Olav Anton Thommessen
has long been a significant figure in
Norwegian musical life, having initiated
the creation of the Norwegian Music
Information Centre as well as the composition
department at the Norwegian Academy
of Music. He studied in the US in the
1960s, where his name became associated
with Xenakis at Indiana University.
Thommessen’s work has often been closely
connected with external musical influences,
so that his use of a newly discovered
manuscript of Ole Bull’s Violin Concerto
in A major as a source for inspiration
might be seen as the most recent in
a line which includes a Macrofantasy
over Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor
and Choral Symphony over Beethoven’s
Eighth.
The concerto BULL’s
eye is written for solo violin and
double orchestra. The piece opens with
confident, harmonic-rich major chords
which promise a stimulating ride. Bull’s
original concerto was apparently left
as an orchestral score without the solo
part, which would have been largely
improvised. Thommessen describes his
development of this work as ‘a symphonic
wrapping of the original score with
the violin part acting as an intermediary’.
What one ultimately ends up with is
two violin concertos at the same time,
with the solo violin pitted against
a huge orchestra which flits between
the classico-romantic idiom of Bull
and Thommessen’s own post-post-modernism.
The borders are dismantled, and one
is never quite sure if what one is hearing
is Bull or Thommessen - almost. Another
boarder which almost caused the whole
thing to fall apart was when, while
composing the piece, Thommessen learnt
of the existence of another score of
Bull’s concerto in his own hand, this
time with the violin part intact. You
can almost sense this discovery pricking
Thommessen’s balloon: the piece winds
down with the stage lights fading out,
and the violins of the orchestra standing
up and playing a cadenza along with
the soloist. The single spotlight fades,
and the soloist concludes in the dark
together with Bull’s original four-part
music for violin on a tape.
To me, a basic measure
for assessing a new piece like this
is, ‘do I want to hear it again?’ The
answer to this question here is a resounding
YES. There is a huge amount going on
in both the orchestra and solo part,
making me want to get hold of the score
and go through it with a fine toothcomb.
I am predisposed toward the juxtaposition
of the old and the new, and if you enjoy
Schnittke’s approach in this way you
will almost certainly find this work
stimulating and enjoyable. If Schnittke’s
work is black and white photography,
then Thommessen’s is a Turner oil painting
cut out and pasted over the top as a
rich and colourful collage. Sparkling
percussion, curtains of string sound,
pungent glissandi, gritty bass pedal
tones, coy resolutions and moments of
piercing expressiveness all combine
to rearrange the listener’s hairdo to
the opposite of what it was when the
piece started.
The first of the other
works on this CD is Please accept
my ears, which was written as a
‘sounding message’, supposedly communicating
the sonological theories that Thommessen
and his colleague Lasse Thoresen were
devising in the 1970s. The characteristic
timbre of each instrument and how they
interact in a room’s acoustic are taken
into consideration, and the work certainly
possesses a straightforward clarity
which poses few intrinsic difficulties
for the listener. The work’s abstract
nature is possibly less appealing than
the idiomatic diversity of the concerto,
but as a concert piece it possesses
a power and inevitability of purpose
all its own.
The solo violin work
Cantabile (Study-cadenza) was
of course written long before the Concerto
was conceived, but shows Thommessen’s
fascination with the dualities inherent
in cantabile playing and the
technical virtuosity demanded by the
traditions of cadenza improvisation.
This is as much a showpiece for Peter
Herresthal’s superb musicianship as
the concerto, and he maintains a fascinating
monologue for this piece’s extended
duration.
BIS’s production values
are as ever up to the highest standard
on this hybrid SACD recording. I recommend
it on the strength of the performances,
the recording, and the quality of the
compositions, all of which make this
something of a must for the new music
enthusiast.
Dominy Clements
Peter Herresthal (violin) 
BIS-SACD-1512
[55:35] 
