Norwegian Radio Orchestra - La Flûte Norvégienne (2017)

'La Flute Norvegienne'' is the title of flautist Tom Ottar Andreassen's first solo album on the Lawo Classics lable. Besides flute concertos by Edvard Fliflet Braein and Johan Kvandal, the recording includes Egil Hovland's ''Suite for Flute and Strings'' together with Finn Mortensen's legendary ''Sonata for Solo Flute''. All four works were composed between 1953 and 1963, a period of change in Norwegian musical life and a decade in which Norwegian composers worked in widely varied traditions, from Fliflet Braein's light-heared music to Hovland's serial style. Andreassen has selected these works precisely because they demonstrate this diversity of expression and style and explore the flute's full range. All were written for Alf Andersen and Per Oien, who like Andreassen studied with Ornulf Gulbrandsen and served in turn as Principal Flute in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Thus it is extra fitting that it is the orchestra featured on this recording, led by conductor Ingar Bergby.