miles Davis and Terje Rypdal converted him to progressive jazz and he made his first recording, with a quartet that included Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen, in 1973. Another 20 years would pass before he came to ECM, with Water Stories, a collaboration with Rypdal and Christensen. In 1994, with the addition of US cellist David Darling, this would grow into a quartet which released The Sea and The Sea II. Jazz Journaldescribed the band's sound as...

Ketil Bjørnstad, a multi-talented Norwegian artist described by the Guardian as “a cultural prodigy”, was born in 1952 in Oslo. He trained initially as a classical pianist and made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic at the age of 16, playing Bartók’s third piano concerto. Exposure to the music of Miles Davis and Terje Rypdal converted him to progressive jazz and he made his first recording, with a quartet that included Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen, in 1973. Another 20 years would pass before he came to ECM, with Water Stories, a collaboration with Rypdal and Christensen. In 1994, with the addition of US cellist David Darling, this would grow into a quartet which released The Sea and The Sea II. Jazz Journaldescribed the band's sound as "quintessential ECM tone poem music”. The pianist’s partnership with Darling has also produced duo albums such as Epigraphs and The River, as has the association with Rypdal (Life in Leipzig).
Bjørnstad is also a bestselling and widely translated novelist, and although the composer long kept these two creative currents apart, in recent years there has been much more overt cross-fertilisation. A Passion for John Donne, released in 2014, is an ambitious work inspired by the great English Metaphysical poet who has fascinated the composer for decades. A previous song cycle of Donne settings featured on the album, The Light. The double CD Vinding’s Musictakes the listener into the heart of Bjørnstad’s literary world: it is a sort of “literary soundtrack” to his trilogy of novels about a young Norwegian pianist, Aksel Vinding.

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