Classical Music Slow TV - Grieg

Imagine a 30 hour long Grieg playlist...

Get your Grieg playlist to hand. One of the Slow TV shows in development for broadcast later this year is a marathon play through of all Grieg's 74 opuses.

I've long thought of a substantial work of classical music as a perfect illustration for the complete-feeling of well made Slow TV. Somewhere between Handel's Messiah or Wagner's Ring Cycle. 

The UK radio station Classic FM has The Full Works Concert which often allows a work to be expressed more fully than the popular few minutes that make it onto compilations. Which illustrates visual media quite well - it's edited down to the most exciting, stimulating shots and takes, which keeps attention but then extracts a lot of other good moments. And that sense of wholeness.

Speaking of wholeness, June 15th this year marks 175 years since Grieg was born, and so, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK2 will be showing a 30 hour live show of his work. Now, that is a Full Works Concert.

Different locations are currently hosting the production including Grieghallen in Bergen, NRK's studio in Marienlyst in Oslo and Grieg's hometown of Troldhaugen.

The success of Slow TV in Norway owes a lot to tapping into subjects and themes of regional and national identity. This certainly keeps up the trend - NRK producer Thomas Hellum comments that "This is the soundtrack to Norway". 

Starting as an idea on Facebook seems fitting when bearing in mind the use of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in "The Social Network" film about the creation of Facebook. There is also a Facebook event page for the broadcast 

It isn't the first time Slow TV has been themed around music; in 2014 the entire 899 hymns of the Norwegian Hymn Book were sung live over two and a half days.

Concerning #NRKGrieg ,The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra page reads:

"Most concerts take place in Bergen. The orchestral works will be performed at the Grieghallen and the Large Studio of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Orchestra (KORK), while the main emphasis of the works - piano pieces, songs and chamber music in general - will be performed at Troldhaugen. "

"We start at 18:00 on Friday 15 June...  Peer Gynt in stage version around 0100 Saturday, Rondane at sunrise, Holbergsuiten for lunch Saturday, Haugtussa for dinner, and finally Psalms - Grieg's last opus - at the tomb at Troldhaugen late Saturday night."

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Slow TV Choir 'Cantus' - Album Review

Cantus' Northern Lights - New Album

Cantus. Not only are they the choir singing in the choral music to Disney's 'Frozen', more importantly for this blog, they are one of the many choirs who featured in NRK's Hymn Book Slow TV. And they have a new album out. And it's rather good.

In November 2014, there was a huge Slow TV production in Trondheim - 60 hours of singing the entire Norwegian Hymnbook, cover to cover, with a couple hundred choirs and a few thousand singers rostered in during those days.

I was blessed to be in Trondheim to cover the Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt Slow TV for my Masters Degree, which majored on Slow TV.

I followed a few of the choirs on social media during my time in Trondheim and in the time following. So, when Cantus' marketing kicked in, my ears pricked up and I thought, 'this is something I need to investigate'.

I bought the CD from a UK high street retailer (I like to help keep alive physical music shops you can walk in to, browse and purchase music) and have listened to it many times over in the time since its release

Here's a short review from my instagram account:

My 1 minute #review of @cantusnorway #NorthernLights CD. Longer video on slowtelevision.blogspot.no Thursday morning 25th May. #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #ClassicFM #Norway #Frozen #WomensChoir #FrodeFjellheim #Choir

A post shared by Tim Prevett (@the_slow_tv_blogger) on May 24, 2017 at 2:09pm PDT

Here's a longer review from my YouTube account:

I was absolutely entranced by Cantus' performance of "Mitt hjerte alltid vanker" (audio used in the below video). It remains one of my favourite musical moments during Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt, so I am pleased there's a short reference to it in 'Northern Lights'.

The video is made of offcuts which didn't make it into the final edit of my main documentary. All music used with permission.

It's great to hear Cantus' 'Northern Lights' on Classic FM in the UK (chart announcement below). Let's hope they can dominate the chart.

@cantusnorway #NorthernLights entered @classicfm chart at Number 2! Other UK #ClassicalMusic chart at Number 1. Maybe it'll get higher this week on the #ClassicFM #MusicChart? #ChoralMusic #Norway

A post shared by Tim Prevett (@the_slow_tv_blogger) on May 25, 2017 at 1:26am PDT

Cantus performed for a few hymns, and all segments of Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt with Cantus can be seen HERE, the first performance just before 29 minutes in, at this link

Follow Cantus on their Facebook page

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Slow TV and Cantus - 'Frozen' Choir - New Album

Cantus performing during the Hymn Book Slow TV, 2015

It turns out there's a very good Norwegian Slow TV link with the animated blockbuster, Frozen.

Before the film was made, the women's choir, Cantus, had a CD out which the producers of Frozen picked up and played as they carried out some of their pre-production around Norway; this helped inform some of the aesthetics of the film and got Cantus the job of singing for the film.

In November 2014, there was a huge Slow TV production in Trondheim - 60 hours of singing the entire Norwegian Hymnbook, cover to cover, with a couple hundred choirs and a few thousand singers rostered in during those days.

I was blessed to be in Trondheim to cover the Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt for my Masters Degree, which majored on Slow TV. An unforgettable few days which I will carry with me for my years on Earth.

The above video features Cantus singing in the first song; the video is made of offcuts which didn't make it into the final edit of my main documentary. All music used with permission.

I was absolutely entranced by the performance of "Mitt hjerte alltid vanker" (audio used in the above video), a spine-tingling advent hymn, unaware of the choir's link to the hugely successful film. It remains one of my two clear favourite musical moments during Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt, the other being the performance by Embla Damene of Grieg's "I Himmelen", which was new for me. Both tunes I find myself humming from time to time. Sometimes bits of music bore deep into your being and lodge there with great meaning and resonance.

Cantus' Northern Lights - New Album

With any luck, I hope to hear Cantus' 'Northern Lights' on Classic FM in the UK before long, and I'm also pre-ordering my copy.

Cantus performed for a few hymns, and all segments of Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt with Cantus can be seen HERE, the first performance just before 29 minutes in, at this link

Follow Cantus on their Facebook page

More Norwegian Slow TV about to happen within the next few days (April 2017); see the second brief digest of news about a week of Reindeer Migration on The Slow TV Blog.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog