There are three works featured on this new CD by the highly regarded contemporary Norwegian composer Knut Vaage. The first, Gardens of Hokkaido, is a concerto for piano and orchestra, whilst the second, entitled Cyclops, is for orchestra alone. Finally the third, Chaconne, is a piece for flute, harp and orchestra. All of the music is performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Knut Vaage lives and work in Bergen, Norway where he makes his living as a composer. He works within different musical genres, exploring the regions where improvised and composed music overlap. Vaage’s music is regularly performed by orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles both at home and abroad. At the moment he is working on a new fullscale opera for the Norwegian Opera.
This concerto for piano and orchestra entitled Gardens of Hokkaido was written for the pianist Einar Røttingen and the BPO. The idea for the piece came during a train voyage to the island of Hokkaido in Japan. And listening to this music might very well be experienced as a journey at high speed through a landscape. The Cyclops, a one-eyed giant, is known from Greek mythology. Vaage’s orchestral work utilises the mythical world as a structural idea allowing the listener to take part in the tug of war between chaos and concentration.
Chaconne is of course a traditional compositional pattern where a chord progression is repeated, forming the basis for variation. In Vaage’s Chaconne each section is given a specific character, and the different sections engage in a dialogue constituting both the moulding element and the musical dramatic structure for the piece.
