Rune Glerup - Glerup: Perhaps Thus the End - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Martin Wheeler & Les Witche - Kohlhaas [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/30/2014

On his new , Études Poétiques, pianist Rune Alver presents the listener with piano pieces of Signe Lund (1868 - 1950). Lund is one of the most distinguished female composers in Norwegian musical history, but the is controversial nonetheless. In the early 1930s, Lund began to take an interest in National Socialism, and in 1935 she became a member of the Norwegian National Socialist party, Nasjonal Samling. Convicted of treason after the Second World War, she remained sympathetic to the Nazi ideology until her death. However, all the pieces on the album were composed between 1896 and 1928, when Signe Lund was a committed socialist and dedicated feminist. During this time she was involved in a number of causes, including an effort to strengthen the rights of Norwegian composers, and she was one of the initiators of the movement that led to the founding of the Norwegian Society of Composers in 1917. This features a selection of Lund's most familiar pieces, among them, the languorous and melancholy InchLegendeInch, and InchFredsklokkerInch (InchPeace ChimesInch), which she composed upon hearing that World War One had ended. Her distinct tonal language is characterized by a combination of clarity and melancholy darkness. Despite the controversies, Alver's album helps us gain important knowledge of the role of women in the history of Norwegian music. Études Poétiquesis the first of two releases of Signe Lund's complete piano works on the LAWO Classics tag. Rune Alver (b. 1957) made his debut as pianist at the age of twenty. He was born in Bergen and educated at Bergen Music Conservatory and the Norwegian Academy of Music. Alver is active as soloist and chamber musician and maintains a rigorous concert schedule, with performances in Germany, France, Russia, China, South Africa and the USA.

Impromptu - Works By The Young Signe Lund is the last of two albums featuring the composer's total output for piano. The first one, InchÉtudespoétiquesInch (LWC1196), was released in 2020. The works on this recording date from the years of Signe Lund's youth up to her breakthrough around 1900. Piano music that could not be included for lack of space is available on the digital Malgré moi accessible on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal and other digital platforms. Rune Alver has many years of experience performing Grieg's music at the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen. He maintains an extensive concert schedule as soloist and chamber musician with performances throughout Europe and in Russia, China and South Africa. In 2013 he per-formed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Rune Alver collaborates with leading musicians, actors and visual artists in traditional and more experimental contexts. He has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums, among them the complete piano works of Johannes M. Rivertz and David Monrad Johansen.