Ole Kristian Ruud is well-known for his excellent cycle of Grieg's orchestral music issued by BIS. Not many listeners, however, are aware that from 2006 to 2012 he was the Director of the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, establishing the band's reputation internationally. He has returned as conductor in a project initiated by him, recovering band music by Johan Svendsen (1840-1911), Adolf Hansen (1852-1911), Ole Olsen (1850-1927) and Alfred Evensen (1883-1942). Ruud sees this bounty of music for the wind band tradition in Oslo between 1850 to 1900 as a forgotten 'Golden Age'. Together with the Band members, he has located and studied dusty manuscripts, and in order to come as close as possible to the original sound, arranged for the players to have authentic instruments.

Svendsen's second symphony (in the rare key of B major) is one of his best works and the crown of this album. Like several of the composers on this album, he was a military musician in the early part of his career. When the young Adolf Hansen went to study under Svendsen, the master tested him by asking Hansen to make a transcription of the Symphony No. 2 for a brass band. Hansen overcame the difficulties, such as the lack of strings (replaced by clarinets) and rather than this being a rote transcription, he made it a more personal arrangement, expressing his admiration for the original work. It is full of good tunes, particularly in the Andante sostenuto, with a tranquil, languid melody claimed to be one of the most beautiful in Norwegian music. Even without the strings, the wind arrangement does not disappoint; indeed its tonal range, brilliance and range of dynamics are thrilling.

Other highlights for me include Hansen's Serenade, for which he took a leaf from Wagner's idea of presenting his wife on her birthday with a live performance of a new work (the Siegfried Idyll). Hansen was a director of the 4th Brigade Music Corps in Bergen, and he took the band to Trollhaugen (Grieg's house), to play his Serenade for Nina and Edvard Grieg's Silver Wedding celebration early in the morning. Grieg was very touched and declared that "he would never forget the effect this beautiful music had on me".

Amongst the other delectable short pieces (several of which don't appear on the SA-CD) presents an important sociological aspect of music in Oslo in 1888. 'Christiana Life: musical tone pictures' by Hansen is a musical series of visits to various locations in the city, represented by popular tunes of the day and place. This cameos are sandwiched between two Galops featuring railway sounds, one arriving, one leaving, these using Hansen's own material. The locales include theatres for drama and opera (hints of an Italian operatic style), a circus, cafe, dance saloon and, would you believe it, several celebrated beer-halls. Played with great gusto, this is light-hearted and great fun. Its bookend Galops reminded me of Danish Composer Hans Christian Lumbye's 'Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop'; perhaps Hansen had heard this and been inspired.

In the hands of the fully professional band members, mostly Captains, these "Golden Age" pieces are played with technical brilliance and evident joy. They number 33 (both males and females), if my head count of the the double page colour photograph of them is correct. Posed in full uniform in front of a bastion of the Akershus Fortress (where they give regular concerts), they are each carrying their instruments. These period instruments give them a distinctive sound, both beautiful and stimulating, so that this programme is an utter delight, worth playing again and again.

Morton Lindberg took his recording crew to Oslo's Jar Church, a fairly modern building with a remarkable high-pitched wooden roof, which has been a favourite venue. It has near perfect acoustics for his aim to be able to produce an illusion that convinces listeners that they are present at a live performance. Success in this case! I listened to the 5.1 DTS HD MA 24/192kHz on the BluRay and marvelled at the sound wrapping around me from the disposition of the band shown in a booklet diagram. There are three concentric arched rows of players radiating from the 5.1 microphone array, with the conductor behind the array. The main 8 clarinets, standing in for strings, are in the front row. The instruments at the ends of the arc thus appear to be seated up the sides of the listening room, and the rear walls provide plenty of clean reflections back into the body of the church. Apart from a slight difference in bass because of the DTS reduction of -10dB to accommodate play back in theatre mode for which I had not compensated, I could hardly tell if the SA-CD sounded different to the Blu-Ray. There are also extensive facilities from the mShuttle protocol in downloading FLAC, MP3 and RBCD for use in a car or other location.

Congratulations to Ole Kristian Ruud for an evident triumph with his "Golden Age" project for gathering the music, planning the programme and inspiring the band members to give such colourful and delioghtful readings. I also commend Jan Eriksen and Harald Herresthal for their booklet commentary on the music: informative and cleverly littered with pertinent historical anecdotes.

In a word, unmissable.

Copyright © 2015 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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