Henning Kraggerud & Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Release Date: 08 September 2017
Label: Simax
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 7033662013562
Genres: Classical Orchestral
Description
Extremes - wind, snow, cold, rainfall, thaw and heat - are vividly experienced in Henning Kraggerud's interpretation of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Kraggerud manages to capture the climatic range experienced on top of the world in his music-making. And there's more - between each of the seasons.
Inspired by Kremer and Desyatnikov's combination of Vivaldi and Piazzolla, Kraggerud has included four of his own works in between the seasons. These compositions evoke different connotations and new angles through which we can experience the world's most popular classical work. Kraggerud's pieces both comment and contrast Vivaldi's moods - positioned as it were between the seasons, forming an eight-spoke wheel.
The album is accompanied by poetic liner notes from award-winning Norwegian author Erik Fosnes Hansen, chronicling Vivaldi's life story and relating it both to the music and also the sonnets that were printed along with the original work: "These admired and loved musical illustrations are like tapestries from a vanished era. They tell of simple, ordinary things that happen in the seasons, with all the drama that can lie in such simple and ordinary events. But just as a year has its seasons, so too does a life. So, let us look more closely at the life of this composer."
Henning Kraggerud is a leading violinist, also continuously building his reputation as a composer. Recent examples are included on this album 'Preghiera', commissioned by the Brodsky Quartet, and 'the last leaf', premièred by Britten Sinfonia. Kraggerud is the Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. His recent release 'Equinox' for Simax Classics has been hailed all over the world: "Opened a window on a magical world. I can't wait to hear the whole thing in action." [BBC Music Magazine *****]
Personnel: Henning Kraggerud (violin), Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Knut Johannessen (harpsichord), Petter Richter (guitar and theorbo)
"This is not just another version of The Four Seasons. Firstly it is possibly the most dramatic reading we have heard...Kraggerud's music is marvellous per se but is even more remarkable in Connection with Vivaldi. Things couldn't be better!" MusicWeb International
Tracklisting
The Norwegian National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Terje Boye Hansen
Bjorn Sagstad & Ila Brass Band
Yngve Slettholm
Various Composers
Vaage/Stalheim/Am/Rebne
Trygve Madsen
Trygve Madsen
Stenhammar/Rangstrom/Heise
Henning Kraggerud & Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Henning Kraggerud & Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
