Kenneth Karlsson - Live in Bremen (2023)

'Hilde Torgersen and I were invited to hold a concert in Bremen back in June of 1992. The Norwegian pianist Darlén Bakke had moved to Germany after studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and had already established a successful career for herself there. She wanted to acquaint the German audience with the music of her homeland and decided to organize a festival called "Bremen meets Oslo". In addition to German musicians, Hilde, myself, and other Norwegian musicians and composers were invited, and the concert was held in the Bremen Radio concert hall.

'This was a time of great activity for Hilde and me, with a full schedule of concerts as well as commissions from a number of composers to build up a fresh repertoire. We aimed to push the boundaries of music for voice and piano and were after music for this combination that felt modern and contemporary. With the exception of Antonio Bibalo's piece, all the music from this concert was composed for us.

'We spent a few nice days in Bremen, not only performing the concert but also holding seminars about the music at the music college. We played to a packed concert hall and the atmosphere during the concert was fantastic. Rolf Wallin's piece went down particularly well. At the reception afterwards, I got to speak to several people in the audience, and oddly enough, many of them were convinced that we'd been improvising during the Wallin piece. When I assured them that we read the notes and that the piece had conventional notation, they could hardly believe it. The piece was clearly something new at the time.'
- Kenneth Karlsson