Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981)

[Balapoel]

After hearing Hardanger Suite No. 1 and being blown away, I perused more of this Norwegian's ouevre. Simply amazing. The reviews on each and every available album on Amazon were overwhelmingly positive - and every sample I heard was wonderful, so I took a chance and got all available albums:
-Hardanger fiddle concertos 1-2, Nykken
-Piano concertos 1, 5
-Piano concerto 3 and sonata no. 29 (played by Tveitt)
-Piano concerto 4, variations
-Prillar and Solgud-symfonien (basically two symphonies)
-Sinfoniettas and wind music
-Hardanger suites 1, 2, 4, 5
-Bauldur's dream and Telemarken
-Harp concerto

His music is somewhat like Grieg's in subject matter, but with much more masterly harmonization, orchestration (approaching Ravel) and imagination. Tveitt also uses a wider 20th century pallette. The results are always very tuneful, but not limited strictly to diatonism (his music is primarily modal, he prefers lydian and phrygian modes). He could also handle larger forms as the concertos demonstrate. It's been a while since I've heard such an amazing talent 'out of the blue' - I highly recommend Tveitt's music.

Balapoel

[Hovite]

I recently stumbled upon the Piano Concerto No. 3 and I was amazed. He is on my list of composers to explore further.

[eschiss1]

I thought most of the piano concertos were missing/destroyed... only no.2 or ones upward of no.6 or both are? I forget how much of Tveitt's music I've heard so far but that's good news...

[Balapoel]

Hi Eric,
The bad news (as you know) - the 1970 fire destroyed much of the 300 works Tveitt created...
The good news - there's still much extant music, and recent research (1980s-1990s+) has yielded reconstructions of many pieces. Here's the status of the concertos:

Piano Concerto No. 1 in F, Op. 5 (1928) -available (20'15")
Piano Concerto No. 2 in Eb 'Hommage a Ravel' (1933) - lost
Piano Concerto No. 3 'Hommage a Brahms', Op. 126 (29'55") -performed, recorded by Tveitt in 1947, but subsequently score lost in fire. I have the Tveitt recording
Piano Concerto No. 4 'Aurora Borealis' ,Op. 130 (1949) -available (30'00")
Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 156, performed 1954, reconstructed 1987 -available (35'00")
Piano Concerto No. 6 (1970) -lost

other concerti:
Saxophone Concerto, Op. 54 (1936) -lost
Violin Concerto (1939) - I'm not sure about this one
Harp Concerto No. 1 (not sure, but probably lost)
Harp Concerto No. 2, Op. 170 - available
Hardanger Fiddle Concerto No. 1, Op. 163 (1956) -available
Hardanger Fiddle Concerto No. 2, Op. 262 (1965) -available
Variationer yver ei folkevise frå Hardanger [Variations on a Folk Tune from Hardanger], 2 pf, orch (1939) -available (35'00")

-Balapoel

[Revilod]

Yes, Tveitt is a wonderful composer. I wrote the Amazon.co.uk review of the Hardangar Fiddle concertos. The middle section of "Nykken", on the same disc, will haunt you always.

By the way, one reviewer who embarrassed himself in the 2002 Awards issue of the "Gramophone" was Guy Rickards who got in a complete mess because he failed to notice that the Naxos disc of the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Hardangar Folksong Variations is (or used to be) incorrectly labelled. (Check yours!) The first track on my copy is the Variations and Tracks 2-4 are the Concerto....but that's not what's printed on the disc. Thus Mr Rickards ended up confusing the finale of the concerto for the Variations. I wonder if he ever lived it down!!

[Holger]

Hi,

I fully agree on the statements above. I discovered Tveitt about seven years ago if I remember correctly and was totally fascinated by his music at once. It is this mixture of folklorism (often in quite a rough and authentic manner) and an excellent sense for sound and atmosphere which I like so much, I think.

His Hardanger Tunes Suites really contain little gems, it remains truely amazing how much he can do in just two or three minutes. Likewise I am a huge fan of his Fourth Piano Concerto, the "Aurora Borealis" one. This piece is distinguished by such a magnitude of colours and moods, probably one of Tveitt's most modern pieces and if coming from the Hardanger suites maybe not the one to continue with, but after listening to it a number of times I have come to the conclusion it's a masterpiece.

There must be more Tveitt available in some way. At least, I do have a broadcast recording of his Symphony No. 1, Op. 183 in my collection. It is called "Christmas Eve", but unlike one might assume this is quite a vigorous piece full of energy. It would certainly be worth a modern recording.

Best regards,
Holger

[edurban]

Thanks for this thread.  It sent me off to listen to sound samples, and, oh well, lots of new orders followed.  The "Aurora Borealis" piano concerto reminded me of a Nordic Villa-Lobos, though the comments suggest a superior grasp of form in Tveitt.  I look forward to hours of exploration!

David

[giles.enders]

I would concur with most of what has already been stated.  I first discovered his concertos on the excellent Naxos recordings.  Tveitt's music is unlike any other and certainly way above much that was composed during the mid twentieth century period.  I would like to hear a live performance of one of the concertos or the Variations. 
With reference to the recording of his own performance of the third concerto, Tveitt was notorious  for not performing the music as he had written it.  Sadly one of the concertos which was lost in his house fire was a tribute to Ravel.  Now that would have been interesting to hear.  I have never found any reference to it being performed.

[kitmills]

I came across Tveitt for the first time in an all-Norwegian music piano recital (which I decided to attend at the last moment on a whim) by the young Norwegian pianist Knut Erik Jensen, who was touring the U. S. as a Cultural Ambassador from Norway.  Knut Erik played one or two of the Hardanger tune suites, and the music grabbed me by the throat from the first measure--far and away the most compelling music on the program.  Within the week I'd ordered those suites in their orchestral form and was subsequently startled to find that the pieces had a distinctly different flavor.  Tveitt's orchestrations were colorful and pungent, but organically so, if that makes any sense--enough so that the orchestral versions seemed almost to be distant quotations of their piano antecedents. 

Balapoel - Comparing him to Ravel strikes me as well-intended but back-handed compliment, because I think Tveitt's mastery of color has a flavor that is uniquely his own, more red-blooded and more original than the urbane Ravel.  Both composers definitely bear close study, though.