Borgstrøm Violin Concerto - interview with soloist Eldbjørg Hemsing

[Wheesht]

Presto Classical have published an interview with violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing on her disc with the concertos by Borgstrøm and Shostakovich. In this she expresses her newly awakened interest in bringing other Norwegian concertos back to life. I wonder what suggestions UC members have for her?

[Alan Howe]

Erm...Haarklou, Elling, Holter, perhaps?

[JimL]

Holter and Elling have already been done. Haarklou would be great! Isn't there one by Jordan?

[Wheesht]

Sverre Jordan's VC dates from 1966, but in his case that may well mean it's Romantic nevertheless. I was also wondering about Marius Ulfrstad, the first of whose two VCs is from 1923, but again I have no way of telling what that may sound like.

[Alan Howe]

Holter and Elling have already been done.

Er, quite so, but trying finding copies of the recordings! They need to be done again - hence my post.

Sverre Jordan's VC dates from 1966, but in his case that may well mean it's Romantic nevertheless

That would certainly be my guess - Toskey describes it as 'romantic'.

Toskey also mentions Ulfrstad's two VCs, but gives no description of them.

[Alan Howe]

To contradict myself, there are copies of the Elling and the Holter VCs for sale at reasonable prices at Amazon.com. If you don't know them, both are gorgeous works and should be snapped up without delay!!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, I've just bought a used CD of the Elling concerto from Amazon.co.uk (third party seller, of course) for £14.99 + postage, which isn't bad. And I see the Holter is available as MP3s at Amazon.co.uk
I had almost given up getting a copy of the Elling, and wouldn't have looked again if you hadn't mentioned it's being available on Amazon.com, Alan. Looked there, then thought: "I'll just give the UK site a spin!" Lady Luck was with me, it seems. Thank you.

All the same, as both concertos are very lovely, modern recordings would be most welcome.

[Wheesht]

I have had the Holter for many years and have listened to it quite a lot, but I must admit had almost forgotten about it. I'll need to investigate the Elling concerto.
As for Ulfrstad, here is an interesting project by the Ålesund SO that started in 2016. According to the five-volume Norwegian Music History by Arvid O. Vollsnes published by Aschehoug in 2000, Ulfrstad's much of his music is late romantic in character with influences of French impressionism. Whether that makes him UC-'worthy' I leave to others to decide, but if so, he might deserve a thread of his own perhaps.