Ars et Vita
Magne Hegdal I Håkon Austbø I Sanae Yoshida I Ellen Ugelvik
Magne Hegdal is a maverick composer in the Norwegian new music scene. Over the past fifty years, his music has both followed and deviated from prevailing composition trends. Having explored both extreme control and aleatoric strategies, he composes today based on his intuition, claiming to have no fixed style.
Inviting the listener to a journey into the composer's life trajectory, Ars et Vita – Remembrances, experiences and dreamt waltzes for one grand piano and 1 to 3 pianists, or piano one to six hands, is a musical autobiography performed by Håkon Austbø, Ellen Ugelvik and Sanae Yoshida, three pianists from different generations who have contributed to placing Hegdal’s music on the musical map.
Lasting an hour and 45 minutes and covering the composer’s entire musical output, the monumental cycle, completed in 2019, contains a vivid patchwork of musical quotations, reflecting at once Hegdal’s profound interest in the simplicity of nature, his musical dreams, and the radicalness of his composition practice.
ultimAdvisor
VitabrevisIII
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A hidden masterpiece revealed
What a treat to hear Magne Hegdal’s musical memoir! It’sa very rich and personal piece and by listening carefully, you can detect musical extracts from his own works, chorales and complex fugues, and even snatches of composers such as Bach and Beethoven, which he heard his sister practising when he was a child. A magical evening.’
Quiltedmemories
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Art and life – simply stated
I hear a mix of ‘dreamed waltzes’, experiences of countryside landscapes, and evocations of stellar constellations. The composer himself has called 'Ars et Vita' a work with very diverse material; from the very simple to the complex, and with expressions from the objective and distant to the direct and emotional’. It’s hard to disagree.
Sanae Yoshida I Photo: Tomoko Fukushi - Shuko Katami - Asako Sekiyama
Ellen Ugelvik I Photo: Erika Hebbert
Håkon Austbø I Photo: Ivan Tostrup
