Suite ancienne, Op. 31a 	25:25
1 	I 	Intrata. Allegretto moderato 	4:47
2 	II 	Air con variazioni. Andantino - 	9:13
  	  	  	1. Moderato - 	
  	  	  	2. Allegro con brio - 	
  	  	  	3. Allegro commodo - 	
  	  	  	4. Stesso tempo - 	
  	  	  	5. Andante - 	
  	  	  	6. Allegro moderato (tempo di Rigaudon) - 	
  	  	  	7. [ ] - 	
  	  	  	8. Allegro marciale - Andantino sostenuto 	
3 	III 	Gigue. Allegro - Allegro molto 	4:15
4 	IV 	Sarabande. Andante sostenuto 	3:04
5 	V 	Bourrée. Allegro con spirito 	3:49
  	  		
3 Norwegian Dances  for Violin and Orchestra 	10:39
6 	1 	Allegro con brio - Molto tranquillo - Piu mosso - Piu lento - Allegro con brio 	3:00
7 	2 	Allegretto - Allegro con fuoco - Piu lento - Allegro con fuoco - Presto 	3:03
8 	3 	Allegro, non troppo - Tranquillo - Piu mosso - A tempo (tranquillo) - D.C. al fine 	4:36
  	  	  		
9 	Air norvegien, Op. 7 for Violin and Orchestra	7:48
  	  	  	Allegro moderato (Pastorale) - 	
  	  	  	Andante - 	
  	  	  	Allegretto - 	
  	  	  	Andante - Piu mosso - 	
  	  	  	Andante sostenuto - Piu mosso - 	
  	  	  	Allegretto - Piu mosso - Pesante - 	
  	  	  	Allegro - Lento - 	
  	  	  	Allegro molto 	

10 	Chant de la Veslemoy for Violin and Orchestra	3:30
  	  	  	Andante 	

Symphony No. 2 'Fatum'  in D minor	27:57
11 	I 	Allegro moderato - Piu mosso sempre - Con brio - Tempo energico - 	8:37
12 	II 	Romance. Andante con sentimento 	6:19
13 	III 	Intermezzo. Allegretto amabile 	4:39
14 	IV 	Finale. Allegro - Energico - Un poco piu mosso - Piu mosso - 	8:06
  	  	  		75:50

Marianne Thorsen - violin 	
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi – conductor

Johan Halvorsen spent most of his career writing for the theater, which is probably why his music sounds so effortless, colorful, and well, efficient. This isn't meant to be disparaging. Rather, all of these pieces get right to the point, and none outstays its welcome, not even the Second Symphony, which clocks in at a bit under half an hour. It's conservative, harmonically and formally, but the music really works--it's a pleasure from beginning to end, and wholly convincing. This performance also is the first to correct the zillion errors in the printed score that have gone a long way to preventing the work from entering the repertoire, where it surely belongs.

The other pieces are all, in one way or another, ostensibly Norwegian in sound in a manner quite similar to Grieg. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. What sane person dislikes Grieg? The Suite ancienne, to the memory of Holberg, has every bit as much charm and freshness as Grieg's Holberg Suite, while the other three pieces all feature solo violin. Marianne Thorsen plays splendidly, while Neeme Järvi leads his Bergen forces in performances that are graceful, vibrant, and in the Suite and the Symphony, the last word in impetuosity and excitement. With terrific sound, if you don't know this music, you're missing something special. ---David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com, arkivmusic.com

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1 	Rhapsodie norvegienne No. 1 	10:41
  	Allegro giocoso - Piu mosso - Andante - Ein wenig belebter - Allegro moderato 
  	  		
2 	Rhapsodie norvegienne No. 2 	11:49
  	Allegretto con spirito - Poco meno - A tempo, ma un poco piů mosso - Meno mosso - 	
  	  	  		
3 	Brudefolget drager forbi  (Norwegian Bridal Procession) 	3:29
  	Alla marcia 	
  	  	  		
4 	Passacaglia, Op. 20 No. 2 (Duo for violin and viola)	7:10
	Largamente - Con agilito - Andante - Molto energico - Allegro con fuoco 	
    
 	Melina Mandozzi- violin
 	Ilze Klava - viola
  	  	  		
5 	Dance Scene from 'Queen Tamara' 	4:21
	Allegretto - Allegro - Piu allegro - Presto - Furioso e prestissimo 	
  	  	  		
6 	Symphonic Intermezzo from 'The King' 	8:27
  	Moderato assai - Moderato - Piu lento - Piu lento - Piu mosso - Moderato assai - Andante 
  	  	  		
7 	Norsk Festouverture, Op. 16 	7:59
  	Moderato molto - Allegro moderato - Piu mosso - Un poco piu lento - Piu mosso - Pomposo 	
    
Suite from the Play Peik og Stortroldet (Peik and the Giant Troll) by Adam Hiorth (1879-1961) 	
8 	I 	Peik, Prinsessen og Stortroldet. Allegro, non troppo, Tranquillo - Tempo I - Con brio - 	5:53
9 		Troldmoernes Dans. Allegretto - Tempo di Vlase moderato - Coda. Piu mosso - 	4:32
10 	II 	Prinsessen kommer ridende pa Bjornen. Moderato molto 	3:12
11 	III 	Troldenes Indtog I Berget det bla. Molto moderato (a la burla) - 	1:28
12 	IV 	Dans av Smatroid. Allegro molto - Furioso - Molto meno mosso - Allegro molto - Furioso - Presto - Pesante 	3:03
  	  	  		72:53
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi – conductor

This is the fourth and final volume of colourful and highly appealing orchestral works by the Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen.

Based on the Passacaille (Chaconne) from the Harpsichord Suite No. 7 in G minor by Handel, Halvorsen’s Passacaglia is a virtuosic duo for solo violin and viola, later made world famous by artists such as Leopold Auer and Jascha Heifetz. It starts as a simple arrangement of Handel’s original score, but after the presentation of the theme and the first three variations it gradually differs more and more, until it finally frees itself entirely from the original and becomes pure ‘Halvorsen’.

Halvorsen wrote extensively for the stage, and his lifelong fascination with ‘exotic’ elements in music is evident in the ‘Dance Scene’ from the incidental music to Knut Hamsun’s Queen Tamara, a historical play set in the Caucasus. In contrast, the Symphonic Intermezzo from the music to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s The King is presented in the form of a tone poem, its language strongly influenced by the musical universe of Liszt and Wagner.

Also on this disc is Halvorsen’s orchestration of Grieg’s piano piece Norwegian Bridal Procession. Other orchestral versions exist, among others by Frederick Delius, but in Grieg’s eyes only a native Norwegian could portray rural Norway in music without becoming too romantic or picturesque. Halvorsen’s lush, but non-idealising orchestration proved an immediate success, and at concerts and in the theatre over the next twenty-six years Halvorsen conducted the work at least 140 times.

He considered his Norwegian Fairy Tale Pictures to be one of his best works. The suite is vividly programmatic, drawn from music that he had written for a children’s comedy: violins portray the fairy tale hero, the flute plays the part of the abducted princess, while the villainous troll is represented by a motif in the bass. --- chandos.net

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Bojarernes intogsmarsch (Entry March of the Boyars) 		4:30  	  
Andante religioso 		5:57  	  

Mascarade Suite
I. Holberg-Ouverture 		5:35  	
II. Cotillon 		2:21 
III. Menuetto 		4:14  	
IV. Hanedansen 		3:41  
V. Gavotte 		2:42  	 
VI. Molinasque 		2:34  	
VII. Kehraus 		1:04  	
VIIIa. Arietta 		3:37  
VIIIb. Passepied 		2:04  	  	

La melancolie (after In Moments of Solitude by O.B. Bull) 		2:28  	 

Symphony No. 1 in C minor
I. Allegro non troppo - Un poco piu mosso - Poco meno mosso - Agitato - Tempo I
 - Animato - Meno mosso - Largamente - Piu mosso 		11:50 
II. Andante - Piu mosso - Tempo I - Molto piu mosso - Tempo I - Tranquillo
 - Piu mosso - Pesante - Tranquillo - Adagio 		8:18  	  
III. Scherzo: Lento - Allegro con spirito - Allegretto - Piu mosso - Meno mosso
 - Tempo I (Allegro con spirito) - Lento - Allegro molto 		6:38  	
IV. Finale: Introduction: Andante - Allegro deciso - Un poco meno mosso - Tranquillo
 - Molto tranquillo - Tempo I (Allegro deciso) - Poco meno mosso - Un poco meno mosso - Allegro molto 8:26 

Marianne Thorsen - violin
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi - conductor

Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935), a rather unjustly ignored Norwegian composer, more than likely simply overshadowed by Edvard Grieg's popularity. His music, as in the well known Entry March of the Boyars which opens this CD, is always fresh, fun and entertaining. The composer he reminds me the most of is Franz von Suppé. The emotional content of most of the music is light, but with a very strong backbone of musical training as a violinist and conductor, the core of the music is always strong and bursting with good ideas and a solid structure which always yield interesting results.

The world premiere recording here of Andante Religioso, a piece for violin and orchestra, demonstrates that Halvorsen could write melodies just as beautiful as anyone else. It is very much in the same style as Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais. His talents as conductor and orchestrator come to the fore in the Suite from 'Mascarade', a nine movement collage of varying styles and ballet scenes alternating between grace and drama. The Menuetto from this suite bears a very strong and uncanny resemblance to the opening pages of the second movement of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony. The main motif, the orchestration, the tempo and rhythm are exactly the same. So uncanny is the sameness as to become suspect. After all, Halvorsen was a conductor who had been known to conduct symphonies from Dvorak and Tchaikovsky, so surely he had been in contact with the Mahler symphony written 26 years earlier.

The main attraction on this CD is Halvorsen's Symphony No. 1, a composition from the 1920s that he thought was not modern enough for the times. These are his own words on the matter; "I write it because I want to and don't give a damn about either the present time or posterity." And even though it is written in a very traditional manner for that period, it is nonetheless written with a sure hand and a very strong control and understanding of all the facets that make for a great symphonic work. The opening Allegro presents and develops as strong a musical argument as any, and every consecutive movement builds from strength to strength and the whole work ends on a brilliant tour de force of thematic resolution.

Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic are in top form with Chandos sonics to match. This is Volume 1 in what promises to be a fascinating overview of this up until now neglected composer from Norway. ---Jean-Yves Duperron, classicalmusicsentinel.com

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Symphony No. 3 in C major	26:12
1 	I 	Poco andante - Allegro moderato - Tranquillo - Poco piů mosso - A tempo. 	10:01
2 	II 	Andante - Allegro moderato - Tranquillo - Allegro molto - Andante. 	7:58
3 	III 	Finale. Allegro impetuoso - Poco meno mosso - Tranquillo - Stretto - Animando - 8:46

4 	Sorte Svaner (Black Swans) 		4:54
	  	Andante - Piu mosso - Un poco animato 	
  	  	  		
5 	Bryllupsmarsch, Op. 32 No. 1 (Wedding March)	4:13  	  for Violin Solo and Orchestra 	
  	  	  	Til Arve Arvesen 	
  	  	  	Allegretto marziale - Coda 	

6 	Rabnabryllaup uti Kraakjalund (Wedding of Ravens in the Grove of the Crows)	3:59
  	  	  	Norwegian Folk Melody Arranged for String Orchestra 	
  	  	  	Andante 	

	Fossegrimen, Op. 21	29:49   	Dramatic Suite for Orchestra 	
7 	I 	Fossegrimen. Allegro moderato - Meno allegro - Piu lento - Piu vivo - 	6:29
8 	II 	Huldremoyarnes Dans. Allegretto grazioso 	3:01
9 	III 	Bruremarsch. Allegretto marciale - Coda 	5:51
10 		Danse visionaire (Maneskinsmoyarne). Andante - Allegretto molto moderato - 	7:15
11 	IV 	Melodrame og Auds Sang. Allegro - Andante - Andante con moto 	4:32
12 	V 	Fanitullen. Allegro con fuoco - Coda - Andante 	2:35
  	  	  		
13 	Bergensiana 	10:17  	  	Rococo Variations on an Old Melody from Bergen	
  	  	  	Moderaro (Tempo di Menuetto) - 	
  	  	  	Tema - 	
  	  	  	Variation I. Stesso tempo - 	
  	  	  	Variation II. Un poco piu mosso - 	
  	  	  	Variation III. Allegretto - 	
  	  	  	Variation IV. Allegro con brio - 	
  	  	  	Variation V. Andante religioso e molto cantabile - 	
  	  	  	Variation VI. Allegro giocoso - 	
  	  	  	Moderato (Tempo di Menuetto) - 	
  	  	  	Tema - 	
  	  	  	Pesante - Sostenuto 	

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi – conductor

This is my first encounter with the music of Halvorsen. Given his dates (1864-1935) - practically the same as Nielsen's (1865-1931), and same generation also as Sibelius, although Sibelius died much later (1865-1957), but his last significant composition was Tapiola, in 1926 - and the dates of composition of the various works gathered on this CD, vol. 3 of Chandos' four-volume traversal of his orchestral works by Neeme Järvi, Johan Halvorsen wasn't very modern. He writes in a post-Grieg/post-Tchaikovsky language that was Sibelius' point of departure rather than his point of arrival. It sounds, in the Third Symphony from 1928, very balletic - the music Lanchberry or Minkus could have composed for the court of Saint Petersburg. It sounds like that also in Bergensiana, from 1913 - an information that the otherwise very informative liner notes fail to provide - subtitled Rococo Variations on an old melody from Bergen (track 13), but the first variations sounds even like Spohr or Crusell, which brings us almost one hundred years back stylistically.

Now, if you don't care about historical perspective and don't mind listening, say, to a symphony in the style of Mozart even if it was composed as a pastiche 200 years after Mozart's death, provided that it is as good as a Mozart symphony, and if you love the symphonies of the late 19th-Century Russians (Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimsky) so much that you can never get enough, you can enjoy the music of Halvorsen with no nagging second thoughts. The Third Symphony is romantic, lyrical, impetuous indeed in the Finale (rather than dramatic - its character ndication is Allegro impetuoso), tender and at times sentimental in the slow movement, full of tunes although none seem to leave a strong imprint, unlike those of Tchaikovsky. In his conservative outlook Bruch also comes to mind, but Bruch was of an earlier generation (1838-1920), and I've found Bruch's symphonies more enjoyable, with more memorable tunes (see my review of Bruch: The 3 Symphonies, Swedish Dances (Schwedische Tanze). Sibelius' Fourth Symphony dates from 1911 and the final version of the Fifth from 1919, and Nielsen completed his Inextinguishable (Symph. No. 4) in 1916 and his 5th in 1922. Now I know why Sibelius and Nielsen are the major composers they are, oft-recorded, and Halvorsen a minor figure for the specialist with conservative tastes.

"Wedding March/Bryllupsmarsch" (track 5) is a folk-inspired "pops" for violin and orchestra, very suitable as a display piece for Andre Rieu, or maybe in a recital with Saint Saens' Havanaise and Rondo Capriccioso. That said, there is much atmosphere in and enjoyment to be derived from "Black Swans" (track 4) from 1921, dark and intense, somewhat reminiscent of Sibelius' Valse Triste and Swan of Tuonela, and "Wedding of Ravens", an early piece (in fact Halvorsen's debut as an orchestral composer, in 1891), is even more beautiful, three short variations for strings alone on a folk theme, sombre, brooding, aching, recalling the slow movement from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for strings, and in that league (track 6). Much too short (less than 4 minutes) for its value.

But the real house-rouser is Fossegrimen, the orchestral suite from the incidental music written by Halvorsen in 1905 for some now forgotten play about Fossegrimen, "the mythical music master of all underground creatures", and Torgeir Augunsson, "Norway's most celebrated fiddler". FANS OF COUNTRY FIDDLE, DON'T MISS THIS! In it Halvorsen not just orchestrates and develops symphonically Norwegian country dances, but uses the Hardanger fiddle, "the most common folk music instrument in Norway"(re the liner notes), an instrument prone to playing drones and double stops, to great effect. The Suite alternates between such country dances with fiddle (1, 3, 6), and purely orchestral movements, very evocative of Grieg's Peer Gynt in the tender and airy second and fourth movements, and with the 5th sounding, in its opening section, like a kind of Saint Saens Danse Macabre or Mussorgsky Night on the Bare Mountain. The score is available from the International Music Scores Library Project, bless them again. And to boot, Neeme Järvi, Chandos, Halvorsen, Norway and ourselves are also lucky to have, in the person of Ragnhild Hemsing (22 when the recording was made in 2010), not only an accomplished violinist, but the world specialist of Hardanger fiddle, and, judging from the photo that adorns the booklet's back cover of her in a light red gown standing on Norwegian ice, a stunning beauty. She doesn't yet have her entry on Wikipedia English (only Norwegian), but it shouldn't be long. --- Discophage, amazon.com

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