Two outstanding musicians out of two worlds – Bugge Wesseltoft; one of the great jazz pianists, and Henning Kraggerud; classical violinists – came home to celebrate their memories of Norway’s spring time: longingly and dearly they tell mystical lore of light-coloured nights and dark melancholy. They present minimalistic meditations and paint a musical picture of their homeland with greatest intensity that simply fascinates.
This is important for Bugge Wesseltoft, the grand master of the synthesis of live electronics and jazz improvisation, to now show his more tranquil, classical side again. Together, Wesseltoft and Kraggerud let time progress one season from the winter theme of "It's snowing on my piano" and put together a sparkling program of 16 pieces with connections to spring for "Last Spring", which is founded mostly on Norwegian folk music. The title track is based on a theme from the great Nordic Romantic Edvard Grieg which is also apparent in many of the other tracks. Alongside folk songs like "Om Kvelden" and "Hei hu", also called upon are indigenous composers from various ages, largely unknown to us: from Anne Haavie, deceased in 1888, and Lars Søraas the Elder, to the Danish organist Otto Mortensen, who died in 1986 and the young singer and lyrist Øyonn Groven Myhren. Then there is also an improvisation on the baroque La Folia, the oldest melodic-harmonic compositional structure, and finally a rendition of Johannes Brahms' Lullaby.
Bugge Wesseltoft / piano
Henning Kraggerud / violin, viola & viola concorda
ACT
