This new release completes BIS’ survey of the four suites of Hardanger folk tunes that are rapidly establishing Geirr Tveitt as one of Norway’s greatest composers. A fifth suite has recently been discovered and is reportedly being prepared for publication. Most of Tveitt’s large output was lost in a fire toward the end of his life (indeed, the tragedy helped to finish him off), but more than a few works have been reclaimed from copies, broadcasts, and various other sources, and it is now quite evident–thanks to Naxos and BIS–just how fine a composer he was. Indeed, this issue competes directly with Naxos’ excellent versions of the suites featuring the Scottish National Orchestra, and although the differences between the two versions (price aside) are minimal, when all is said and done, BIS has a slight edge on musical and sonic grounds.
Suite No. 4, the “Wedding Suite”, takes 15 tunes in celebration of marriage and charts the festivities, from the initial wooing and visit to the matchmaker to the ceremony itself and its joyously drunken final revel. Suite No. 5, “Troll Tunes”, has no storyline but features some marvelously eerie and evocative sonorities, notably in its concluding “Doomsday”, and it is here where the superior clarity of the BIS recording, with its deeper bass and pealing bells cutting through the texture, clearly trumps Naxos’ otherwise very fine effort. Conductor Ole Kristian Ruud also takes a bit more time than does Bjarte Engeset, all to the good with these tiny vignettes, while the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra’s more transparent ensemble work serves Tveitt’s colorful orchestration just that much better.
BIS also includes a little extra icing on the wedding cake in the form of an alternate version of one of the numbers from the Suite No. 4. Readers who like to follow scores will note that in the closing pages of “Doomsday” the bass drum and cymbal parts are reversed, at least based on what both performances actually do (it’s possible that the actual parts read differently). In considering which recording to get, price may be a factor for some, but this music is so full of fantasy and so worth getting to know that I can recommend that you buy both the BIS and Naxos issues with a clear conscience. After all, you don’t have to do it at once. Just start here.
