Your basket is currently empty!
ILLUMINATIONS – MUSIC by RUTH BAKKE
Original price was: kr 150,00.kr 130,00Current price is: kr 130,00.
Music by Ruth Bakke
Price: 100 NOK plus 30 NOK shipping to anywhere in the world
Description
For the first time, Amethyst Records presents an album of music in which Ricardo Odriozola has had no direct involvement (although he appears, anonymously, as the member of the orchestra in one of the works).
We are delighted to present “Illuminations”, a collection of vintage recordings of music by the Norwegian composer Ruth Bakke. She has built a reputation as an outstanding organist and visionary composer in a career spanning over five decades.
For this album, Bakke has undertaken an archaeological expedition of sorts, in search of old live and studio recordings of some of her most impressive compositions. The Bassoon concerto, which gives the album its title, is a highly evocative and spiritually soaring work. The three organ works evidence Bakke’s refined ear for tone colour. The brief piano work “In Memoriam (Alta)” is a powerful expression of outrage, while “Psalm 8” probes into the immensity of Creation and our place in it. “Into the Light” for violin and organ is something of a classic for the instrumental combination. It does what it says in the title, travelling from darkness to scintillating light.
The album counts with performances by some very prominent performers from the Bergen area, including Per Hannevold (solo bassoonist in the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – which, under the direction of Dmitri Kitayenko, accompanies him in the bassoon concerto – for 4 decades), the pianist and Grieg expert Audun Kayser, the late concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Håkon Gulbrandsen, the organist Iver Kleive – the only performer in the album not born in Bergen (he is from Skien) – and Bakke herself.
Ricardo Odriozola (January 2022)