Credits:

Torstensson / Norrbotten Neo

Description:

Norrbotten NEO was established to perform contemporary Swedish music. This album features Klas Torstensson's "Lantern Lecture" for Sinfonietta! Klas Torstensson (1951-) was born in Nesjö, southeastern Sweden, and studied at the Sonology Institute, an electronic music studio at Utrecht University in the early 1970s. He is based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He has worked extensively with orchestral, chamber ensemble, and vocal music, including "Stick on Stick," which won the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize in the Netherlands and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. His music is stylistically reminiscent of Varèse, Xenakis, and Stravinsky, and is said to be unique in its inspiration and expression of "nature" as experienced by him, including rough granite, the sea, the ice of frozen Baltic Sea inlets, Arctic ice caps, and Arctic light. The Expedition, an opera based on Samuel August André's tragically ended balloon trip to the North Pole, is one of his best-known works.Lantern Lectures" is the result of a desire to write "lighter" music for a small ensemble after finishing the composition of "The Expedition". The piece consists of four "lectures" titled "Bedrock I," "Bedrock II," "Arctic Light," and "Potholes," each of which is a "lecture with lanterns and slides," and three "brass links" for trumpet, horn, and trombone that connect them. Each "lecture" was premiered in Montreal, Stuttgart, Stockholm, and Vienna between 2001 and 2003, and was performed in its entirety for the first time in Amsterdam on February 26, 2003, with Susanna Marucki conducting the Asko Ensemble. Norrbotten NEO (Norrbotten NEO) was founded in 2007 to promote contemporary chamber music works. The principal players of the Norrbotten Chamber Orchestra, which also performs at the Piteå Chamber Opera, are fixed members of the orchestra: flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, and cello. Depending on the instrumentation of the piece, the principal players from different countries are invited.Anders Eliasson's chamber works (BIS SA-2270), as well as the Swedish Grammy Award-winning "Aranjuez Concerto" (BIS SA-2485), conducted by Christian Karlsen (1985-). King International, Inc.

Tracklisting:

1.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Brass Link I
2.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Lantern Lectures I. Solid Rocks I
3.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Brass Link II
4.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Lantern Lectures II. Solid Rocks II
5.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Brass Link III
6.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Lantern Lectures III. Aurora Borealis
7.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Brass Link IV
8.Lantern Lectures I-IV for sinfonietta~Lantern Lectures IV. Giant's Cauldron