ARNE NORDHEIM (1931-2010): Monolith for Orchestra, Canzona for Orchestra, Epitaffio for Orchestra and Tape, Fonos for Trombone and Orchestra, Adieu for String Orchestra and Bell Sounds.

Description: These orchestral essays span a good part of Nordheim's career, from 1960's Canzona to 2003's Fonos, a re-working of the 1990 Monolith into a three-movement trombone concerto. Only one of the works is actually called Monolith, but the title suggests a quality common to all; the music abounds in massive, granitic textures, and for all the composer's polystylistic tendencies (which admit a significant degree of tonality alongside more avant-garde procedures) there is a powerful sense of cohesiveness, of whole stone formed out of the disparate crystals of orchestral texture. Epitaffio has an electroacoustic component, skillfully integrated into the sound-color textures of the piece, with a large percussion battery (emphasizing bell sounds, a characteristic preoccupation of the composer) acting as a bridge between acoustic and electronically transformed sonorities. Marius Hesby (trombone), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra; Rolf Gupta, Jukka-Pekka Saraste (Fonos).