Meet the Musicians: Are Sandbakken
interview
L
Live Klassisk3 min read|6. December 2024
Welcome to our interview relay with musicians from the classical music scene! Today we have the pleasure of presenting Are Sandbakken. He works as a professor of chamber music at Norges musikkhøgskole. Here he shares his thoughts on classical music and recommends upcoming concerts for both new and experienced concertgoers!
Name, instrument and profession (or place of work or study)
Are Sandbakken, viola and violin, professor of chamber music at Norges musikkhøgskole
What are you working on at the moment?
I am preparing a big lecture: «Edvard Grieg in 200 Minutes», to be given at the University of Bergen on 19 January, the so-called «Aarebrot-forelesningen»
Most overrated composer or piece?
One of the Norwegian composers (born 1931) was regarded as the most influential from the 1960s until around the year 2000 and received undeserved attention at the expense of other composers.
And at the other end... which music should everyone really get to experience?
Beethoven's best works, such as his 3rd, 5th and 9th symphonies, should be known to everyone!
Your most recent great concert experience - what made it so special?
My most recent great experience was Peer Gynt at Nationaltheatret. Herbert Nordrum was outstanding in the title role as Peer, and Ragnhild Hemsing's music, freely adapted from Grieg's Peer Gynt music, went straight to the heart. I cannot imagine anything more genuine and expressive than Ragnhild Hemsing's Hardanger fiddle playing.
Which living composer inspires you most, and why?
Lasse Thoressen is probably the living composer I rate most highly. I experience his music as «soulful» and at the same time intellectually and technically very well founded. I appreciate that the music is rooted in the Norwegian tradition, and I also admire Lasse as the outstanding teacher he is.
Can you remember a single event or experience that made you want to become a musician?
When I was 12 I got to play Beethoven's «Pastoral Symphony» in an amateur orchestra. When the horns entered in the sound after the strings' introduction, it was as if an emotional space opened up inside me, and from then on I understood that this was my world.
Do you have any role models? Has anyone been especially motivating or inspiring for you?
I have many role models, and I feel I have something to learn from many of the musicians I meet. But the most important teacher in my life has been the string pioneer Leif Jørgensen. And I experience Grieg and Svendsen as enormous sources of inspiration; even though I never met them (they died 60 years before I was born), it feels as though I know them personally.
Do you have any advice for «new listeners» who are curious about classical music and do not go to concerts very often?
Advice for new listeners: do read a little about the piece you are about to hear for the first time, so that you can put it in context. Let your imagination run free when you listen!
Any upcoming concerts you would like to recommend?
I am especially looking forward to conducting the Orchestra Concert in Lindemansalen at Musikkhøgskolen on 16 February. We will perform top-class Romantic music: Schumann's Piano Concerto with my favourite pianist Christopher Park as soloist, and Johan Svendsen's wonderful Symphony No. 2
Oslo Strykekvartett's Christmas concert in December. It is always full of humour, atmosphere and quartet playing at the highest level.
Finally - who would you like to challenge to take over the baton?
I would like to pass the baton to my former colleague in Oslo Strykekvartett, Øystein Sonstad. He is one of the best musicians I know.
Photo: Kristine Gabrielsen, UiB
12. Dec
18:00 | 2024
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