Orkester

1773 was a key year for orchestral music. Mozart composed his “little G minor Symphony”, no.25, and began work on the music for the play Thamos, König in Ägypten. In Paris, Grétry perfected the opéra-comique, a genre combining the light and the serious, and completely renewed the musical drama. Is it a mere coincidence that their compositions of that year show the same intensity and dramatic efficacy?

Pfleger is unquestionably one of the most fascinating baroque masters of Northern Europe of the seventeenth-century. Embodiying the transition between Schütz and the heritage of Monteverdi on one side, and the music of Buxtehude and later Bach on the other, Pfleger’s music testifies to the musical culture of Northern Europe. Orkester Nord here proposes for the first time a full-length programme set up as one coherent dramatic work, connecting Pfleger’s key cantatas in order to form a continuous narrative, as told through the voices of its recurring protagonists. What emerges is the story of the life of Christ. A fascinating soundscape.

Do you know Duni? Martin Wåhlberg and Orkester Nord take you on a journey of discovery of the father of opéra-comique through two of his emblematic works: Les deux chasseurs et la laitière, and Le peintre amoureux de son modèle, recorded here for the first time.

The music of Helge Sunde requires musicians with great technical capacity and ability to sense their position in the musical landscape. Playing the music has been described as a hike in Sundes native western Norway: Even if you know the terrain and can reed the map, you actually have to climb a few peaks, jump over icy streams and pass through steep fjord valleys - without loosing contact with the rest of the hikers. The reward is a magnificent musical view and a new understanding of what a big band can be. The band Norske Store is the ensemble of the East Norway Jazz Centre, and the musicians are personally selected to work with innovation, production and performance of new Norwegian music for large jazz ensembles…