Ketil Hvoslef - Hvoslef Chamber Works No. VII (2020) [Hi-Res]

On the seventh CD in the series featuring Ketil Hvoslef’s collected chamber music we are taken on a musical journey from city soundscapes to fiery rhythms of the jungle.

This release presents us with three works that are archetypal for Hvoslef and yet very different from each other (and from the rest of his compositions). In “String Quartet No. III” (commissioned by the Oslo String Quartet) we find ourselves in an urban landscape, at times beautiful, at times repugnant, but always engaging.

“Sextet for Flute and Percussion” (commissioned by Kroumata and Manuela Wiesler) takes us, with its exotic rhythms and timbres, deep into the jungle. The five fierce percussionists threaten to drown out the flautist, but are they able to? …

Somewhere between these two tonal worlds lies one of Hvoslef’s early compositions, “Trio for Soprano, Alto and Piano” (commissioned by the Goethe Institute in Oslo). The work can be said to represent Hvoslef’s art in its most refined form: two innocent, wordless female voices in search of balance and friendship with a large grand piano.

Kjetil Hvoslef (b. 1939) is a productive, versatile and undogmatic composer who — at the age of eighty — continues to write music at a furious pace. Hvoslef’s style is characterized by an economy of means, the accumulation of latent energy, rhythmical ingenuity and, often, an element of humour. “Hvoslef Chamber Works No. VII” is the seventh in a series of nine CDs of Ketil Hvoslef’s chamber music.

The idea of recording 38 of Hvoslef’s chamber music works was conceived of by violinist Ricardo Odriozola and pianist Einar Røttingen, both with backgrounds spanning many years of collaboration with the composer.

The recordings draw from the vast pool of performers in Bergen, where the composer lives and works. The performers are primarily from the Grieg Academy (University of Bergen / Bergen University College) and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.