JOHAN HALVORSEN (1864-1935): Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 - Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Suite from Mascarade, La Mélancolie (Mélodie de Ole Bull) for Violin and Orchestra, Entry March of the Boyars, Andante religioso for Violin and Orchestra.

Description: Oddly, Halvorsen is still rather underrecorded. There is only one other recording of each of the works on this disc (except for the popular Entry March) and the six-minute Andante religioso is a first recording. Those of you without the 1988 Aurora version of the symphony (reissued on Simax in 1999) will need to start collecting here. Halvorsen waited until he was 59 to write his first symphony and its both full of energy and youthful vigor and in the conservative style of Dvorák, Svendsen and Tchaikovsky. The 28-minute suite of music for a Holberg comedy comes from 1922 and is baroque pastiche of the finest quality. Marianne Thorsen (violin), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; Neeme Järvi.