BACH FOR THREE!

Address

Kirkebakken 14,
2317 Hamar

BACH FOR THREE!

Description

BACH FOR THREE Saturday, 7 November at 12.00 Hamar domkirke Kirkebakken 14, 2317 Hamar Performers: Berit Norbakken, soprano Astrid Kirschner, baroque violin Lars Notto Birkeland, organ Music by Johann Sebastian Bach. About the programme: Johann Sebastian Bach has often been described as a giant in music history. In the works of this programme we meet not primarily the monumental Bach, the architect behind the great passions and fugues, but a composer with an unusual ability to bring the small form to life: an aria, a dialogue between violin and continuo, a sonata movement, an organ prelude. Many of the arias come from cantatas written for particular Sundays and feast days in Leipzig. Here the music was part of the service and was meant to illuminate the content of the text. But Bach is rarely content with illustration. In his hands the music becomes a space where the violin can comment on the words, contradict them or expand on them. At the same time, the programme shows another side of Bach: the chamber-musical one. The Sonata in C minor BWV 1017 unites in a remarkable way Italian melody, French elegance and German contrapuntal thinking. When excerpts from cantatas, sonatas, organ works and suites are set side by side, something essential about Bach's way of working also emerges. For him there was no sharp boundary between the sacred and the secular, between functional music and art music. The same compositional principles underlie everything: an unshakeable belief that musical form and human expression are not opposed to each other, but can strengthen each other. Perhaps that is precisely why this music still speaks to us. Not because it represents a distant cultural golden age - but because it was created by a composer who understood that the greatest questions are often expressed through the smallest gestures. Welcome to a concert with a beautiful Bach programme, with arias, sonatas and organ music by the great master! The concert lasts 1 hour. About the musicians: BERIT NORBAKKEN is one of Scandinavia's most versatile sopranos. She commands a repertoire that stretches from baroque to contemporary music, including folk music. She is a regular soloist in oratorios and passions and works regularly with leading ensembles, orchestras and conductors in well-known concert halls all over the world. In autumn 2025 she received the distinguished Rolf Gammleng Honorary Award for her many recordings and concerts. Norbakken receives glowing reviews from the international music community. Her recording of Arriaga's vocal music, together with the BBC Philharmonic under the direction of Juanjo Mena, has been particularly well received. At present she is featured on the recording John Dowland: First Booke of Songes, together with the lutenist Solmund Nystabakk, and in a brand-new recording of Stravinsky's Threni and Elegy for JFK, in collaboration with Daniel Reuss, Cappella Amsterdam and Noord Nederland Orkest. Norbakken has performed at Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, May Festival Cincinnatti and in a large number of different concert programmes across Europe. In spring 2024 she defended her doctoral work Grenseland - i stemmen, in which she worked closely with the Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist, among others. *** ASTRID KIRSCHNER (baroque violin) lives a happy double life as a modern violinist and baroque violinist. In her modern life she works at Operaorkesteret i Oslo, and at the same time she is also one of Norway's most established baroque violinists. She is artistic director of the critically acclaimed and Spellemann-nominated early music group Oslo Circles, who have visited Hamar many times. She has specialised in early music and has played at festivals such as Tage der Alten Musik Regensburg, Barocktage Melk (Austria), Festival de Bach, Lausanne (Switzerland), Festwochen der Alten Musik Innsbruck, Stockholm Early Music Festival, Froville Festival (France), Spazio & Musica (Vicenza, Italy), Oslo Kammermusikkfestival, Trondenesdagene, Varazdin Baroque Evenings and Korkyra Baroque Festival (Croatia) and several others. Oslo Circles' CD recordings have gathered international reviews in superlatives, three nominations for the German music prize Opus Klassik and a Spellemann nomination in the Classical category in 2026. Astrid Kirschner also has her own podcast about baroque music - «Barokkpodden!». *** LARS NOTTO BIRKELAND (organ) is one of Norway's leading concert organists, with a diverse background also as a conductor, pianist and educator. In his work he focuses a great deal on chamber music and collaborative projects with other art forms. He studied at Norges musikkhøgskole with Harald Herresthal, later organ studies with Guy Bovet and Kåre Nordstoga. He has been soloist several times with Oslo-Filharmonien (in, among others, Poulenc's Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony) and other orchestras, and has played at a number of festivals in Norway and abroad. Since 2014 he has been organist at Akershus slottskirke, where he has been central to the process of the new organ that was inaugurated in 2024. At Slottskirken he has also initiated Bach i Slottskirken, a series in collaboration with the critically acclaimed baroque ensemble Oslo Circles, with Bach's cantatas performed at both concerts and services. He has taken part in a number of recordings, including a critically acclaimed double CD of Jehan Alain's complete organ works, as well as organ concertos by Bjørn Kruse and Kjell Habbestad with KORK. In 2025 he released a new recording for Lawo, with organ works by Egil Hovland, which received the top score of 6 (a six on the die) in Den Norske Musikkbloggen. He is also employed at Barratt Due musikkinstitutt as chamber choir conductor. Previously he has been cantor at Fagerborg kirke, taught at Norges musikkhøgskole and been repetiteur and chorus master at Den Norske Opera. The concert is supported by Norsk Kulturråd.