Ole Edvard Antonsen


Søderlind's New Trumpet Concerto - Aug.03

Excellent Soloist and Excellent Orchestra in Furious Interplay at the Festival’s Gala Concert!

The terrific Ole Edvard Antonsen, the highly engaged conductor Eivind Aadland, and the Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra with its 105 members in great shape, provided a magnificent conclusion of the Festival in the Festivity Hall of Elverum, Norway, Aug.10th, 2003.
 

- It’s no big deal to write music when you have top musicians like Ole Edvard Antonsen and the Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra to perform it, says Ragnar Søderlind.

Ragnar Søderlind’s monumental work Signals of Life and Death became a true demonstration of excellent orchestral musicianship and brilliant solos. When the interplay between soloist and orchestra works so well, and everything is directed so brilliantly by such an engaged conductor, the result just has to be great.

The trumpet concerto was challenging for the musicians and maybe also for the audience. The essence of the first movement was the contrast between the orchestra and the soloist. The music led forth to a battle scene where the orchestra furiously excited the soloist before everything just smoothed out and dissolved. The second movement was a mourning march where soloist Antonsen sensitively displayed the hurt and introspective feelings.

Composer Ragnar Søderlind vas very pleased with the efforts of Ole Edvard Antonsen and the Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra.
-Brilliant! This is the third time Ole Edvard performs the trumpet concerto, and it must have been especially hard today because of the high temperatures in the concert hall, said Ragnar Søderlind after applauding in triumph together with the audience which counted 700.
-This is extremely difficult music is arranged in a sort of well organized chaos. This was fantastic, said Ragnar Søderlind.

The first part of the gala concert presented Norwegian music. The concert opened with Harald Sæverud’s marvelous and thought provoking Kjempeviseslåtten. The music is dedicated Hjemmefronten (the Norwegian Civil Resistance) and was composed during World War II.

The Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Eivind Aadland conveyed the music in a touchingly and elegant manner right from the well known opening bars, through the development of the themes, until the monumental ending with timpani and wind.

The Norwegian National Youth Symphony Orchestra was responsible for yet another honorary accomplishment in the very last piece that was performed in this year’s Festval. The Hungarien composer Bela Bartok’s Concert for Orchestra is no simple piece to put together. The orchestra attended well to the distinctive stamps of each movement. The calmness of the first movement led successfully into the discretely dance like impression of the second movement. We could succumb to the long, magnificent string motions in the third movement, and be thrilled by small and beautiful solo parts in the fourth movement. The last movement was carried out excellently and displayed well the development towards the powerful ending.

The treble clef was taken down by conductor Eivind Aadland while the audience shouted enthusiastically after this brilliant festival experience.


Review by: May Sissel Andersen,
Hamar Arbeiderblad, www.h-a.no,
Aug.1o, 2003.

Translation by Vera Hørven