Welcome to Oslo International Church Music Festival 2024
Dear friends!
Welcome back to one annual festival! We can look back at all of four successful festivals since March 2022, making this the fifth festival in two years. This has been a bit hectic for us organising the festival, and perhaps for you as well, our dear audience!
Our featured project, “Handel in Old and New Guises,” explores G. F. Handel’s significant role in the history of church music through two iconic oratorios: his very first oratorio, The Triumph of Time and Truth, and his final oratorio, Jephtha. Additionally, we aim to bring Handel in to our time, as Belgian ensemble BL!NDMAN [sax] sheds new light on the master’s music through modern, genre-crossing interpretations of Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks performed on instruments that did not exist in Handel’s time. Handel is a giant in Western church music history, and his music is an important part of our cultural heritage. It has been a while since we had the opportunity to present Handel oratorios performed by renowned international ensembles and soloists, who are rarely seen in Oslo at other times.
In our ongoing project “east of Western church music”, we are delighted to finally present the ensemble Didgori from Georgia. They will bring a unique repertoire consisting of hymns and folk music from the Caucasus region. Georgia’s distinct tradition of vocal polyphony, rooted in pre-Christian folk tunes, has persevered despite repression during the times of the Russian Empire and later in the Soviet Union. Today, polyphony stands as a crucial expression of Georgia’s religious and cultural identity, earning its place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2001. The concert and accompanying lecture promise a rare insight into the church music of one of the oldest Christian nations in the world.
We will once again welcome pianist Katrine Gislinge, this time with a complete concert programme with, among others, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor. The audience can also look forward to Rachmaninoff’s Vespers with Oslo and Bergen Cathedral Choirs in a late-night concert in Oslo Cathedral.
The outstanding Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone, and soloists open the festival on March 8, with the Handel oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth. The work is among the composer’s most beautiful and expressive oratorios, written in 1707 when Handel was only 22 years old. The festival’s closing concert, on March 17, will be Handel’s great and last oratorio, Jephtha from 1751, performed by the internationally renowned Les Talens Lyriques and Chœur de chambre de Namur with a superb team of soloists under the direction of Christophe Rousset.
World premieres
Embracing our commitment to revitalizing the church music tradition, we have premiered over 135 works in our 24-year history. One such composer gaining recent acclaim is
Tyler Futrell, whose 2022 composition, Stabat Mater, achieved remarkable popularity. The work was so popular, that we had to put on two performances, and it has later been performed all over the country. This time, we have commissioned a requiem from Futrell, who wants to use the traditional requiem texts, contrasted against contemporary texts, especially poems by Rolf Jacobsen. The world premiere will be presented by
The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and Ensemble Allegria under the direction of Grete Pedersen. Additionally, we are excited to present a world premiere by Eivind Buene, featuring the vocal ensemble Song Circus and viola da gamba player André Lislevand. Buene’s compositiondraws inspiration from F. Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres, originally written in 1713 for vocalists and basso continuo. The genre has roots back to the renaissance and relates to the Holy Week.
Internationally renowned vocal ensemble
We look forward to welcoming back the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Voces Suaves, this time joined by the great early music ensemble Gli Incogniti with violinist Amandine Beyer. Beyer is a professor at The Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, which is considered central in historically oriented interpretation. Together, the two ensembles will perform a beautiful concert programme centred around
Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, one of the most unique sacred pieces of the Baroque era.
Folk Music
Adding to the diverse lineup, we will also be visited by an audience favorite: Gjermund Larsen Trio with Gjermund Larsen, Sondre Meisfjord, and Andreas Utnem. The latter has recently released a beautiful solo album with lyrics by Jon Fosse and self-composed melodies, a sort of hymn form where we get to hear Tuva Syvertsen on vocals. We will also get a re-encounter with Salmeklang, written by Gjermund Larsen on commission by the Church Music Festival in 2015.
Anton Bruckner 200 years – Children and youth
We will celebrate the Austrian composer who was born in 1824.
The talented Barratt Due’s Junior String Orchestra will perform an arrangement of the Adagio from Bruckner’s String Quintet in F major. They will also play Handel: Concerti Grossi No. 5 and an excerpt from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The 50-year-old Norwegian Academy of Music, with its chamber orchestra and chamber choir, will also visit the festival, with a celebratory concert centred around the Bruckner anniversary. Children and youth are, as always, well represented in the festival church service, with children and youth choirs affiliated with the different congregations. This spring, over 80 children from Uranienborg Choir School will participate!
Organ concerts
Organ enthusiasts are in for a treat with a performance by the young talent Victoria Ulriksen (b. 2006), whose international career is already impressive. She will showcase works by Bach, Mozart, Handel, Rachmaninoff and Widor! Kåre Nordstoga, her teacher, will present a late-night concert featuring a complete Bach program, which he himself describes as “a journey through Bach’s organ universe”.
The Boysen Bus will this time embark on a special journey to Vestfold to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Frobenius organ in Tønsberg Cathedral. On the way there will also be time for a quick visit to Horten Church. There are several lectures to look forward to. Author Torkil Baden will delve into the world of Grieg with a fascinating music lecture on his latest book, 150 Years of Peer Gynt and the Holy Spirit, accompanied by a performance by Oslo Cathedral’s Youth Choir featuring two of Grieg’s timeless Four Psalms. There will also be two interesting lectures on Rachmaninoff and the distinctive Georgian vocal tradition – highly recommended for music enthusiasts!
Welcome to this year’s festival!
Bente Johnsrud, September 2023
Festival and artistic director
H.R.H. Crown Princess Mette-Marit – Oslo International Church Music Festival’s Patron, The City Council, Arts Council Norway, DNB Savings Bank Foundation, Dextra Musica, The Norwegian Composers’ fund, Fritt Ord Foundation, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Thon Hotel Opera, Vårt Land, Embassy of Belgium, the Embassy of France, Institut français de Norvège, the Embassy of Italy, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Oslo, the Embassy of Switzerland, the Embassy of Georgia, the Embassy of Denmark, Aftenpostens A-kort, Norwegian Academy of Music, Marianne Helliesen, Oslo bilutleie, PublikUng, Unibuss, Kreativ Flora with Nils Norman, Oslo Cathedral and the parishes of the churches of Uranienborg, Ris, Fagerborg, Sagene, Holmlia, Horten church, Tønsberg Cathedral, the Swedish Church of St Margareta, Joint Council of Churches in Oslo and the Church of Norway.
Foto: Norbert Schäfer
