Sara Ovinge; Edward Gardner; Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Release Date: 23 June 2023
Label: Lawo
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 7090020182773
Genres: Classical Contemporary Classical
Description
This release marks a musical homecoming for Sara Ovinge, since she has chosen a slightly more convoluted career path than most violinists. Sara has sought out and immersed herself in contemporary music, Iranian music, composition, improvisation, and art-pop amongst several other musical pursuits. Her entire M.O. points to a strong and intrinsic need to be a 'co-creating' musician, one who leaves her mark on the musical expression in a more comprehensive way than simply playing the notes on the stand.
This record is no exception, being a result of her commissioning, her curating, and a substantial dose of willpower.
Meeting with Kjetil Bjerkestrandin 2019, Sara found something she was looking for. He is the epitome of the symbiotic musician, drawing on experience and inspirations from a wide range of musical styles, from rock, pop through to contemporary. He describes the composition process as one part search for fixation points in a series of possible events, and one part exploration of friction caused by the union of the elastic and the mechanical.
A theme that Sara aimed to pursue in the project was the juxtaposition of the electronic and the organic. Philip Glass's 2nd Piano Concerto is arranged for synthesizer and strings, a kind of updated version of Vivaldi's string orchestra with continuo. But where previous recordings have gone for an electronic sound resembling the baroque harpsichord, Sara wanted to create a more electro-acoustic soundscape, thus achieving a common thread between the two works.
"Pacy, repeated motifs and catchy, fragmented melodies are contrasted with electronic humming landscapes." – BBC Music Magazine; Recording 5 STARS, Performance 3 STARS
"the Glass is a real concerto, and [Öving] is magnificent. […]. Her rich and beautiful tone in more cantabile passages is balm to the mind. […] Listening to [the disc] is unalloyed pleasure." – MusicWeb International
Tracklisting
Tine Thing Helseth, tenThing Brass Ensemble
Marianne Beate Kielland, Halvor Festervoll Melien, Nils Anders Mortensen
Jan Martin Smordal
Daniel Saether, Ensemble C4
POING
NoXaS Saxophone Quartet, Berit Norbakken, Nordic Voices
Sanae Yoshida
Christiania Mannskor, Marius Skjolaas
Ostrava New Orchestra, Owen Underhill, Ostravska Banda, Petr Kotik, Elision Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, Switch~ Ensemble, Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Gavin Bryars
Ilse Eerens, Tomoko Kasai, Mayumi Miyata, Masanori Oishi, Saori Oya, Naoko Yoshino
L'Itineraire, Leo Margue
Hashtag Ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Davis
Joel-Francois Durand
Elisabeth Harnik
