Classic in the center - "DUO" - Åssiden Kirke

After almost a year and a half with the Covid-19 break, Klassisk i Sentrum starts up with year-round activities and regular concerts in several Norwegian cities.

Click HERE to buy a ticket!

We have ambitions to eventually travel around in different constellations of musicians, but we start with one that is known to many, namely the duo with Yejin Gil and Jan Bjøranger, and there is a great program that will join the tour this time:

Johannes Brahms: FAE Scherzo in C minor for violin and piano  Ludvig van Beethoven: Klavérsonate in A major opus 101  Pause   Christian Christian Sinding: Abendstimmung in G major opus 120, for violin and piano  Edvard Grieg: Sonata n 3 in C minor opus 45

The scherzo was part of a fun collaboration between Brahms, Schumann and one of Schumann's students Albert Dietrich to compose a tribute and gift to the violinist Joseph Joachim who was their mutual friend.

The motif " Frei aber einsam " (free but lonely) provides the tonal motif FAE which runs through the entire sonata like a red thread. Each of the composers wrote their movements and the scherzo is therefore Brahms' contribution.

Monica Jangaard writes about the ballad like this (reproduced with the lyricist's permission):

In grief over the death of his parents in the autumn of 1875, Grieg immersed himself in a work that would result in his greatest work for piano, Ballade, opus 24. This large-scale variation work is built on a folk tune from Valdres, "Den Nordlandske Bondestand". The Norwegian folk tune collector Ludvig Mathias Lindeman recorded the folk tune after Anders Nilsen Perlesteinsbakken from Sør-Aurdal in Valdres in 1848, and ten years later it was published in volume 2 of his collection "Older and newer Norske Fjeldmelodier". The text of the folk tune was written by Kirstine Aas.

Nina and Edvard spent the summer of 1875 in Denmark, where Grieg, among other things, attended HC Andersen's funeral. When they arrived in Bergen in August, both of Grieg's parents were seriously ill. On 13 September, his father Alexander died, and just over a month later, on 23 October, his mother Gesine died. This was a hard blow for Grieg, and probably the relationship with Nina was also difficult. In December, Grieg writes to his Danish friend August Winding:

"Here I now sit lonely and abandoned to an indescribable degree. You may know that I also had to accompany my mother to her final resting place barely 6 weeks after my father's death, and since that time I have not been able to gather myself for anything. Life and death and eternity, religion and art, all form misty images for my inner gaze, which I have not yet reached the point of being able to find out." - Edvard Grieg to August Winding 17 December 1875.

The mournful folk melody appealed to Grieg; he now immersed himself in a work which, during the winter, turned into a large landscaped work with 14 variations on the theme. Already in the opening, Grieg paints a rich harmonic picture and presents the folk melody harmonized with descending chromatic lines in all voices. The 14 variations offer great contrasts in tempo, dynamics and rhythm, and move from gloomy expressions to resilient dance rhythms.

The ballad was completed in Bergen in the spring of 1876, after the stage music for Peer Gynt had premiered at the Christiania Theater, where Grieg was otherwise not present.

Grieg had a strong relationship with the Ballade throughout his life, but was never able to play the piece publicly himself. He played it only once for the director of Petersforlaget, Max Abraham, in the summer of 1876. His Norwegian composer colleague Iver Holter was present and described it as follows:

"Grieg put his whole soul into the interpretation, and when he had finished, he was not alone so physically strained that he was bathed in sweat; moreover, he was so upset and shaken that he could not say a word for a long time."

To Grieg's surprise, Max Abraham was taken by the work, and immediately decided to publish it. This was also the start of a closer collaboration between Grieg and the publishing house Peters.

However, Grieg had to look far for international recognition of the Ballade. In a letter to his friend Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, he complained about not having seen a single public statement about the work:

"This, not writing for the crowd, besides its happiness also has its despairing, discouraging moments, especially for us up here in the Nordics who simply live among a people who are "obsessed" with folkliness." - Edvard Grieg to Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, from Lofthus 10 February 1878.

In 1898, Grieg experienced the pianist Eugene d'Albert's performance of the Ballade in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig:

"... so brilliant, that it took people by storm. Think what that entails! He had just about every condition, both finesse and great style, the mighty rise to pure fury. And then after this you should have heard the threatening long fermate on the deep Es. I think he held it for 1/2 minute! But the impact was colossal. And, then he finished the old, sad sage so slowly, quietly and simply, that I myself was completely captivated. - Grieg to Frantz Beyer, 27 March 1898.

Today, Grieg's Ballade in G minor has become widely used and is in the repertoire of many pianists.

Christian Sinding's Abendstimmung is a beautiful piece of music, originally for violin and orchestra, but also available in a version for violin and piano.

Edvard Grieg 's sonata in C minor is a brilliant and magnificent work for piano and violin. The sonata is among the dearest repertoire that exists for piano and violin at all. We can't wait to end the concert with this one.

Yejin Gil, piano

Jan Bjøranger, violin

About the musicians:

Yejin Gil is an outstanding, award-winning pianist. She combines technical brilliance with musical depth in her uncompromising pursuit of artistic authenticity. She is just as well versed in the classical and romantic repertoire as in works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Her brilliant debut CD with works by Chin, Ligeti, Boulez and Messiaen won the 2014 "Coup de Coeur" of the Académie Charles Cros and her 2017 Scriabin album was nominated for the German Record Critics Award and the International Classical Music Awards.

In recent years, Gil has collaborated with composers such as Unsuk Chin, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Hurel, Heiner Goebbels, Helmut Oehring, Martin Matalon and Oscar Strasnoy and performed with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Hans Rotman, Steven Sloane, Alexander Merzyn and Joseph Bousso.

She has had soloist assignments with orchestras such as the Hamburg Philharmonic, Bochumer Symphoniker, MDR Synfonieorchester, Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus, Berliner Symphoniker and Staatskapelle Halle, Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Court-Circuit and Zafraan Ensemble.

Yejin constantly performs with musicians such as Jörg Widmann, David Adorjan, Matthias Schorn, Jan Bjøranger, Nora Chastain, Lars Anders Tomter, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Löhr, Øyvind Gimse and Martin Funda.

In 2014, she was "Artist in Residence" at the Impuls Festival in Brussels, Berlin, Magdeburg and Halle, playing among other things Bernstein's piano concerto "The Age of Anxiety", and was broadcast live on MDR. At the end of 2015, her second CD was released with a pure Mussorgsky program, which could be experienced on a series of occasions in France and Germany.

Yejin Gil has had soloist duties at events such as Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Thüringer Bachwochen, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kasseler Musiktage, IFCP Festival New York, Frontiers Plus Birmingham, Young Euro Classic Berlin, International Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron, Acanthes Festival Metz, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Stavanger chamber music festival and Virtuoso & belcanto festival in Lucca on stages such as Grand Théâtre de Genève, Essen Philharmonie, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Salle Cortot Paris, Weimarhalle, Konzerthaus Berlin and Seoul Arts Centre.

She regularly gives seminars and masterclasses in Germany, the USA, Great Britain, France and Italy and is active as a jury member at international piano competitions.

Yejin Gil has concert exams from Seoul National University and Folkwang Art University in Essen with honors.

She is also a prize winner in a number of international competitions, including the Korea National Competition (first prize), Köhler-Osbahr-Wettbewerb (first prize) and Orléans Concours International (winner and only finalist with four main prizes: Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix Albert Roussel, Prix Sacem, Prix Hitachi and special prize for best interpretation of Philippe Hurels' piece "Interstices").

Yejin Gil lives and works in Berlin.

Jan Bjøranger belongs in the ranks among Europe's leading violinists and ensemble leaders.

As founder and artistic director of the renowned and award-winning orchestra 1B1, where the focus is on making classical music accessible to a wide audience, he has contributed to establishing new standards for ensemble and orchestral playing. In that context, Vanity Fair refers to 1B1 as "one of the seven most important ensembles on the classical scene today"

The recordings of Grieg's Suite from Holberg's time, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in collaboration with Lars Anders Tomter, are referred to by the German and Austrian press as reference recordings. The Grieg recording was also awarded with the Spellemannspris in 2014.

In addition to 1B1, Jan Bjøranger has led a number of other prominent ensembles, including Camerata Salzburg, Denmark's Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Trondheim Solistene.

In collaboration with musicians such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Iona Brown, Yejin Gil, Christian Ihle Hadland, Benjamin Schmid, Clemens Hagen, Mariss Jansons, Phillippe Herreweghe and Kristjan Järvi, Bjøranger has toured all over the world and played in halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Große Musikvereinsaal in Vienna and Royal Albert Hall in London.

Of composer collaborations, projects with Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Piers Hellawell, Gija Kancheli, James MacMillan, Daniel Schnyder, Mark Anthony Turnage Hafli∂i Hallgrimsson and Rolf Wallin can be mentioned in particular

Jan Bjøranger is passionate about education and has taught most of his life. He is a coach for conductors at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and also leads the preparations for orchestral productions at the same institution. He is also the assistant artistic director of the Virtuoso & Belcanto festival in Lucca, Tuscany since 2016 and gives regular master classes all over the world.

Jan Bjøranger plays a Domenicus Montagnana violin from 1725 and is represented by Andreas Richter Cultural Consulting GmbH, Berlin

Jan Bjøranger lives and works in Berlin