29/07/2024
: TROND KVERNO – St. Matthew Passion
The opus of Trond Kverno (b 1945) consists largely of church music, organ music and, above all, vocal works, from individual songs and arrangements of folk tunes to prayers for the canonical hours and masses. His Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Matthaeum pro choribus duobus cm cantoribus diversis was written in 1986. It is a work which is both traditional and radical. For instance, the part of the evangelist is not performed by one person but is shared between several voices in order to reflect the diversity of the gospels and the Bible. In the programme for the first complete performance in 1991, Kverno writes:
"The classical passions of the Baroque period are subjective. They regard the Passion of Christ from the point of view of the individual and concentrate on the suffering of Jesus as an individual. Some people have said that Bach´s passions are the Passion narratives seen through Bach´s own tear-blinded eyes. I wanted to do something that was not so “lachrymose”, or rather to turn the lachrymosity into mourning for a more universal suffering."
With regards to the musical style, Kverno says: "There are several quotations from ´Draumkvedet´. I have been quoting Draumkvedet for 20 years as a means of approaching a Norwegian language for church music."
Kverno´s daring and his expressive powers are very present in his compositional approach to biblical texts. Recitation, as employed by monks in the Gregorian chants of the Middle Ages, is an important technique. But the melodic lines are marked by modernism and forced out in extreme pitches and intervals.
Marianne Hirsti, soprano - Marianne E. Andersen, alto - Robin Blaze, counter tenor - Ian Partridge, tenor - Ian Lyon, tenor - Daniel Norman, tenor - Joseph Cornwell, tenor - Colin Campbell, baritone - Adrian Peacock, bass - Njål Sparbo, bass
Oslo Cathedral Choir
Terje Kvam, conductor
