Gunnar and Lisa
Emma and Lisa
In the cutting room
Reviews
Music web international
Too many Christmas records plough through the same hackneyed songs in strict traditional settings or soaped up and happy-go-lucky arrangements. This disc is an altogether different proposition. Not that it shuns traditional material but there are no Jingle Bells or We Wish You a Merry Christmas within sight and apart from Silent Night, which is early 19th century, the melodies are early Baroque or late Renaissance or even older. This is basically no novelty either but the treatment of the songs is. Organist and arranger Gunnar Idenstam’s concept has been to intertwine the old melodies with folk music, either ‘real’ traditional or newly written in traditional styles. The choir quite often perform the songs in original settings while the folk music material is employed contrastively or contrapuntally. For this purpose Idenstam engaged Lisa Rydberg, who is uniquely trained as both a folk fiddle expert (riksspelman) and a baroque specialist. For the solo vocals he employed two young folk music singers, also schooled in the old traditions. The outcome of this is a programme that constantly juxtaposes the sacred and the profane worlds as well as joining an ‘academic’ and a ‘folksy’ way of creating music: dance rhythms mixing with strict chorales, cluster-like minimalism against improvisational or ‘straight’ tunes. Few of the sacred songs are Swedish; most of them are borrowed from Germany or in one or two cases from France. Whether one likes the concept or not is up to personal taste. When I got this disc it arrived too late to be reviewed before Christmas – and no one buys a Christmas disc in January. I played it through as in duty bound and felt unconcerned but returning to it now, in anticipation of the festive season, I was caught from the outset.
It sets out with an organ improvisation above a sustained bourdon, followed by a polska for violin and organ and then the choir sings a cappella the first verse of Bereden väg för Herran, probably the best known Advent hymn in Sweden – the melody is a German folksong from 1693 – and in the two following verses the hymn and the polska are combined. Towards the end descant parts are added. A new organ improvisation leads over to the next song, Ett barn är fött, a newly composed setting of the traditional text by Martin Luther, and then it is combined with the original melody, also of German origin.
This suite is followed by the beautiful Personent hodie from the 16thcentury Nordic hymnbook Piae Cantiones. It is arranged for violin and choir a cappella. The old German chorale Det är en ros utsprungen (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen) is here sung in its original version and intertwined with another polska – beautiful and fascinating with rhythmic shifts. As in Ett barn är fött Sofia Karlsson is soloist in an idiom that others probably like better than I do. It is skilful, it is musical but I can’t quite stomach the sound.
Gläd dig du Kristi brud is innovatively performed as a slow schottis and Idenstam employs the organ’s crumhorn to create a medieval effect. The springy rhythm is a fine illustration to the joyous theme of the text.
Then follow three songs about Staffan (S:t Stephen, the first martyr), a very popular figure in the Swedish Christmas and Lucia traditions. The first is a bouncy entrance song combined with a violin solo in the shape of a halling, a well known Norwegian dance, then comes one of the best known Staffan songs, sung a cappella and finally a swinging version, again a halling with gospel accompaniment.
En jungfru födde ett barn idag is a dancing melody in ¾ time and the interludes – violin and organ – are variations on the melody in baroque style. Father Bach would have nodded approvingly. Stilla natt is basically a simple song, according to tradition composed in no time at all just before Christmas and performed as a duet with guitar accompaniment, since rats had gnawed holes in the bellows of the organ. There is probably no other song in the Christmas tradition that has been subjected to such an amount of arrangements and re-writings. This is another example, where the simple melody is surrounded by or even entangled in a polska, causing the gentle flow of the tune to be limping. Fresh approach? Sure – and it is all so professionally done – but why couldn’t it remain the siciliano that Franz Gruber intended?
Frid på jord is quite another matter. The text is an old pietist hymn, the melody is Sofia Karlsson’s. It opens with Sophia playing a tin whistle and then she sings her composition backed by the choir in a very evocative minimalist piece of music. This is my cup of tea! And so isGrins Hans’ Jässpôdspolska, a tune after a fiddler from Rättvik in the province of Dalecarlia. It is purely instrumental with violin and organ gradually growing to a climax and then back to a very soft end. Great!
Emma Härdelin, fourth generation of folk musicians in a well known family, sings the medieval Världens frälsare and embellishes her solo the same way a folk fiddler would. The combined forces of choir, organ, violin and solo voice is grandiose. The concluding Veni, veni Emanuel is another medieval hymn, where the choir sings the melody with a contrapuntal fiddle tune and then, together with the organ and the two singers employing the ‘kulning’ technique, the programme is brought to a jubilant end. ‘Kulning’ may not be a well known phenomenon everywhere in the world so a short explanation is not out of place. It is a way of singing with a vibrato-less tone in the uppermost register of the female voice and the technique was used primarily to call the cows at the mountain pastures in Scandinavia. The sound can be heard at very long distances and may also have been used to send messages to other herdsmaids. The technique has been employed until quite recent times in the province of Dalecarlia and the tradition has been kept alive to this very day. The sound is impressive, especially outdoors where it belongs, but two maids at the same time, as here? It is exotic, trust my word, but hardly beautiful.
Don’t let this or any other of my dissenting opinions deter you from lending an ear to this different Christmas disc. It is refreshing after so many treacly Christmas songs one can’t protect oneself from in shopping malls and restaurants. New wine in old bottles, indeed. I appreciated so much of it – but I don’t think I will play the ‘kulning’ on Christmas Eve.
Göran Forsling
Dagens Nyheter 2007-12-19
Gunnar Idenstam med Sofia Karlsson m fl: “Folkjul”
Magisk jul i folkton.
- Artist: Gunnar Idenstam, Sofia Karlsson, Emma Härdelin, S:t Jakobs kammarkör m fl, Gary Graden, dirigent
- Genre: Folkmusik
- Musikbolag: BIS/Naxos
Betyg: 4 av 6
Äntligen en julskiva med ett alldeles eget tonfall, som odlar julmusikens folkliga kärna. Här finns en Staffansvisa som korsar hallingen med jazzsväng och orgelprakt, medan barocka fiolslingor växer till en folkvisedoftande örtagård kring Stilla natt. Exotiskt krockar siciliennen med Orsapolskan, och Sofia Karlssons sopran lyser som ett ljus mitt i virrvarret. Ibland hade Gunnar Idenstams fantasi mått väl av att tuktas, och det är inte utan att överdosen av krystade arrangemang och pompösa tempi väcker längtan efter en simpel Räven raskar. Avlyssnad i mindre doser en färgstark, men snudd på excentrisk julskiva.
Sofia Nyblom
Sydsvenskan 27 november 2007
Artist: Gunnar Idenstam, Sofia Karlsson, Emma Härdelin, Lisa Rydberg & S:t Jacobs kammarkör
Album: Folkjul
Genre: Jul
Skivbolag: BIS/Naxos
Betyg: 4
Orgelhjälten Gunnar Idenstam har tidigare visat folkframfötterna och det är hans spel som knyter ihop hela säcken.
”Folkjul” visar hur man listigt kan vitalisera kära gamla kyrkliga julsånger som ”Det är en ros utsprungen” och ”Stilla natt” utan att göra våld på dem. I Idenstams omväxlande arrangemang vävs nyskrivna och äldre folkliga melodier in i klassikerna och gänget tar sig också an några mindre kända, medeltida sånger.
Den skickliga folkviolinisten Lisa Rydberg sätter ordentlig prägel och folksångerskorna Sofia Karlsson och Emma Härdelin gör sitt jobb med innerlighet och känsla. Synd bara att de stundtals fått för låg volym på skivan. S:t Jacobs kammarkör från Stockholm, ledd av Gary Graden, är en riktigt vass organisation – stora fylliga röster som också kan komma trippande på tårna. Samsjunget och elastiskt, med många uttryck i.
Lyssna på: Världens frälsare
Alexander Agrell
Expressen 3 jan 2008
Klassiska kanoner
Folkjul. A Swedish Folk Christmas.
S:t Jacobs kammarkör, Sofia Karlsson, Emma Härdelin, Gunnar Idenstam. Dir Gary Graden. BIS/CMM
Bortsett från att orglar av tradition har en tendens att köra över de flesta körkonserter är det här en av julens trevligaste svenska julskivor. Lite lagom sakralt bara. S:t Jacobs kammarkör i Stockholm har hittat en mättad glöggklang som sjunger oskulden av julmusiken.
4 AV 5 MÖJLIGA I BETYG I DAGENS NYHETER
4 AV 5 MÖJLIGA I BETYG I SYDSVENSKAN
4 AV 5 MÖJLIGA I BETYG I LANDSKRONA-POSTEN
HÖGSTA BETYG I TRELLEBORGS ALLEHANDA/YSTADS ALLEHANDA
“På Folkjul möts svensk polsketakt och klassiska julpsalmer. Det är garanterat vibratofritt i solofolksång och violin. Inte musik för den som önskar sig invand julfrid, men som längtar hänryckning och nytolkning och som gillade skivan Bach på svenska.”
(Göteborgs-Posten)
“…julmusiken ingår äktenskap med polskor, orgelimprovisationer och en kongenial experimentlusta med överraskande gott resultat”
(Nerikes Allehanda)
“Här kan du få flera glädjechocker”
(Norrköpings Tidningar)
Helsingborgs Dagblad 7 dec 2007
Organisten Gunnar Idenstam och violinisten Lisa Rydberg förenade med stor framgång klassiskt och folkmusik på skivan “Bach på svenska”. Nu utökar de kombinationen med traditionella julsånger och tar till sin hjälp Sofia Karlsson, Emma Härdelin och S:t Jakobs kammarkör.
Blandningen är stundtals sällsam. Idenstam, som står för arrangemangen, rör ihop tongångar från barock och fransk symfonisk orgelmusik. Vad som börjar innerligt och stilla kan sluta monumentalt med fullt verk.
Är man beredd att låta kulning kröna en latinsk hymn — “Stilla natt” korsbefruktas av en långsamt svängande polska — får man en synnerligen rik upplevelse, som komplement till alla standardiserade julpotpurrier.
Gunnar Idenstam: Folkjul, betyg 4