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SONG
Uranienborg Vokalensemble are renowned for their vigorous performances of music from different genres and periods. In their latest album SONG they embrace the whole spectrum, from the softly delicate to the massively unsettling. In words and music each track has a story to tell about man and his relationship with nature, his fellow man and to God. The listener is rewarded with an almost visceral experience of the unaccompanied human voice – breathing and pulsing, direct and unfiltered.
The compositions present nature in all its variation, sensitively evoking the different times of the day, both lyrically and musically: Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen, Geirr Tveitt, Håkon Berge, Sven Erik Bäck, Alfred Janson, Bo Holten, Torbjørn Dyrud, Harald Gullichsen, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi and Carl Nielsen.
Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble was founded in January 2002 and consists of 20-24 singers. Elisabeth Holte has been the ensemble's artistic director and conductor since its inception. Over the years the ensemble has performed numerous concerts of sacred and secular music from different periods. Variation in style and a strong emphasis on communication is a hallmark of their performances. In the words of a review in Norwegian Church Music after the choir's performance during Nordic Church Music Symposium in Reykjavik in September 2012: "Rarely have we experienced music that moves so many at one concert”.
Elisabeth Holte, the conductor and artistic director of Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble, graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music as an organist and choirmaster, completing her Master's degree in conducting in 2000. She has also studied under the legendary Prof. Eric Ericson in Stockholm.
Hymn to the Virgin
Thomas Aquinas writes in the Summa Theologica: "Music is the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal, bursting forth in sound." The quotation most aptly describes the repertoire on the Norwegian chamber choir Schola Cantorum's recording of hymns to Mary, the Mother of God, in which tranquillity, eternity and ‘bursting forth into sound’ are encountered in many different guises.
The composers represented here have often chosen to allow their music to evolve in stable structures and remain within static harmonic spaces even when the music becomes expressive and dramatic: Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Duruflé, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, Martin Ødegaard, Kjell Mørk Karlsen, Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arvo Pärt, Ola Gjeilo, Andrew Smith and Trond Kverno.
Throughout its existence the chamber choir Schola Cantorum has had high ambitions. The choir has built up an international reputation and has made it a trademark to include newly written music in its programmes. This is thanks to the work of Knut Nystedt (1915–), organist, composer and conductor, who returned to Norway in 1964 after studying in the USA and started a choir at the music department of the University of Oslo. The choir continues to recruit members from the department of music, as well as from the Norwegian Academy of Music in more recent years.
Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl trained as a singer and pianist and specialized in the Kodaly method in Hungary before taking her diploma exam in choral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She has directed Schola Cantorum since 2002.
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Matej Isak. Mono and Stereo ultra high end audio magazine. All rights reserved. 2006-2013. www.monoandstereo.com. ..:: None of the original text, pictures, that were taken by me, links or my original files can be re-printed or used in any way without prior permission! ::..