The three-movement Prillar is a symphonic poem written in 1931 while Tveitt was studying in Leipzig. Lasting well over half an hour, it is a bold, colourful work named from a Norwegian folk horn (which does not appear in the score: rather Tveitt seems here to portray the world of the skalds and their sagas, readings of which the prillar might have accompanied). The music has a general folk character, though not entirely from Norway or even Scandinavia, and Tveitt’s eclectic style ranges from Alfven and Sibelius to Ravel and the Russian nationalists. It is presented here in Jon Oivind Ness’s sensitive 1992 restoration, from a manuscript Tveitt had ripped up in frustration and ironically stored away from the house that would later catch alight and destroy 80 per cent of his output.
The roots of the Sun God Symphony also lie in pre-war Leipzig, in music for a ballet, Baldur’s Dreams, written in 1935. In 1958 Tveitt prepared a suite of Three Pieces which by chance was recorded, allowing Kaare Dyvik Husby to re- create a performing version from this and the still-extant piano reduction. As a whole, I find it much less impressive than Prillar, uncon- vincing symphonically and with too great a reliance on short rhythmic fragments – which sound insufficiently distinct from each other, especially in the concluding ‘Arrow-Dance’ – to provide momentum.
The Stavanger orchestra, who have been excelling in BIS’s Saeverud cycle (12/96, 8/98, 13/98, 10/00), again provide beautifully played and characterful accounts under Ole Kristian Ruud’s firm direction. The sound is up to BIS’s normal high standard and there are thorough booklet-notes by Hallgjerd Aksnes. Recommended for anyone remotely interested in post-Sibelian Nordic music