Feb 3, 2017
Henning Kraggerud, the soloist on this new recording of works for violin and orchestra, is delighted to be able to introduce Halvorsen’s Violin Concerto to a patient public. It was long thought to have been lost: “Ever since I was a little boy I have lamented the tragic loss of Halvorsen’s Violin Concerto which I read about in music books. Halvorsen’s Passacaglia on a theme by Handel is one of the most internationally performed pieces by a Norwegian composer. So, one wondered, how did his concerto, premièred by Kathleen Parlow and the Berlin Philharmonic in 1909, sound? Then, more than 100 years after the première, it reappears out of the blue in a library in Toronto. Here, then, is the World Première CD recording, and you can finally hear the concerto I have dreamt about since I was a boy.” The podcast is presented by Raymond Bisha.