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Tales from Norway
Krishna Nagaraja

Krishna Nagaraja | Meta4

Tales from Norway

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917291421
Catnr: CC 72914
Release date: 06 May 2022
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917291421
Catalogue number
CC 72914
Release date
06 May 2022

"Ultimately, it is mainly a CD that proves that the way someone like Béla Bartók dealt with the folk music is still very much alive."

Luister, 01-9-2023
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Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

Tales from Norway transforms musical stories from Norwegian folk traditions into new compositions that defy genre-related labelling and envision a broader, bolder concept of “contemporary music”.

The string quartet Stringar devotes each of its three movements to a specific strand of the Norwegian springar tunes, synthesised with elements coming from disparate – albeit never gratuitous – directions. Western art music, Indian rhythms, progressive metal and semi-improvisatory techniques engage in a dialogue with the unusual rhythms and melodic turns of the Western Norwegian udelt takt springars, the time-bending telespringars from Telemark and the hypnotic valdresspringars from the mountainous slopes of Valdres.

Ancient traditions from the secluded valley of Setesdal tell tales of forests, mountains and magical beings through melodies carved out of stone and wood, shaped by water and wind. In A Norwegian Suite the storytelling is entrusted to the vulnerable and otherworldly sound of the Hardanger fiddle, spinning the thread of folk inspirations into a variety of textures that ranges from the ecstatic to the frenzied.
The two works originate from the common space that lies between several genres and enter a hybrid territory that gives rise to something different. The compositional process itself becomes an innermost companion that constantly negotiates its identity with the world around it.
Wat een ontdekking deze cd 'Tales from Norway' van Krishna Nagaraja met twee werken die we alleen maar kunnen bestempelen als hedendaagse muziek. De componist zet muzikale verhalen uit de Noorse volkstradities om in nieuwe composities die alle, aan genre gebonden, grenzen tarten. Het zou verleidelijk zijn om de muziek van Krishna Nagaraja te zien als een kruising tussen verschillende genres, maar dat is gelukkig onmogelijk. Op deze gedurfde muziek valt geen etiket te plakken. Ondertussen is het onwerkelijke muziek, waarbij je je in een Noors landschap waant met bossen, bergen, stromend water en ijzige vlaktes en je de ijle klanken van Noorse sferen, hoort en voelt. Op dit album ontwikkelt zich een prachtig en meeslepend spel tussen de vier instrumenten van het Finse strijkkwartet Meta4. Waarna Krishna Nagaraja bijna een half uur solo op de traditionele Hardanger viool speelt, wonderschoon.

In het eerste werk, het strijkkwartet ‘Stringar’, wordt elk van de drie delen gewijd aan een specifieke stroming van de Noorse springar-melodieën (populaire dansmelodieën), gesynthetiseerd met elementen uit uiteenlopende, maar nooit vrijblijvende, richtingen. Westerse kunstmuziek, Indiase ritmes, progressieve metal en semi-improvisatorische technieken gaan de dialoog aan met de ongewone ritmes en melodische wendingen van de West-Noorse udelt takt springars, de tijdbuigende telespringars van Telemark en de hypnotiserende valdresspringars van de bergachtige hellingen van Valdres.

In het tweede werk is het kwetsbare en buitenaardse geluid van de Hardanger viool, gespeeld door Krishna Nagaraja, te horen in de compositie ‘A Norwegian Suite for solo Hardanger fiddle’ (2019). Het werk is geïnspireerd door oude tradities uit de afgelegen vallei van het Setesdal, verteld met melodieën uitgehouwen uit steen en hout, gevormd door water en wind. Verhalen over bossen, bergen en magische wezens die toevertrouwd worden aan het kwetsbare en buitenaardse geluid van de Hardanger viool. De melodieën variëren van extatisch tot waanzinnig. De Hardanger viool is een uitbundig versierde Noorse viool met behalve de vier melodiesnaren nog vier of meer resonantiesnaren. De naam komt van de streek Hardanger in Noorwegen waar het instrument vandaan komt.

De Italiaans-Indiase violist, altviolist, componist, beatboxer, arrangeur, Krishna Nagaraja haalde zijn Master's Degree in Global Music (GLOMAS) aan de Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In het kader daarvan experimenteerde hij met de interactie tussen muzikale genres en stijlen, waarbij hij folk met barok en hedendaagse muziek vermengde in originele arrangementen en composities. De muziek van dit album ging in première tijdens Krishna Nagaraja's doctoraats-concert in Helsinki in mei 2021. Zijn composities werden geroemd om de vindingrijkheid en uniciteit van hun taal.

Het Finse strijkkwartet Meta4 won vele internationale prijzen en werd geselecteerd voor het traject ‘BBC New Generation Artist’ 2008-2010 wat een aantal van 's werelds meest veelbelovende nieuwe talenten via BBC Radio 3 ondersteunt in hun internationale carrière. Het kwartet bracht albums uit op o.a. Hänssler Classics, BIS en ECM Records en werd bekroond met een 'Echo Klassik Award' in 2010. Meta4 won de 'Emma prize' (Finse Grammy) met 'Shostakovich’s String Quartets 3, 4 & 7' (2012) in de categorie 'Classical Album of the Year'.
Tales from Norway verwandelt musikalische Geschichten aus norwegischen Volkstraditionen in neue Kompositionen, die sich einer Genre-Etikettierung entziehen und ein breiteres, kühneres Konzept von "zeitgenössischer Musik" anstreben.

Das Streichquartett Stringar widmet sich in jedem seiner drei Sätze einem bestimmten Strang der norwegischen Springar-Melodien, die mit Elementen aus unterschiedlichen - wenn auch nie überflüssigen - Richtungen synthetisiert werden. Westliche Kunstmusik, indische Rhythmen, progressiver Metal und semi-improvisatorische Techniken treten in einen Dialog mit den ungewöhnlichen Rhythmen und melodischen Wendungen der westnorwegischen udelt takt springars, den zeitverschiebenden telespringars aus Telemark und den hypnotischen valdresspringars von den Berghängen des Valdres.

Alte Traditionen aus dem abgeschiedenen Setesdal-Tal erzählen Geschichten von Wäldern, Bergen und magischen Wesen in Melodien, die aus Stein und Holz gemeißelt und von Wasser und Wind geformt wurden. In A Norwegian Suite wird die Erzählung dem verletzlichen und jenseitigen Klang der Hardangerfiedel anvertraut, die den Faden der volkstümlichen Inspirationen zu einer Vielfalt von Texturen spinnt, die von ekstatisch bis rasend reichen.
Die beiden Werke stammen aus dem gemeinsamen Raum, der zwischen mehreren Genres liegt, und betreten ein hybrides Territorium, aus dem etwas anderes entsteht. Der Kompositionsprozess selbst wird zu einem innersten Begleiter, der seine Identität mit der Welt um ihn herum ständig verhandelt.

Artist(s)

Krishna Nagaraja (violin)

Violinist, violist, composer, arranger, formerly also singer and beatboxer, Krishna Nagaraja has always approached music from many different directions. Over the years, his musical path led him to the baroque violin and viola, performing with renowned groups in his native Italy and abroad. His passion for traditional music also steered him towards Irish, Scottish, Breton and Nordic folk music. In 2012 he moved to Helsinki to attend a Master’s Degree in Global Music (GLOMAS) at the Sibelius Academy. Within its framework he experimented with the interaction between musical genres and styles, mixing folk with baroque and contemporary music in original arrangements and compositions. This activity gave birth to projects like Biviola, a viola duo performing his arrangements of Nordic folk...
more
Violinist, violist, composer, arranger, formerly also singer and beatboxer, Krishna Nagaraja has always approached music from many different directions. Over the years, his musical path led him to the baroque violin and viola, performing with renowned groups in his native Italy and abroad. His passion for traditional music also steered him towards Irish, Scottish, Breton and Nordic folk music. In 2012 he moved to Helsinki to attend a Master’s Degree in Global Music (GLOMAS) at the Sibelius Academy. Within its framework he experimented with the interaction between musical genres and styles, mixing folk with baroque and contemporary music in original arrangements and compositions. This activity gave birth to projects like Biviola, a viola duo performing his arrangements of Nordic folk tunes, and his main brainchild Brú, a kaleidoscopic international group whose leadership has brought his music to several European festivals (MA Early Music Bruges, Filharmonia Warszawa, MiTo Settembre Musica, East Cork Early Music Festival, Cafe Barock Finland).

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Meta4

Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the most internationally successful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 it won the first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow and was also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. The quartet enjoyed continued success in 2007, when it won the first prize in the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Later that year the Finnish Minister of Culture awarded Meta4 with the annual Finland Prize in recognition of an international breakthrough. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008–2010 and in 2013 Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation awarded the quartet with a special prize in recognition of its work. Meta4 performs regularly in key music...
more

Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the most internationally successful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 it won the first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow and was also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. The quartet enjoyed continued success in 2007, when it won the first prize in the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Later that year the Finnish Minister of Culture awarded Meta4 with the annual Finland Prize in recognition of an international breakthrough. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008–2010 and in 2013 Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation awarded the quartet with a special prize in recognition of its work.

Meta4 performs regularly in key music capitals and concert halls around the world including Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall and King’s Place in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Stockholms Konserthus, and has also toured in Australia. Furthermore, Meta4 served as the Artistic Director of Oulunsalo Music Festival between 2008 and 2011 and was the quartet-in-residence at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival from 2008-2017.

The quartet has studied in the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) under Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl. They have released three recordings on Hänssler Classics: Haydn’s String Quartets op. 55 1–3 (2009), which was awarded the esteemed Echo Klassik Award in 2010; Shostakovich’s String Quartets 3, 4 & 7 (2012), which received the 2012 Record of the Year award from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE as well as the Emma prize (the Finnish Grammy) in the category of the Classical Album of the Year, as well as Bartók’s String Quartets 1 & 5, released in 2014. The quartet has also released an album of Kaija Saariaho’s chamber music works (Ondine, 2013) and an LP of Sibelius’s String Quartet ‘Voces Intimae’ (Berliner Meister Schallplatten, 2013). An album with Brahms Clarinet Quintet and Gérard Pesson’s Nebenstück together with Reto Bieri, was released via ECM Records in 2019. The most recent albums of the quartet were breleased via Bis Records: their recording of octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu with the Gringolts Quartet was released in 2020 and fall 2021 saw the release of Oceano, Chamber Music by Sebastian Fagerlund.

The members of Meta4 play distinguished instruments, which include a Stradivarius, kindly on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, a Carlo Bergonzi violin, kindly on loan from Signe and Ane Gyllenberg's Foundation and a cello made by Lorenzo Storioni in Cremona in 1780.


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Composer(s)

Krishna Nagaraja (violin)

Violinist, violist, composer, arranger, formerly also singer and beatboxer, Krishna Nagaraja has always approached music from many different directions. Over the years, his musical path led him to the baroque violin and viola, performing with renowned groups in his native Italy and abroad. His passion for traditional music also steered him towards Irish, Scottish, Breton and Nordic folk music. In 2012 he moved to Helsinki to attend a Master’s Degree in Global Music (GLOMAS) at the Sibelius Academy. Within its framework he experimented with the interaction between musical genres and styles, mixing folk with baroque and contemporary music in original arrangements and compositions. This activity gave birth to projects like Biviola, a viola duo performing his arrangements of Nordic folk...
more
Violinist, violist, composer, arranger, formerly also singer and beatboxer, Krishna Nagaraja has always approached music from many different directions. Over the years, his musical path led him to the baroque violin and viola, performing with renowned groups in his native Italy and abroad. His passion for traditional music also steered him towards Irish, Scottish, Breton and Nordic folk music. In 2012 he moved to Helsinki to attend a Master’s Degree in Global Music (GLOMAS) at the Sibelius Academy. Within its framework he experimented with the interaction between musical genres and styles, mixing folk with baroque and contemporary music in original arrangements and compositions. This activity gave birth to projects like Biviola, a viola duo performing his arrangements of Nordic folk tunes, and his main brainchild Brú, a kaleidoscopic international group whose leadership has brought his music to several European festivals (MA Early Music Bruges, Filharmonia Warszawa, MiTo Settembre Musica, East Cork Early Music Festival, Cafe Barock Finland).

less

Press

Ultimately, it is mainly a CD that proves that the way someone like Béla Bartók dealt with the folk music is still very much alive.
Luister, 01-9-2023

Played by the composer himself, Krishna Nagaraja's epic A Norwegian Suite for sole Hardanger fiddle is a superb showpiece, while Meta4 performs his eqially lively Stringar for string-quartet with life-affirming vigour.
BBC MM, 07-8-2022

This is not only beautifully composed, but is also superbly played by the Meta4 string quartet. It is striking that the version is so beautifully play and vibrato-free. On the album Tales from Norway we hear the beauty, strength and vitality of this ancient instrument, wonderful in solo and exciting on the string quartet way!
Music Frames, 20-6-2022

Sometimes very clear and then hidden between the notes but still latently present. This is not only beautifully composed, but is also superbly played by the Meta4 string quartet. It is striking that the version is so beautifully play and vibrato-free.
Music Frames, 20-6-2022

Despite the diverse genres that Nagaraja incorporates, he manages to create structured appealing music that can be listened to repeatedly. 
Pizzicato, 12-5-2022

Despite the diverse genres that Nagaraja incorporates, he manages to create structured, appealing music that can also be heard repeatedly.
Pizzicato, 12-5-2022

But what Naragraja does solo for almost half an hour on the traditional Hardanger fiddle is of indesribable beauty.
Platomania, 06-5-2022

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