The third day of the Valdres sommersymfoni festival took audiences on a journey from Grieg’s world at Eker Gård, through Sofia Gubaidulina’s spiritual soundscape at the Valdres Folk Museum, to opera among the pine trees and by the fjord at Vesleøya.
Peer Gynt’s Musical Legacy at Eker Gård
The day began at the picturesque Eker Gård with the lecture-recital Grieg’s Music for Peer Gynt: A Treasure Chest for 150 Years, presented by Liv and Torkil Baden, with musical contributions from soprano Hanne Marit Mordal Iversen and pianist Christian Ihle Hadland.
Audiences heard stories, letters and reflections that shed new light on one of Norway’s best-known musical works. The presentation offered insight into how Grieg approached the task of writing music for Ibsen’s play, and how challenging he himself found the commission. In a letter to Frants Beyer he described Peer Gynt as «a terribly unmanageable subject, except a few places in it.» Yet the result was a work that continues to resonate 150 years later.
The lecture also explored the collaboration between Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg. Among the highlights was the story of Ibsen’s 1874 letter from Dresden, in which he asked the composer: «Would you compose the necessary music for it?» Grieg accepted, creating music that later prompted Ibsen to write that the composer had «entered fully into the spirit of my work.»
The audience also learned several lesser-known details about the work. One of the most surprising was that Morning Mood was originally associated with a scene that Ibsen describes as taking place near sunset. Grieg nevertheless chose to follow his own artistic vision: «It is a morning mood in which I imagine the sun breaking through the clouds.»
Christian Ihle Hadland performed a selection of Grieg’s Peer Gynt music, including Morning Mood, Halling, Anitra’s Dance, Solveig’s Song, Åse’s Death, Solveig’s Lullaby and In the Hall of the Mountain King. Together with the soprano voice of Hanne Marit Mordal Iversen, several of the pieces took on an added expressive dimension. Liv Baden’s unaccompanied folk song also created a particularly intimate and absorbing moment.
A warm thank you goes to artist and host Anni Onsager at Eker Gård for providing such a welcoming setting for the concert.
Later in the day, audiences experienced a work performed at Valdres sommersymfoni for the very first time: Sofia Gubaidulina’s Hommage à T. S. Eliot.
Composed in 1987, the work is inspired by T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. For Gubaidulina, however, it is far more than a setting of poetry or a simple tribute. The piece explores many of the same questions that run through Eliot’s writing: time, memory, faith and humanity’s search for meaning.
Soprano Ann-Helen Moen performed the work together with an octet comprising Atle Sponberg (violin), Ludvig Gudim (violin), Njord Fossnes (viola), Torun Stavseng (cello), Christian Henriksen (double bass), Björn Nyman (clarinet), Sytske Pas (horn) and Embrik Snerte (bassoon).
Through the music, the audience experienced how past, present and future can reflect one another. Silence became an active part of the musical expression, and each note seemed to carry its own significance and weight.
Eliot’s words,
«In my beginning is my end.»
«And all shall be well.»
«The fire and the rose are one.»
seemed in many ways present within the music, even without being spoken. The result was a rare concert experience that left a strong impression on the audience.
Set among pine trees and overlooking the fjord the audience experienced opera in one of the festival’s most distinctive settings. From the moment Peer, and later Solveig, appeared, to the final singalong that brought performers and audience together, the performance offered a journey filled with emotion, humour, drama and surprises.
The cast featured Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), Guro Thronæs-Sivertsen (soprano), Hanne Marit Mordal Iversen (soprano), Frøydis Fegran Kopperud (mezzo-soprano), Vetle Røsten Granås (baritone), Yngve Søberg (baritone), Marina Kan Selvig (piano) and Nikita Khnykin (piano).
The programme unfolded as a vibrant sequence of scenes and musical highlights, inviting the audience to laugh, smile, marvel and become immersed in the lives of the characters. Against the backdrop of the fjord and surrounding landscape, Opera at Vesleøya once again demonstrated how music and nature can come together to create a memorable concert experience.
Photos in this article: Thor Brødreskift / Arina Karbovskaya
Watch the video from the third festival day:
