Henning Kraggerud, Bugge Wesseltoft – Bugge & Henning: Last Spring (2012/2014) [ProStudioMasters FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Henning Kraggerud, Bugge Wesseltoft – Bugge & Henning: Last Spring (2012/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96kHz | Time – 01:13:23 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: ProStudioMasters | Booklet, Front Cover | © ACT Music

As the title implies, Last Spring is a revisiting of the joys of springtime. It is not an exulting, whirling awakening, but a sustained, minimalistic meditation, oriented strongly towards the details, the variance of the melodies and the breadth and beauty of the sound. It is based on the most perfect interaction possible: soft piano melts into the pizzicato melodies that Henning Kraggerud entices out of his 1744 Guarneri violin, his Harald Lund viola and his unique six-stringed viola Concorda.

Two outstanding musicians out of two worlds – Bugge Wesseltoft; one of the great jazz pianists, and Henning Kraggerud; classical violinists – came home to celebrate their memories of Norway’s spring time: longingly and dearly they tell mystical lore of light-coloured nights and dark melancholy. They present minimalistic meditations and paint a musical picture of their homeland with greatest intensity that simply fascinates.

Together, Wesseltoft and Kraggerud let time progress one season from the winter theme of ‘It’s snowing on my piano’ and put together a sparkling program of 16 pieces with connections to spring for ‘Last Spring’, which is founded mostly on Norwegian folk music. The title track is based on a theme from the great Nordic Romantic Edvard Grieg which is also apparent in many of the other tracks. Alongside folk songs like ‘Om Kvelden’ and ‘Hei hu’, also called upon are indigenous composers from various ages, largely unknown to us: from Anne Haavie, deceased in 1888, and Lars Søraas the Elder, to the Danish organist Otto Mortensen, who died in 1986 and the young singer and lyrist Øyonn Groven Myhren. Then there is also an improvisation on the baroque La Folia, the oldest melodic-harmonic compositional structure, and finally a rendition of Johannes Brahms’ Lullaby.

Tracklist:
01 – Blåmann (melody by Anne Haavie)
02 – Om Kvelden
03 – Margit Hjukse
04 – Stevtone
05 – Hei hu
06 – Jeg lagde meg så silde
07 – Øyonn Groven Myhren: Lilja
08 – Last Spring (based on Edvard Grieg)
09 – Byssan Lull
10 – Den fyrste song (melody by Lars Søraas senior)
11 – Gjendines Bådnlåt
12 – Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
13 – Sæterjentens Søndag (based on Ole Bull / Johann Svendsen)
14 – La Folia (Improvisation)
15 – Til Ungdommen (melody by Otto Mortensen)
16 – Johannes Brahms: Wiegenlied