Norwegian
Saxophone - Ola Asdahl Rokkones
ROMBERG The Tale of Taliesin
AAGAARD-NILSEN Bør
HABBESTAD Un rêve norvégien
Ola Asdahl Rokkones (sax)
Fabio Mastrangelo, cond
St. Petersburg Northern Sinfonia
LAWO 1162 (71:39)
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This
disc presents three Norwegian works for alto saxophone and orchestra, all
dedicated to the soloist, Ola Asdahl Rokkones, who also had a hand in each of
the commissions. None is described as a concerto, and although the
Aagaard-Nilsen and Habbestad works are each in three movements, the title would
seem inappropriate for music so unconcerned with virtuosic display. Perhaps
that reflects an element of Rokkones’s own personality, a musical perspective
that looks beyond the superficial to explore more subtle and complex layers in the
music.
The three works are varied in style, but
all are based on literary inspirations. Martin Romberg’s The Tale of Taliesen draws on Welsh mythology. It tells a complex
story, which is paraphrased in the liner, but the music’s narrative quality is clearly
evident without foreknowledge. Romberg’s style is well suited to such storytelling,
tonal and illustrative throughout. So much so, in fact, that it often resembles
film music, although all the story is in the notes. A common feature of all
three works here is a light touch in the orchestral writing, and Romberg always
emphasises colour over visceral impact in his use of the ensemble. The work
opens with a wistful viola line, over which the soloist plays an elegant
folk-infused melody, setting the mood for the music to come. Rokkones plays
with a warm tone, but with a satisfying reedy edge and just the faintest hint
of vibrato.
Bør, by Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen, is
based on a contemporary poem of the same name by Stein Mehren. The word
variously translates as ‘burden’, ‘rainfall’ and the verb ‘ought to’, and the
poem itself is similarly abstract. Even so, Aagaard-Nilsen structures the music
strictly to the text, the three movements linked to the poem’s three stanzas.
The composer describes the work as ‘poetic music’, and relates it to the
various evocations of light in the poem. He also describes it as an exploration
of the saxophone itself, and these two interests result in a wide range of
extended performance techniques to create colours and moods, especially
multiphonics. The orchestra is again used with discretion, most often with
quiet and inscrutable string sonorities gently supporting the soloist.
The
final work, Un rêve norvégien by
Kjell Habbestad, seems to continue the aesthetic of the Aagaard-Nilsen and take
it even further. The literary source here is a medieval Norwegian ballad, Draamkvedet, considered a national epic
there. The music draws moods rather than stories from the text, as the movement
titles demonstrate: Dream, Bliss, Vision. This is mostly slow music, on an epic
scale commensurate with the poetic source. It is another exploration of
extended performance techniques on the saxophone, although the music also has a
sophisticated modal structure, and the accompaniment, while again subdued,
presents a wide range of instrumental colours, the woodwind chorales of the
second movement particularly effective.
Ola
Asdahl Rokkones has recently been doing much to promote the classical saxophone
in Russia, and since the release of this disc, he has appeared as a soloist
with the orchestra of the Mariinsky. The disc itself was also recorded in St.
Petersburg, with another SPB orchestra, the St. Petersburg Northern Sinfonia
under Fabio Mastrangelo, an Italian who is based in the city and who is rapidly
becoming a figurehead of the musical establishment there. The orchestra is
fully conversant with the varying styles of these three composers, bringing
plenty of colour and energy to the Romberg, and imbuing the Aagaard-Nilsen and
Habbestad with suitable mood and atmosphere, their control of the often quiet
textures particularly impressive.
This
album brings a new perspective to the classical saxophone, with delicate, warm
and often subtly complex sounds. It also offers an intriguing portrait of
soloist Ola Asdahl Rokkones, who is clearly intent on taking the instrument in
a new and intriguing direction.
