Album

To read about the music of twentieth century Norwegian composer Eivind Groven is to enter a magical aesthetic-acoustic world where art music and folk music co-exist, where the well-tempered scale and the natural scale are two sides of the same coin, where the limits of composition and the freedom of improvisation are resolved in a single creative act. To hear the music of Groven, unfortunately, is something else altogether. In this disc of four orchestral pieces performed by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Eivind Aadland, Groven comes off as less an adventurous modernist composer than as a latter-day Grieg, albeit with less enchanting melodies, less beguiling harmonies, and less infectious rhythms. His Hjalar-Ljod overture is big and simple. His four-movement Symphony No. 1 "Towards the Mountains" is harsh and reactionary. His two sets of three-movement Norwegian Symphonic Dances, with their folk tunes and driving rhythms, are perhaps the most appealing works here—but they are nowhere near in the same class as Grieg's eternally fresh Symphonic Dances. Aadland and the Stavanger Symphony seem to be trying their hardest, but as captured in BIS' all-encompassing and all-revealing recording, their playing sounds rough and scrappy. In sum, this disc may be of some interest to those who avidly follow Norwegian composers, but of less interest to pretty much everybody else.

© James Leonard, All Music Guide

CD 1
Eivind Groven Composer Hjalar-Ljod Overture, Op.38 Work Sveinung Sand Orchestra Leader, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Eivind Aadland Conductor
1	Hjalar-Ljod Overture, Op.38	6:05			$0.99
Eivind Groven Composer Symphony No.1, Op.26 "Towards the Mountains" Work 28:23 Sveinung Sand Orchestra Leader, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Eivind Aadland Conductor
2	1.Andante quasi cantabile	6:23			$0.99
3	2.Allegro	6:48			$0.99
4	3.Largo	8:31			$1.49
5	4.Allegro ma non troppo	6:41			$0.99
Eivind Groven Composer Norwegian Symphonic Dances No.1, Op.43 Work 14:56 Sveinung Sand Orchestra Leader, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Eivind Aadland Conductor
6	1.Brureslått	3:45			$0.99
7	2.Springar	3:31			$0.99
8	3.Gangar	7:40			$1.49
Eivind Groven Composer Norwegian Symphonic Dances No.2, Op.53 Work 12:52 Sveinung Sand Orchestra Leader, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Eivind Aadland Conductor
9	1.Gibø-springar	3:51			$0.99
10	2.Taug gangar	5:10			$0.99
11	3.Sevelien (halling)	3:51			$0.99