Johan Halvorsen : Mascarade, Suite from the incidental music (1922)

[@kaybeenullenvoyde9196]

I first heard this, recorded from a rare broadcast locally. later lent the tape to a friend who lost it, couldn't find a recording anywhere. Already had fallen in love with "Dance of the Cockerels" in 1967. Thought it all lost forever. Then Came The InterNet. Have it all now! Having listened to Edward German and suites from other composer's plays, ballets, operas, etc; see parallels in how they choose excerpts and feature them. Presently these are most satisfying,. However, i work at absorbing longer works by everyone. Very grateful for these platforms where we can explore so much we cannot afford to purchase in the brick and mortar stores anymore. Many thanks!

[@alger3041]

Edward German, exactly as with Johan Halvorsen - both composers very much worth cultivating, as there as far more to them than we usually get to hear of their work.

[@bgccallahan4116]

(Too late to this race again). i discovered this in 1980s! A friend borrowed my tape of this and lost it... took years to rediscover it, and then You Tube happened! So grateful. So much music I feared would be buried by the 1980s Amadeus craze/obsession with 18th century Viennese workaholic craze would just kill love for anything else. And yet, here we are! THANK YOU!

[@missahsee]

Halvorsen's gift to future musicians is his brilliant & marvelous colorful orchestration.

[@alger3041]

With any piece of music, the first thing I look for is its musical viability and substance, before looking at any brilliant and colorful orchestration. There are plenty of pieces in the performing repertoire that are scored in a dazzling manner that say nothing at all.

[@ThecatofCheshire]

Incidental music for Barselstuen. Thank you so much. I've been looking for it.

[@maxmerry8470]

As with the "Suite Ancienne", the music here was for a production of the comedy by Holberg (1684-1754). I suppose it could be thought of as a pastiche of classicism, but only just. Halvorsen's orchestral writing is charming, amusing, graceful and elegant. What more could be asked for?

[@marioauteri5999]

Fantastic music

[@rbbonotto]

Very glad to see this. NKF had an LP of Halvorsen's Theater Music that never made it to CD ~ it seemed to me better than any recordings on CD ~ especially Jarvi's beating them into a pulp. (One piece he plays at twice the speed of the NKF recording, and all of the inner voices are completely lost.)

[@alger3041]

I fully agree, based on my experience with Naemi Jarvi's recordings in general. He often does just as you describe.

[@grantklink9128]

good morning happy upbeat piece hooooray

[@michaelreflexivo8989]

Creo notar un leve parecido con la Suite Holberg, de Grieg. Gracias.

[@alger3041]

Grieg's piece is a lot simpler and far less sophisticated. Halvorsen's Suite Ancienne would be a far better comparison.

[@markbeck8384]

Very enjoyable music that I didn't know. Thank you so much. Lovely orchestration. Is this following the same story line as Nielsen's Maskarade? I suspect I should listen to some more Halvorsen.

[@alger3041]

I listened to this work here for the very first time. Very engaging music, but I also read Rodders' comment about the Bacchanale moved to the end of the suite, to provide a brilliant ending as is customary, and as another conductor allegedly also performed it. I bore this in mind while listening and mentally tried to imagine the published order. I was mildly disappointed in that this Bacchanale is first of all a bit too brief to provide full closure to the suite, and seems to bear little relationship musically with the Passepied that preceded. I feel that we would have to hear the entire musical scenario to ascertain how this properly ends. I was not comfortable with it either way. As for published order of movements, some years ago I acquired a piano arrangement of the music from Fossegrimen by Halvorsen (which took me years to acquire). Having finally acquired it, I took my copy, put on a performance of the suite that was posted on KZbin, and set about following the music as I Iistened. It took a bit of acrobatics on my part, as the movements were published in a different order - most notably, the Fannitulen movement, which is the last in every recorded performance I have encountered, was not last in my copy. It causes me to similarly inquire about the order of the movements for the entire scenario. It is possible that what was printed in my copy came closer to the order in the full production. That is one reason why I would question the order of the movements in Maskarade, in the interest of getting proper closure at the end. Perhaps a movement that remained unused in the suite needs to be inserted. I am open to discussion on all of the above.