IMPRESSIONS - Organ improvisations and hymns in Nidaros Cathedral Petra Bjørkhaug
Album info
Album-Release:
2025
HRA-Release:
23.04.2025
Label: Øra Fonogram
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Artist: Petra Bjørkhaug
Composer: Petra Bjørkhaug (1964)
Album including Album cover
- Petra Bjørkhaug (b. 1964): Ljoset I:
- 1 Bjørkhaug: Ljoset I 03:14
- I himmelen, i himmelen:
- 2 Bjørkhaug: I himmelen, i himmelen 05:20
- Ave maris stella:
- 3 Bjørkhaug: Ave maris stella 04:56
- John Pål Inderberg (b. 1950), Petra Bjørkhaug: Sørgemarsj:
- 4 Inderberg, Bjørkhaug: Sørgemarsj 05:34
- Petra Bjørkhaug: Ljoset II:
- 5 Bjørkhaug: Ljoset II 01:15
- Det er båd’ godt og sømmeligt:
- 6 Bjørkhaug: Det er båd’ godt og sømmeligt 06:09
- Improvisata ”I himmelrik ei borg”:
- 7 Bjørkhaug: Improvisata ”I himmelrik ei borg” 04:55
- Cantabile:
- 8 Bjørkhaug: Cantabile 04:48
- Improvisata ”I ungdommens dage”:
- 9 Bjørkhaug: Improvisata ”I ungdommens dage” 04:14
- Traditionel: Visetone pols fra Undse:
- 10 Traditionel: Visetone pols fra Undse 02:20
- Petra Bjørkhaug: Eg veit i himmelrik ei borg:
- 11 Bjørkhaug: Eg veit i himmelrik ei borg 05:39
- Ljoset III:
- 12 Bjørkhaug: Ljoset III 01:31
- Playing stones:
- 13 Bjørkhaug: Playing stones 04:08
- En smuk aftensang:
- 14 Bjørkhaug: En smuk aftensang 06:14
Info for IMPRESSIONS - Organ improvisations and hymns in Nidaros Cathedral
For almost 1,000 years, Nidaros Cathedral has made a strong impression on people. The pilgrim came in the Middle Ages, after a long and tiring journey with his personal history. In the same way, the modern pilgrim comes to the sanctuary today to seek something greater than himself. In all these years, music has been there, enveloping people and giving tones to the divine. In Impressions we set these impressions to music; through timeless improvisations, with old and new hymn tunes and compositions.
We have included some of the beautiful and expressive melodies from Olavsmusikken in the compositions "Ljoset", as well as the old melody of the Marian hymn "Ave maris stella". Folk tunes are also a central element in church singing through many centuries, and for us it was natural to bring out some of the most well-known and beloved hymns. What the old texts have in common is that with their rich imagery they have been and are an inspiration for musicians and composers in different times.
The organ music on was recorded in its entirety on the newly restored Steinmeyer organ of Nidaros Cathedral. The instrument is a gift to today's pilgrims in Nidaros Cathedral, where the organ music can envelop the people who enter the cathedral with a wealth of timbres and expressions. Impressions reproduces some of what one can experience in Nidaros Cathedral – a cathedral that has made an impression on people for almost 1000 years!
The recording of "Impressions" is supported by Nidaros Cathedral Parish, the Norwegian Composers' Association, Trondheim Municipality and the Fund for Performing Artists.
Petra Bjørkhaug, Steinmeyer organ in Nidaros Catehdral, Trondheim Norway
Petra Bjørkhaug
(1964) studied at the Conservatory in Trondheim, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 1983-1993. In Trondheim she studied classical piano, church organ, pedagogy and composition with teachers Bjørn Andor Drage, Per Fridtjov Bonsaksen and Henning Sommerro. She finished her Masters degree in Oslo in 2017, at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) in the field «The Master of Music Performance». She had the the focus on organ improvisation in her Master degree, and studied with professor at NMH, Inger-Lise Ulsrud. Petra has also taken lessons and courses in organ improvisation in London and Paris with Loic Maille, Duncan Middleton and Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer- Choplin.
Petra has been an organist and a choir conductor in several churches in Trondheim and Bodø since 1983, in Nidaros Cathedral as conductor from 1998-2000, and on a regular basis as Cathedral Organist since 2007. Holding this position she is responsible for playing organconcerts and services in the Cathedral, and she has, together with the cathedral staff, been responsible for organ festivals – «Orgelfest» - several times since 2009. She has also during shorter periods conducted choirs in the cathedral, and has held the position as Director of Music from 2017-2021. She has been responsible for numerous projects presenting organ music for children, and the project «Cathedral and Organ Sound» presented music from the Steinmeyer organ, and reached about 15 000 school children in Trondheim during 2014-2020.
With Petra’s speciality in improvisation and composition she has given a lot of concerts using this, both as a solo (player) performer, and together with choirs and other musicians, from both classical, folk music, technological and improvisation backgrounds. She has done numerous concerts with jazz saxophonist, professor John Pål Inderberg and Kristoffer Lo. Petra is regularly composing music for choir and other ensembles, - the latest is choir music for Nidaros Cathedral Choir, wich will be released on the label 2L in November 2023. In 2019 she was composing and improvising organ music for a theatre performance, which was performed in Nidaros Cathedral and other churches/cathedrals in Norway.
This album contains no booklet.