STÅLE KLEIBERG (b.1958): String Quartet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 2, Sonata for Violin and Cello, Ruf und Nachklang, Ashes, Sonanzae cadenza.
Catalogue Number: 11R080
Label: 2L
Reference: 115
Format: SACD hybrid
Price: $31.98
Description: These are attractive, full-blooded, passionate works in a neo-romantic idiom. Neo-very-late-romantic, that is; especially in the quartet one is reminded of early works by Schoenberg and his disciples before they moved away from tonality, and the substantial piano work and the trio not infrequently recall Debussy. While remaining tonal, Kleiberg's harmonic language is quite adventurous and this, coupled to the detailed, self-referencing structures that the composer favours, produces works that seem dense with musical rhetoric. The trio is particularly taut and tightly argued, while the sonata is a sustained linear dialogue between the two instruments, expanding to denser textures at climactic moments, with a general feeling of pastoral melancholy dispersed by the driven, energetic finale. The slow outer movements of the quartet share a brooding intensity in a tense, astringently dissonant harmonic idiom, temporarily relieved by the propulsive scherzo. Marianne Thorsen, Bård Monsen (violins), Øyvind Gimse (cello), Olel Wuttudal (viola), Jørgen Larsen (piano).