Håvard Gimse - Norwegian Piano Music (2007)

This disc demonstrates the richness and variety of 20th century Norwegian music when it responds to the powerful stimulus of folk music. Klaus Egge’s breakthrough work, his First Piano Sonata, was inspired by Draumkvædet (The Dream Ballad), a would-be medieval saga sung to traditional melodies. Egge’s Second Piano Concerto is similarly based around a traditional folk-tune, the haunting Solfager og Ormekongen (Sun-Fair and the Snake-King), also heard here in an arrangement by Grieg. Egge’s Halling Fantasy, Sverre Bergh’s Norwegian Dance No. 2 and Alf Hurum’s Miniature all draw on the tradition of folk-fiddling, and the disc ends with the première recording of Brudlaups-Klokkor (Wedding-Bells), a newly-discovered piece by Geirr Tveitt.