Mozart/Schoenberg (2017)
"Ensemble Allegria plays as one more sound body with as many united wills as they have musicians."
Music critic Magnus Andersson wrote this on his blog after hearing Ensemble Allegria perform Arnold Schönberg's "Verklärte Nacht" in 2012. Now finally comes their recording of the work, with Berit Cardas as guest conductor.
Allegria's previous record "VOLT22" (LWC1082), with orchestra member Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen as cello soloist, was nominated for the Spellemann prize in 2015. Also on the new release, the orchestra's own musicians are brought forward in the soloist role. This time it is artistic director Maria Angelika Carlsen who, together with Marthe Husum, excels in Mozart's "Sinfonia Concertante".
Duality and twoness is the theme of this record. In Schönberg's "Verklärte Nacht" we find it in the intimate nocturnal conversation between a man and a woman in Richard Dehmel's poem of the same name, while in Mozart's work the two solo voices together portray a wide range of emotions.
Maria Angelika Carlsen is one of the country's leading violinists, who in addition to being concertmaster in the Kringkastingsorkesteret is a sought-after chamber musician.
Violist Marthe Husum is predicted to have a brilliant career, and is one of the few Norwegian musicians to be invited to orchestras such as the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Ensemble Allegria is an up-and-coming chamber orchestra at the international top level. The orchestra, which was formed in 2007, has over the years built up a solid career and attracted attention with its playful interplay and its energetic virtuosity.
Berit Cardas plays both violin and viola, and regularly performs as a soloist on both instruments. As a member of the Vertavo Quartet, she has given several thousand concerts at home and abroad and won a number of awards. Cardas is also a sought-after chamber orchestra leader.
Reviews
«One of the special things about this recording with the young Allegria ensemble is that here we experience a toned-down ensemble, not a 100-man orchestra with its boom and crash. The music comes closer and closer to us in this way. [...] In any case, this is a sympathetic encounter with the young ensemble. It's growing in Norwegian music life today!»
Kjell Moe – Kulturspeilet, 16.11.17 http://www.kulturspeilet.no/elskverdig/
Doggfrisk dåm
"The soloists of the Norwegian Ensemble Allegria play this first work on their album vividly and precisely [...] Ensemble Allegria plays here superbly, especially towards the end, where they achieve a wonderfully transparent orchestral sound - a sense of something fresh as if a a new day is in the offing.»
Sjur Haga Bringeland – Dag og tid, 08.12.17 . anmeldelse_LWC1138_dagogtid.pdf
"Verklärte Nacht (guest conductor here is Berit Cardas) can withstand such a full-on guffe approach, and this intense and fiery interpretation is completely convincing. There are young musicians here, and Schönberg was a young man of 25 when he wrote the piece.”
Martin Anderson – klassiskmusikk.com, 12.12.17 http://klassiskmusikk.com/review/mozart-schonberg/
«With a vivid and quite fast, yet very coherent performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante and a lean and intense one of Schönberg’s Transfigured Night, the Oslo-based Allegria Ensemble and its soloists present an attractive account of both works.»
Uwe Krusch – Pizzicato, 28.02.18 https://www.pizzicato.lu/zwiegesprache-von-liebespaaren/?doing_wp_cron=1523969948.5556659698486328125000
«Listening and feeling the passion and experimentation of the Ensemble Allegria chamber ensemble is an encouraging exercise for all of us who want music to beat everywhere in our lives.»
Carme Miró – Sonograma magazine, 29.03.18 http://sonograma.org/suplement-de-discos/viennese-contrasts/
To sing with words
"The expression is sweepingly beautiful, this also applies to Allegria, which also has an abundance of subtle details, both sonorously and in the phrasing."
Emil Bernhardt – Morgenbladet, 13. april 2018 anmeldelse_LWC1138_morgenbladet.pdf
"Winning performances in both works, too."
JP - BBC Magazine review_LWC1138_BBCMusicMagazine.pdf
«[…] The combination with this work and "Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major" K364/320d by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is a particularly good move. It gives the ensemble the opportunity to really shine, as well as showing their musical diversity as an ensemble. Mozart's piece features three brilliant soloists; Maria Angelika Carlsen (violin), Marthe Husum (viola) and Berit Cardas (violin). The record is rarely good. Ensemble Allgeria plays with convinced playfulness and has an irresistible sound treatment. Strongly recommended.» Trond Erikson, Den klassiske CD Bloggen, 14.06.2019
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)
Sinfonia Concertante i Ess-dur, K. 364/320d
1) I. Allegro majestoso /// 12:34
2) II. Andante /// 11:40
3) III. Presto /// 05:40
ARNOLD SCHÔNBERG (1874–1951)
4) Verklärte Nacht, op. 4 /// 28:20