The premiere of Missa Brevis was a sincere meeting with our own time. Modern music which inspires confidence due to authenticity and charisma.
Johan Kvandal on himself
One’s musical expression really has more to do with instinct, a kind of voice of the heart, than with the outer intellect. All I have heard and studied, however, has strenghtened my belief in the tonal principle.
The mysterious Johan Kvandal
– Why do I think ‘Mysteries’ is suitable as an opera? Well, this distinct cast of carachters lends itself brilliantly to the stage! Johan Nilsen Nagen – ” in an eccentric yellow suit and with a wide velvet hat”, Dagny Kielland – “with a thick blonde braid down her back”, Martha Gude – “her hair is white; her eye hair is terribly black, and appear to make the eyes smolder”, and Minutten – “his walk was so troublesome it was conspicuous; and yet he moved so quickly around”.
Doctoral degree in Kvandal’s music
Nathalie Hippel-Laabs has done her doctoral degree on Johan Kvandal`s life and music at the University of Münster in Germany. She has done a biographical-analytical study with special attention to Kvandal´s free modern tonality.