Articles
Berliner Philharmoniker Wind Quintet performs Kvandal on three occasions
5 December the Berliner Philharmoniker Quintet performs Kvandal's Quintet op. 34 (1971) in the Berliner Philharmonie as part of a region themed concert, together with works by Aho, Vasks and Nielsen. The concert was called Northern Lights: Music for wind quintet from Scandinavia and the Baltic region. The concert was held in the Chamber Music Hall. The same programme was also performed on 5 October 2011.
During the 2011 edition of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 5 - 15 July, the Berliner Quintet also performed Kvandal's Quintet.
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.
The work is also included on the Quintet's programme for the 2012/ 2013 season, and will be performed on a number of occasions together with works by Reicha, Haas and Bohuslav Foerster.
Symphonic Epos at the University Concert Hall (Aulaen)
On 4 December 2011 the symphony orchestra of The Norwegian Academy of Music performed Kvandal's Symphonic Epos, conducted by Cathrine Winnes Trevino.
The concert took place in the University Concert Hall (Aulaen).
On the programme were also works Norwegian composers Irgens- Jensen, Svendsen and composition student Rane Bauck. Cecilie Cathrine Ødegården performed Irgens- Jensen's Japanischer Frühling as part of her diploma exam.
Kvandal at the Two Moors Festival, Devon
On 18 October 2011 Berlin Philharmonic soloist Matthew Hunter performed Elegy and Capriccio for solo Viola op. 47. On the programme was also Benjamin Britten's Metamorphoses and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Blake songs. The festival concerts in England's smallest parish church - Concert at Culbone - have become something of a legend, with minimal oerforming space and intimate chamber music atmosphere.
David and Julie Coucheron with 'ultramodernist' Kvandal
Monday 17 October at 8 pm David og Julia Coucheron held their Carnegie Hall debut concert. The second half of the concert was devoted to Norwegian music.
-Much more satisfying was the ultramodernist Johan Kvandal, whose Aria, Cadenza e Finale was taught to this formidable pair of young performers by the composer himself. Minor seconds for the angst-ridden abounded, writes journalist Lawrence Kudlow of the The New York Sun.
Scandinavian innovators
Sunday 12 February 2012 the chamber music ensemble De Bezetting Speelt performs Kvandal's Quintet for Hardanger Fiddle and String Quartet op. 50 at the Arminius in Rotterdam. Arminius is known as Rotterdam's 'podium for art, culture and debate'. The theme for the concert is 'Scandinavian future', and the hardanger fiddle quintet by Kvandal is emphasized as one of few classical, complex works composed for this unique folk music instrument. The hardanger fiddle soloist is Caroline Wagner. On the programme are also works by Jean Sibelius and previously unpublished pieces by Carl Nielsen.
Nordic festival concert in Scotland
Saturday 22 October 2011 works by Kvandal, Grieg, Irgens-Jensen og Sally Garden were performed as part of a Sound Festival Concert at the Duff House in Banff, Scotland. The theme was 'viewpoints and voices on Northern identity, with music, writings and new discoveries from Norway and Scotland.'
The October happenings at the Duff House are sponsored by Aberdeenshire Council, Historic Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland.
Doctoral degree in Kvandal's life and work
Nathalie Hippel-Laabs: Johan Kvandal - Leben und Werk. Eine biographisch-analytische Studie unter besonderer Berücksichtigung sonderpädagogischer Umsetzung. Published on Peter Lang - International Academic Publishers. Publication date: 4 April 2011. The book's object is Kvandal's life and work, and an analysis of his distinctive musical language, which he called a 'free modern tonality'. In his works he combined the European neoclassical expression with the modal tonality of Norwegian folk music. Hippel-Laabs also examins the composer's opera Mysteries, based on Knut Hamsun's novel with the same name.
The author graduated in 2010 from the University of Münster with this work.