ECLAT 12

Eivind Buene: Schubert Lounge (2018) ^WP

Tora Augestad, mezzo-soprano
Halvor Festervoll Melien, baritone
Christian Eggen, piano
Eivind Buene, vocals [&] Fender Rhodes
Oslo Sinfonietta
Conductor Christian Eggen

A production of Oslo Sinfonietta with the kind support of Bergesenstiftelse.

The performance in Stuttgart is sponsored by Music Norway and the Norwegian Embassy Berlin.

Franz Schubert, says Eivind Buene, was a singer/songwriter. A Schubertiade as a role model, the composer–who himself grew up with pop music–imagined Schubert in the singer/songwriter pose of the 70s: with a Fender Rhodes and the voice of a pop singer. So he staged his first Schubert Lounges for his friends in Oslo. Inspired by one of these house concerts, baritone Halvor Mellen suggested Buene that both of them once could work together as singers.

Eivind Buene is interested in this friction between different aesthetics and different systems of thought. In the further developed Schubert Lounge three different musical styles meet: Buene’s own recontextualized version of Schubert songs, Halvor Mellen’s interpretation of Buene’s music composed for his voice, based on fragments from Schubert’s diary, and Tora Augestad’s very personal interpretation of Schubert songs.

The musicians of the Oslo Sinfonietta move between the worlds of singer/songwriter and contemporary music. Since Eivind Buenes’ composer debut 20 years ago, the ensemble has been an important interpreter of his music. Now they will perform together for the first time.

Duration approx. 60 minutes
Broadcast April 3, 2019/SWR2 JetztMusik/11:03 pm