Sverre Jordan – Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

A man of form and harmony

Sverre Jordan was a highly versatile artist. His compositions range from simple, intimate songs to great symphonic works and cantatas. He had a long and varied career as a pianist and accompanist, conductor, arranger, scholar, writer and organizer. The former head of the music department at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Kristian Lange, characterised the music of Sverre Jordan as stemming from “both inspiration and imagination, at the same time as it gives an unambiguous and appealing impression of the discriminating and fine critical sense which the composer has. He was a man of form and harmony, both of which are apparently the unbreakable laws of his art. It is an art which meets the noblest demands placed upon it: it gives peace of mind, and this peace in beauty.”

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Karsten Andersen have brought with them a wonderful team of soloists to perform Sverre Jordan´s works on this album. Toralv Maurstad recites a poem cycle by Knut Hamsun in Jordan´s “Feberdigte” (“Fever Poems”). The music follows Hamsun´s feverish text in a Hamsunesque mystical way: sometimes by means of almost abstract poetical images, other times by very concrete means. Jordan composed more than 200 songs, and soprano Kari Løvaas several of these, which earned Jordan an international reputation. Furthermore, Jens Harald Bratlie is the soloist on the “Concerto Piccolo for piano and orchestra”, a three-part concert with both a lyrical and lighter mood. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra also performs Jordan´s “Holberg Silhouettes”, six portrayals of different characters from Ludvig Holberg´s comedies.