Northern Delights – Norwegian Baroque Quartet

The forgotten nordic Baroque music

Who writes the history of music? Which composers and which works are brought to light, and which are forgotten? We assume that the best music always survives. It withstands the passage of time, and the rest is overlooked. Baroque music from Norway, Sweden and Denmark is seldom referred to as particularly important or innovative. We do know, however, that it was important to the public of its day, to high and low, and not just to the wealthy and privileged. Many tunes became firmly rooted in the public consciousness and influenced traditional and folk music. One thing is sure: Scandinavia enjoyed a rich musical life in the 17th and 18th centuries, and this CD records a little part of that.

Northern Delights uses material from both printed and hand-written sources – neatly produced printed copies and manuscripts by professional composers and musicians such as Roman, Agrell and Ræhs, hundreds of small pieces collected and written down by tradesman Jacob Mestmacher of Bergen, and nearly illegible suites by the virtually unknown Francesco Ruffo. Comprising of Hans Olav Gorset, a pioneer of the Early Music movement in Norway, and Karen Bruce, one of Scandinavia´s most sought-after gambists, as well as Vegard Lund on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar and Urban Westerland on harpsichord, Nordic Baroque Quartet has played frequently in festivals and concerts in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland since their formation in 1996. Gathering a large repertoire of music by the central European composers from the Baroque era, their goal has been to expose musical links from central Europe to Scandinavia.