Norwegian and Ukrainian musicians and composers came together on 4 December for a cultural celebration of Norwegian-Ukrainian historical and present-day partnership. The concert was a great success.
Read the review of the concert at Kommersant.ua
Music
The concert featured a unique first performance of the suite “The Queens of Olav Tryggvason” by composer Ragnar Søderlind (1945-). The suite is based on “Olav Tryggvason” by Edvard Grieg, a 30 minute opera fragment about Norwegian Viking-king Olav Tryggvason, who spent several years of his youth at the court of Prince Volodymyr in Kyiv 1000 years ago. Soprano Janne Berglund sang the lyrics, which are written by Norwegian poet and Nobel Prize laureate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910). Bjørnson was a friend of Ukraine in his time: In the early 1900s he strongly asserted the right of Ukrainians to use their native language.
Grieg started writing his opera “Olav Tryggvason” in the 1870s together with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. He only finished three scenes that portray the worship of Norse gods. Søderlind has written out the rest of the opera, building on Grieg and incorporating his own ideas. The music has been described as masterly and grand. Søderlind is an orchestral composer with a distinct, strong, dramatic musical language. He wishes for the music to appeal to people’s emotions as well as to the intellect.
The concert also featured an orchestral suite by Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981) from his opus Hundred Hardanger tunes for orchestra. Tveitt was one of Norway’s most distinctive composers. He wrote his music in a style influenced both by European high culture and old Norwegian traditions. Tveitt’s cosmopolitan style is influenced by his studies in Leipizig, Wien and Paris. At the same time his compositions bear the mark of Tveitt’s deep roots in the Norwegian district of Hardanger, whose folk traditions shine through in the music.
The Ukrainian music in the program consisted of excerpts from the ballet suite “The Vikings” by composer Yevhen Fedorovich Stankovych (1942-). Stankovych is one of the central figures of contemporary Ukrainian music. His compositions are warm and expressive, characterized by a dramatic temperament of a post-romantic colouring.
Also included in the program was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4.