It became in Norway as Karin Rehnqvist’s work Day Is Here! received its premiere – a choral work in four movements for eight voices and strings:
Hamar Cathedral on November 5 with Det Norske Solistkor (The Norwegian Soloist’s Choir) and Ensemble Allegria under the direction of Grete Pedersen.
1. Day is here!
2. The morning star is up
3. I himmelen (In Heaven’s Hall)
4. In beauty may I walk
Here is a review by Elisabeth Klaebo Reitan:
Sometimes I feel like saying “Thank you.” This is one of those times.
The concert began with music by Karin Rehnqvist: the same Rehnqvist who earlier this week was awarded the Nordic Council’s Music Prize. Here she was represented by three works, one of which — Day Is Here! — received its first performance here in Hamar Cathedral, Norway.
Also on the program were Ljusfälten (Fields of Light) and Var inte rädd för mörkret (Do Not Fear the Darkness). The texts in Day is here!, according to the program notes, are traditional texts from indigenous American peoples such as the Pawnee, the Tohono O’odham and the Navajo, along with one Swedish psalm (by Edith Södergran). All take up universal themes of life and survival.
The music is at once beautiful and moving, with a melodicism that bears evident kinship to Swedish folk sounds and a vein of emotion that says “Please, listen.”
Perhaps it’s a little excessive to imagine Rehnqvist as an in-house composer for this choir, this ensemble. But it’s not excessive at all to bow to the trinity: Rehnqvist, Det Norske Solistkor and Ensemble Allegria in perfect harmony under conductor Grete Pedersen.
Foto: Sigrid Traasdahl
