Oslo Church Music Festival

Monteverdi, Grieg, and Wallin with Norway’s leading choir conductor

The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir celebrates their 75th anniversary and marks 35 years with artistic director Grete Pedersen, as she enters her final season with the Soloists’ Choir.

On the program, we find Edvard Grieg’s (1843–1907) Four psalms and the world premiere of Rolf Wallin’s (b. 1957) new work Utopian Folk Songs, written for the Soloists’ Choir. Four Psalms is built over old Norwegian folk songs from the collection of Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, and is characterised by Grieg’s rhythmic, harmonious, and dynamic radicalness. The work uses vivid chords that were unusual for church music at the time. With his last work, Grieg shows a boundary-pushing modernity.

In a turbulent present affected by war and disasters, Rolf Wallin presents Utopian Folk Songs, performed in its premiere by the Soloists’ Choir. Throughout the centuries, people have dreamt about a problem-free fantasyland where things are only happiness; a Utopia. And what would a choir sing in Utopia? Utopian folk songs, of course!

An energetic and happy work song, a lullaby, an ode to the new spring, a funeral hymn, and other songs following life in Utopia. The texts are in Utopian, a language we do not know, so that each one of us can put what we want into this fantasyland. The Soloists’ Choir will also perform music by the Italian Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) from the collection Selva morale e spirituale (Moral and spiritual forest) from 1641.

This is a retrospective collection, drawing on decades of compositions in an anthology of sensational stylistic range and variation. The collection contains motets, sacred madrigals, hymns, solo songs, and a mass. The Soloists’ Choir is accompanied by a continuo group for this work.

Program

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Fire salmer
Rolf Wallin (b. 1957): New piece (premiere)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643): Excerpts from Selva morale et spirituale