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Live in Bremen
Various composers

Hilde Torgersen & Kenneth Karlsson

Live in Bremen

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020182742
Catnr: LWC 1252
Release date: 19 May 2023
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Label
Lawo Classics
UPC
7090020182742
Catalogue number
LWC 1252
Release date
19 May 2023
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Hilde Torgersen and I were invited to hold a concert in Bremen back in June of 1992. The Norwegian pianist Darlén Bakke had moved to Germany after studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and had already established a successful career for herself there. She wanted to acquaint the German audience with the music of her homeland and decided to organize a festival called “Bremen meets Oslo”. In addition to German musicians, Hilde, myself, and other Norwegian musicians and composers were invited, and the concert was held in the Bremen Radio concert hall.

This was a time of great activity for Hilde and me, with a full schedule of concerts as well as commissions from a number of composers to build up a fresh repertoire. We aimed to push the boundaries of music for voice and piano and were after music for this combination that felt modern and contemporary. With the exception of Antonio Bibalo’s piece, all the music from this concert was composed for us.

We spent a few nice days in Bremen, not only performing the concert but also holding seminars about the music at the music college. We played to a packed concert hall and the atmosphere during the concert was fantastic. Rolf Wallin’s piece went down particularly well. At the reception afterwards, I got to speak to several people in the audience, and oddly enough, many of them were convinced that we’d been improvising during the Wallin piece. When I assured them that we read the notes and that the piece had conventional notation, they could hardly believe it. The piece was clearly something new at the time.

– Kenneth Karlsson

Artist(s)

Kenneth Karlsson (piano)

Kenneth Karlsson was born in Åmål, Sweden. He started out playing impro/rock with a few friends in his youth. He went on to develop an interest in classi­cal music, and after a few years he became a student at the Music Academy in Oslo, followed by further studies in the Netherlands. Since then Karlsson has been active as a pianist specializing in the areas of contemporary and classical music, and improvisation. During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of groups such as Ensemble K4, Oslo Sinfonietta and Aquari­us, and has collaborated with mezzo-soprano Hilde Torgersen for more than 20 years. He has also played in various improvisation groups over the years, in­cluding the quartet Point 4 with Jon...
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Kenneth Karlsson was born in Åmål, Sweden. He started out playing impro/rock with a few friends in his youth. He went on to develop an interest in classi­cal music, and after a few years he became a student at the Music Academy in Oslo, followed by further studies in the Netherlands. Since then Karlsson has been active as a pianist specializing in the areas of contemporary and classical music, and improvisation. During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of groups such as Ensemble K4, Oslo Sinfonietta and Aquari­us, and has collaborated with mezzo-soprano Hilde Torgersen for more than 20 years. He has also played in various improvisation groups over the years, in­cluding the quartet Point 4 with Jon Balke, Ingar Zach and Bjørn Rabben.
Since 1989 Kenneth Karlsson has been pianist and artistic director of Cikada, and is still active in several smaller ensembles. He has toured all over the world and recorded several albums. In 2001 he received a Spellemannpris (Norwegian Grammy) for his solo album sofferte onde serene, and in 2005 Karlsson’s ensemble Cikada was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize.
Karlsson has worked with video, dance, multime­dia and is responsible for a considerable number of commissioned works and premier performances. He has collaborated with other musicians and compos­ers including Klaus Lang, Clara Ianotta, James Dillon, Christian Wallumrød, Carola Bauckholt, Liza Lim, Bent Sørensen, Richard Barrett, Lasse Marhaug, Elisabeth Holmertz, and Rolf Wallin. In addition to the piano, Kenneth Karlsson plays Indian harmonium and syn­thesizer.

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Hilde Torgersen (mezzo soprano)

Hilde Torgersen was a pianist from a young age, but when applying to the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo she was surprised to be accepted for her singing. Though she did apply for both, she had only recently started focusing on her singing, and a whole new world opened up for her. After completing her master’s degree in 1984, she began working as a freelance musician, which included Swedish contemporary group Aquarius, as well as playing baroque music with Rolf Lislevann. In the 1990s, she worked closely with the ensemble Cikada, the Oslo Sinfonietta and formed the Cikada Trio with Bjørn Rabben on percussion and Kenneth Karlsson on piano. She has been a soloist with several Scandinavian orchestras, worked...
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Hilde Torgersen was a pianist from a young age, but when applying to the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo she was surprised to be accepted for her singing. Though she did apply for both, she had only recently started focusing on her singing, and a whole new world opened up for her. After completing her master’s degree in 1984, she began working as a freelance musician, which included Swedish contemporary group Aquarius, as well as playing baroque music with Rolf Lislevann. In the 1990s, she worked closely with the ensemble Cikada, the Oslo Sinfonietta and formed the Cikada Trio with Bjørn Rabben on percussion and Kenneth Karlsson on piano. She has been a soloist with several Scandinavian orchestras, worked with multimedia and video, made films, recorded several albums and toured the world.
Torgersen has premiered several works. She has toured with major works such as Circles by Berio, Indianerlieder (American Indian Songs) by Stockhausen, as well as Giacinto Scelsi’s vocal music. Even as early as her years at the Academy she toured Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which she also took for her master’s exam. Torgersen has worked closely with composers such as Alessandro Vinao, Rolf Wallin, Arne Nordheim, James Clark, James Dillon, premiering Dillon’s major work L’évolution du vol and recording several of his pieces.
Her collaboration with Kenneth Karlsson also began at the Norwegian Academy of Music, initially with classical music before moving towards contemporary music. They have performed concerts both as a duo and with various chamber music ensembles. Together they’ve received several commissions.
In 2004, Torgersen was involved in a car crash and has found it challenging to continue performing on stage, and since then has focused mainly on her work as a singing teacher.

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Composer(s)

Jon Balke

Jon Georg Balke (born 7 June 1955 at Furnes, Ringsaker, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer currently known for his Magnetic North Orchestra. He is the younger brother of saxophonist Erik Balke. Balke started playing classical piano, but switched to blues at 12, though today he performs within several genres. At the age of 18 he joined Arild Andersen's quartet. By the mid-1980s he worked on his own and would become one of Norway's leading jazz composers. He was active in the groups of Radka Toneff and in the Afrofusion group E´olén before joining Oslo 13 and Masqualero in the early 1980s. From 1989 he focused on his own projects, such as JøKleBa (with Audun Kleive and Per Jørgensen) and the still existing Magnetic North Orchestra for which he composed the commissioned work Il Cenoneat to Vossajazz 1992. Balke formed the percussion group Batagraf in 2002, and created the concept work Siwan with...
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Jon Georg Balke (born 7 June 1955 at Furnes, Ringsaker, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer currently known for his Magnetic North Orchestra. He is the younger brother of saxophonist Erik Balke.

Balke started playing classical piano, but switched to blues at 12, though today he performs within several genres. At the age of 18 he joined Arild Andersen's quartet. By the mid-1980s he worked on his own and would become one of Norway's leading jazz composers. He was active in the groups of Radka Toneff and in the Afrofusion group E´olén before joining Oslo 13 and Masqualero in the early 1980s. From 1989 he focused on his own projects, such as JøKleBa (with Audun Kleive and Per Jørgensen) and the still existing Magnetic North Orchestra for which he composed the commissioned work Il Cenoneat to Vossajazz 1992.

Balke formed the percussion group Batagraf in 2002, and created the concept work Siwan with singer Amina Alaoui in 2007. He is also the creator of a series of multimedia concerts at Vossajazz festival, labeled Ekstremjazz. The concerts involve various practitioners of extreme sports, such as parachuting, paragliding, hanggliding, and bmx biking. In 2012 he was "Artist in residence" at Moldejazz.[6]In 2016 he launched the solo piano concept Warp, with a subtle use of live electronics accompanying the grand piano in live performances.


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Bjørn Kruse

Bjørn Kruse (born 1946 in London, England) studied at UCLA, California, and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where he taught from 1976. He became Professor of Composition in 1997 and is today Professor Emeritus. His list of works numbers more than 150, from chamber and choral music to larger orchestral works and four operas. In addition to composing and lecturing on fine arts topics, he works with painting, having had his latest major exhibitions at Galleri Albin Upp in Oslo, in 2009 (Chaos and Order) and 2010 (Time and Space). His latest book is Thinking Art – An Interdisciplinary Approach to Applied Aesthetics, released in November 2016.
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Bjørn Kruse (born 1946 in London, England) studied at UCLA, California, and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where he taught from 1976. He became Professor of Composition in 1997 and is today Professor Emeritus. His list of works numbers more than 150, from chamber and choral music to larger orchestral works and four operas. In addition to composing and lecturing on fine arts topics, he works with painting, having had his latest major exhibitions at Galleri Albin Upp in Oslo, in 2009 (Chaos and Order) and 2010 (Time and Space). His latest book is Thinking Art – An Interdisciplinary Approach to Applied Aesthetics, released in November 2016.

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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): I. ... como un traje que me espera, del color que amo ...
01:34
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
02.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): II. ... y la lucha desgrana sus martillos ...
00:54
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
03.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): III. ... Cuando el amor gastó su materia evidente ...
01:46
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
04.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): IV. ... en otras manos de agregada fuerza ...
01:00
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
05.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): V. ... viene a borrar la muerte las señales ...
01:44
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
06.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): VI. Intermezzo – transition (piano solo)
00:34
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Kenneth Karlsson
07.
Dualis. Liederbuch nach Texten von Pablo Neruda und Fernando Pessoa (1987/1991): VII. ... que fueron construyendo tus fronteras.
02:43
(Asbjørn Schaathun) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
08.
Virr for solopiano (1990): I.
02:34
(Jon Balke) Kenneth Karlsson
09.
Virr for solopiano (1990): II.
02:55
(Jon Balke) Kenneth Karlsson
10.
Altra risposta (1989)
09:30
(Bjørn Kruse) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
11.
Cantico (1983)
14:01
(Antonio Bibalo) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
12.
...though what made it has gone (1987)
14:58
(Rolf Wallin) Hilde Torgersen, Kenneth Karlsson
show all tracks

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