Scandinavian Christmas: A violin in Norway at Dijon Opera

演出简介

Violin lovers, this concert is for you: depart on a voyage of discovery in the company of these Norwegian composers and their festive pieces so welcome in the dead of winter.

The Orchestre des Pays de Savoie and the Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud invite us to spend Christmas in Norway, to discover a musical heritage from these northern regions that remains little known to many: that of the violin.

If Norway is a country of composers, of which Grieg only represents the tip of the iceberg, it is also, from the 19th century to today, a land where this instrument born farther south took deep root, and gave birth to an exceptionally rich tradition.

All of the composers highlighted at this concert were themselves exceptional violinists. Ole Bull (1810‐1880), a true Paganini of the North, who was honored with a funeral worthy of a hero; Johan Svendsen (1840‐1911), a friend of Grieg, whose Romance is one of the most popular scores in Scandinavia; Christian Sinding (1856‐1941), who wrote for the instrument no fewer than three concertos; Johan Halvorsen (1864‐1935), heir to the romanticism of Grieg, who was also subject to the Saxon tropism, being in his youth a member of the Gewandhaus of Leipzig before becoming a major musical figure in his own country; Carl Gustav Sparre Olsen (1903‐1984), whose research revived the ancestral folk music of his country’s small towns and villages: more than enough to wash away the winter blues in the warmth of their inspiration.