UPCOMING CONCERTS

PROGRAM Nørgård: Aftonland Missy Mazzoli: Year of our Burning (Danish premiere) Bach: Komm, Jesu, Komm, BWV 229 Sandström: From Nordic Mass ARTISTS Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir Amalie Stalheim, cello Mogens Dahl, conductor ABOUT THE PROGRAM It was Per Nørgård who formulated the concept of the universe of the Nordic mind in 1956, definitely influenced by his teacher Vagn Holmboe and by his own studies of the composer Jean Sibelius. It is therefore also natural that the concert begins with an early work by Nørgård – Aftonland – which in several ways encapsulates this concept. The four short movements have texts by Pär Lagerkvist, and the work is dedicated to the then almost 90-year-old Sibelius, who thanked the 22-year-old Nørgård in writing for the dedication. Nørgård himself has stated that at this time he was inspired by the ideas of a special Nordic culture and a Scandinavian sensibility, which can be heard in the darkly colored, nocturnal landscapes of Aftonland. The concert also features a selected excerpt from Sven-David Sandström's Nordic Mass, written in 2014 for (and recorded by) the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir. In this work for choir and cello, the image-creating texts by Tomas Tranströmer are set to a familiar liturgical framework: the Mass. But without using the familiar liturgical elements. The way Sandström has set the texts to music makes them almost liturgical in the overall artistic expression's search for the divine in small things, and of the light and darkness in the suggestive shifts between the jarring dissonance and clear, pure chord columns – with the cello as a beautiful commenting voice, perhaps from the High. The American composer Missy Mazzoli wrote her work Year of our Burning in 2021 under the influence of the Corona pandemic. The work, which is for choir and cello, was a commission from the Bergen International Festival for the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir. The work describes the fear and isolation of the Corona era and the associated search for re-establishing communities. As at the premiere, the cello part at this concert is played by the award-winning Norwegian cellist, Amalie Stalheim. Loss and consolation also permeate Bach's great motet Komm, Jesu, Komm. The work was probably written for a funeral, and emphasizes the happy hope that the exhausted deceased can find eternal rest.

PROGRAM G.F. Handel: MESSIAH ARTISTS Elsa Benoit, soprano Cecelia Hall, alto Robin Tritschler, tenor Dominic Barberi, bass Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir Mogens Dahl, conductor ABOUT THE PROGRAM Again this year, Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir offers exquisite performances of Handel's seemingly indestructible classic "Messiah" in collaboration with the excellent English Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and international soloists. For a number of years, Mogens Dahl and the Chamber Choir have been a process in which those involved have gradually approached the core of the work, as best as this is now possible. The choice of the top orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, was obvious, as this English orchestra has had a particular curiosity to approach music in other and more open ways since its inception in 1986. Hence the name, which the orchestra has taken because they share the Enlightenment's constant urge to investigate and discover. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays instruments that match the period in which the works played were written, which is an important way to approach a more authentic expression. This is matched by the Chamber Choir, which sings with a much smaller ensemble than is often seen – according to sources, there were 32 singers in the choir for the first performance in Dublin in April 1742. Even during Handel's lifetime, the work was performed in different versions, which were conditioned by the circumstances and experiences with the first performances. It is therefore almost impossible to know what the "authentic" performance of "Messiah" has been. You have to let the music speak – and that is what the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do. Here it feels as if we are getting really close to an authentic "Messiah".

PROGRAM G.F. Handel: MESSIAH ARTISTS Elsa Benoit, soprano Cecelia Hall, alto Robin Tritschler, tenor Dominic Barberi, bass Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir Mogens Dahl, conductor ABOUT THE PROGRAM Again this year, Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir offers exquisite performances of Handel's seemingly indestructible classic "Messiah" in collaboration with the excellent English Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and international soloists. For a number of years, Mogens Dahl and the Chamber Choir have been a process in which those involved have gradually approached the core of the work, as best as this is now possible. The choice of the top orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, was obvious, as this English orchestra has had a particular curiosity to approach music in other and more open ways since its inception in 1986. Hence the name, which the orchestra has taken because they share the Enlightenment's constant urge to investigate and discover. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays instruments that match the period in which the works played were written, which is an important way to approach a more authentic expression. This is matched by the Chamber Choir, which sings with a much smaller ensemble than is often seen – according to sources, there were 32 singers in the choir for the first performance in Dublin in April 1742. Even during Handel's lifetime, the work was performed in different versions, which were conditioned by the circumstances and experiences with the first performances. It is therefore almost impossible to know what the "authentic" performance of "Messiah" has been. You have to let the music speak – and that is what the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do. Here it feels as if we are getting really close to an authentic "Messiah".