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Ola Gjeilo PIANO IMPROVISATIONS
- Evocative, lyrical music for 1, 2 & 3 pianos
 While my first piano album on the 2L record label, Stone Rose (2007), was all pre-composed or outlined, I wanted this 2012 sequel to be completely spontaneous. Although many of the pieces on this album are free improvisations recorded in one take, the first three tracks are fantasies around three of my own choral works; Ubi Caritas, Tota Pulchra Es and Prelude. Recordings of the original choral versions can be found on Phoenix Chorale's 2012 album, Northern Lights.
Producer Morten Lindberg suggested recording a few tracks where I would play layers of two or three pianos, which I thought was a great way to really exploit the surround sound potential on a solo album. We moved the piano between each take, eventually constituting a triangle, and the listener is sitting in the middle in a surround system setup.
As a pianist, improvisation is where my heart is. With this recording I wanted to express and share my passion for that art form.
 Album details: www.2L.no
Pure Audio Blu-ray + Hybrid SACD
Recorded in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352.8kHz/24bit)
5.1 surround and STEREO
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 Ola Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) was born in Norway in 1978, and moved to America in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City. Presently a full-time composer and pianist based in the US, his published concert works are performed all over the world. Ola is also very interested in film, and his music draws a lot of inspiration from movies and cinematic music.
Download the complete opening track for free as AAC (iTunes file) This track is a solo piano fantasy around Ubi Caritas, one of Ola's a cappella choral works. He has performed this piece quite a lot with choirs, improvising around the vocal lines and chords, now taking it one step further as an Ubi Caritas-inspired piano work. Also on SoundCloud |
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TrondheimSolistene - SOUVENIR part II
- Direct Metal Master 180g audiophile grade vinyl
How do we listen to music? Indeed, how do we listen to anything? What we as listeners encounter here is sheer auditory bliss. TrondheimSolistene take a new step towards bridging the gap between themselves and their audience. It is not the gap between the live performance and the recording which they attempt to close. It is the gap between the recording and the living, ever open human ear.
Erik Fosnes Hansen's essay Auditory bliss (EN) / Ohrenschmaus (DE)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence (op. 70)
Carl Nielsen:
Ved en Ung Kunstners Baare (fs. 58)
Album details: www.2L.no
HiRes audio files:HighResAudio, Klicktrack, HDtracks and e-ONKYO
Order VINYL direct from 2L web shop
or pre-order from Amazon.com
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American Record Guide about SOUVENIR part I: "2L's sonic realism simply trounced my two favorite recordings up until now - Munch and the Boston Symphony on RCA, and Barbirolli and the London Symphony on EMI; they sounded veiled and muddy by comparison, especially the inner and lower voices. Yet the Trondheimers are just as convincing in their interpretative sensitivity and emotional engagement with the music."
Andrew Quint from The Absolute Sound about SOUVENIR part I: "The listener is located in a very different place than usual, namely onstage with the players. This is especially involving if you have any history, however distant, of playing in an orchestra yourself: there's a sense of participation that connects one viscerally to the music. Further deconstructing the usual paradigm for recording an orchestra is that the players are not sitting in standard "sections" - first violins, second violins, violas, etc. - but instead are mixed together. Yet the coherence of the performances is in no way compromised, a tribute to the players who truly function as chamber musicians. The reading of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings captures both the sunny lyricism of that piece - listen to the soaring cello line beginning at 2:03 in the last movement - as well as its contrapuntal exuberance. The opening of the first movement is significantly less turgid than is often the case: We feel the triple meter clearly even at a slow tempo. The less familiar Nielsen work—the composer's Opus 1 employs a similar harmonic language to the Tchaikovsky, but it's a bit more serious in tone, more "Northern" in outlook. Still, the conclusion is upbeat and we leave refreshed. 2L's DXD encoding (24-bit at 352kHz) shows us how far digital recording has come, taking on what may be classical music's toughest sonic nut to crack, the sound of massed strings. There’s the same resiny texture heard with the best analog recordings!"
Leading vinyl expert and musician Michael Fremer of Stereophile Magazine feature TrondheimSolistene's SOUVENIR #1 on his "In Heavy Rotation List"! |
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Thomas D.A. Tellefsen complete piano works
- performed by Jørgen Larsen
The story of Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen (1823-1874) has a special place in the history of 19th century Norwegian music. In his own lifetime he earned an international reputation as a composer, piano virtuoso and teacher, enjoying a close relationship to Chopin both as a pupil and a friend. The connection to Chopin is reflected in several ways in Tellefsen's music, both in terms of choice of style and genre and by the fact that the majority of his works are for solo piano.
Album details: www.2L.no
Watch the video from the recording sessions!
Pure Audio Blu-ray
Recorded in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352.8kHz/24bit)
5.1 surround and STEREO
3 hours and 18 minutes of music on one Pure Audio Blu-ray disc
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Jørgen Larsen was born in 1958 and after winning the Youth Piano Master competition in 1973 he studied under Eva Knardahl. He had his debut concert in Oslo's University Hall in 1979 before being appointed accompanist at what was then Trøndelag Music Conservatory, now Institute of Music, NTNU, where he still teaches. Jørgen Larsen is a member of several chamber music ensembles, as well as being orchestral pianist with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
Given the monumental playing time of this program, Jørgen Larsen has extracted a 45 minutes recital as a playlist |
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August 2012: TrondheimSolistene's SOUVENIR on Pure Audio Blu-ray! |
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