The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s digital music series ‘Close up – at a distance’ continues
throughout June with five more online concerts being performed and streamed from the
Grieghallen in Bergen. These one-hour performance are available on the orchestra’s free
streaming platform Bergenphilive: https://www.bergenphilive.no/
Of particular note is the orchestra’s concert on Monday 15 June which not only celebrates
Grieg’s birthday, but marks the lifting of the majority of lockdown restrictions in Norway and the
“opening up” of live performances in the country. Strict risk-reducing measures (i.e. one meter
social distancing and numbered places) will be followed.
The concert will start at 6pm CEST and will be repeated later that evening at 8.30pm CEST.
The orchestra have invited 200 guests to each performance, all of whom have contributed to
fighting Covid-19 and the concert performances will be performed as a tribute to them. Only the
first concert will be streamed.
The concert programme features music by Edvard Grieg, who served as the Bergen
Philharmonia Orchestra’s Artistic Director between 1880 and 1882, and will be conducted by the
orchestra’s current Chief Conductor Edward Gardner.
‘Close up – at a distance’ – June performances
Thursday 4 June – 19.30 CEST
Edward Gardner, conductor
Melina Mandozzi, violin; Sigurd Greve, oboe
Grieg: Evening in the Mountains
Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending & Concerto for Oboe and Strings
Britten: Sinfonietta
Grieg: The Last Spring
Thursday 11 June – 19.30 CEST
Eivind Gullberg Jensen, conductor
Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen, cello
Stravinsky: Symphonies of Winds
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major
Schumann: Symphony No. 4
Monday 15 June – 18.00 CEST
Edward Gardner, conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Grieg: Sigurd Jorsalfar, ‘Homage March’
Grieg / Ørjan Matre: Lyrical pieces, including the premiere of a new movement ‘Notturno’
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Thursday 18 June – 19.30 CEST
Edward Gardner, conductor
Ilze Klava, viola; Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen, cello; Sigurd Øgaard, organ
Edvard Grieg Kor
Purcell: Funeral Sentences for the Death of Queen Mary
Nordheim: Clamavi, for solo cello
Dowland: If my complaints could passions move
Britten: Lachrymae, for Viola and Strings
Britten: Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury
Pärt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
Tallis: The 3rd mode of Archbishop Parker’s Psalter (1567)
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Thursday 25 June – 19.30 CEST
James Gaffigan, conductor
Christian Ihle Hadland, piano
Rameau: Les Indes galantes, suite
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 ‘Jupiter’