Halvorsen - Orchestral works, volume 1
Thorsen; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Jarvi
Chandos CHAN10584

Release date March 2010

Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) was one of the leading Norwegian composers in the generation following Grieg and this attractive recording should help his reputation to spread further than the icy mountains and fjords of his native land. Writing in an affectingly lyrical, brilliantly orchestrated Romantic vein, what distinguishes his music most is perhaps its fluent sense of wit and an easy charm which grows with familiarity. These are very useful tools in a dramatic composer's armoury and indeed Halvorsen provided the incidental music to over thirty plays, the suite to one of which is included on this recording, the fine suite from Holberg's comedy Mascarade. Here Halvorsen well captures the requisite humour of the work, but also interleaves passages of tender grace, such as in the lovely Arietta. Perhaps the most well-known of the works included on this disc is the Bojarernes Indtogsmarsch (Entry March of the Boyars). "That was damn good!"; Grieg said when he first heard it - and he was right! This is a stirring work with a great main theme and a strikingly martial percussion part. The main work on the disc, however, is the Symphony no. 1 in C minor. Considering it was written in the post Schoenberg/Stravinsky 1920s it could be considered to be an old-fashioned work for its time. Halvorsen himself would agree. Unashamedly in a warm late Romantic style, it looks to the examples of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Dvorak, completely ignoring the call of the modernist revolution. But it is a fine, crafted work laced with his customary melodic charm. Jarvi and the Bergen Philharmonic play this music with sensitivity and understanding to create a delightful divertissement.

Reviewed by James Booth