Geirr Tveitt - Piano Music Vol. 2 (Håvard Gimse)

Information

Composer: Geirr Tveitt

• (01) 50 Folk-Tunes from Hardanger, Op. 150, Nos 38-50
• (15) 12 Two-Part Inventions, Op. 2
• (27) 12 Three-Part Invention, Op. 3: No. 5 in B flat Dorian
• (28) 12 Four-Part Invention, Op. 4: No. 3 in A Major Phrygian
• (29) Minuet 'Hommage à Nadia Boulanger'
• (30) 'Tull til Tullemor'
• (31) 'The Invulnerable' from 'Baldur's Dream'
• (32) Folk-Tune from Hardanger No. 73

Håvard Gimse, piano
Date: 1997
Label: Marco Polo
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.225056

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Review

The Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt (the “ei” pronounced as the “a” in Tate) enjoys much popularity at home but scant representation in the UK catalogue. As will be known to anyone who has heard his fourth Orchestral Suite (Nuptials), once available on a Philips LP, he is both enormously prolific – the suite bears the high opus number, Op. 151 No. 4 – and writes for the orchestra with consummate virtuosity that is hardly surprising when you think that he studied with Honegger and Villa-Lobos in Paris during the 1930s and with Egon Wellesz before the latter was forced to flee Vienna and settle in Oxford. No publisher could of course, keep abreast of his output and his life’s tragedy was the loss of many of his works when his Hardanger farm where he kept his manuscripts burned down in 1970.

The present issue collects some 32 short pieces in the Norwegian folk style which have the simplicity of Saeverud’s piano music but perhaps greater variety of texture. They are likeable and inventive and Havard Gimse plays them with lively intelligence and great sensitivity. I would not recommend listening to them all at one go, but Tveitt is a composer of character and personality, and readers investing in this disc will find the music appealing, the playing delightful and the recordings realistic and truthful.

-- Robert Layton, Gramophone

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Geirr Tveitt, born Nils Tveit (October 19, 1908 – February 1, 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Tveitt was a central figure of the national movement in Norwegian cultural life during the 1930s. His music draws from many styles and traditions, most notably Stravinsky, Bartók, Debussy and Ravel, always underpinned by idioms derived from Norwegian folk-music. In 1970, Tveitt's house in Kvam was burned to the ground, with almost 300 opuses of his manuscripts. 80% of Tveitt's production was gone forever. Most of Tveitt's remaining music is now commercially available on records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geirr_Tveitt

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Håvard Gimse (born 15 September 1966) is a Norwegian classical pianist. Earning his diploma at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin in 1995, Gimse is described as one of Norway's leading musicians, with a bold and expansive repertoire, and an impressive list of 30 performed piano concertos. He is much sought after as a concert pianist, as well as an accompanist for many of Scandinavia's finest artists. He has received the Griegprisen (1996) and the Steinway Award (1995). Gimse has done several recordings for Naim Audio, Naxos Records, Sony Classical Records, Chandos Records and Simax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A5vard_Gimse

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