Ann-Helen Moen, Gunilla Süssmann - Catharinus Elling: Haugtussa and German Lieder (2009)

Feather light, elegant and poetic. Catharinus Elling's songs are currently unknown to most people, but with this top-inspired recording by Ann-Helen Moen and Gunilla Süssmann, we dare say that it will change. That Elling was Grieg's favorite among the young composers is easy to understand.

In 1885, Elling made his breakthrough as a composer, much thanks to a great review written by Edvard Grieg and published in Bergens Tidende. With a letter of recommendation from Grieg in his pocket, he got a place in Herzogenberg's composition class at the Berlin Academy of Music. Elling's compositional style is romantic, with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms as the great ideals. On this release we hear the early songs from Op. 12, written for texts by German romantic poets, and much later compositions written for Norwegian contemporary poetry. Elling set the tone for the Haugtussa poems right after Garborg's poems were published in 1895. Neither he nor Grieg was aware that they were working on the same project in parallel. Elling seems to strive more for a poetic and lyrical core in both his textual interpretations and in his text selection than Grieg, which brings out other qualities in Garborg's masterpiece.