Egil Hovland (1924-2013) was one of Norway's most prolific composers, and sometimes a controversial one for several reasons. Lawo Classics and organist Anders Eidsten Dahl present here a well-filled disc (76:59) of Hovland's organ music, demonstrating his musical development during a lengthy period as the organist and choir leader in Fredrikstad Church, south-west Norway, a tenure which he held from 1949 until his death.

Listing Hovland's teachers and their locations indicates the influences which directed his wide sweep of musical styles: Oslo Conservatory with Arild Sandvold and Bjarne Brustad for strict baroque polyphony, in Copenhagen with Vagn Holmboe for writing in the Neo-Classical style and use of folk songs, at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland for slowly changing harmonies, percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows, and finally to Florence with Luigi Dallapiccola for a lyrical method in producing Schönberg's radical twelve-tone techniques.

As part of his ecclesiastical duties, Hovland composed eight chorale partitas for organ solo, and Dahl opens his recital with No.1 (1947), concluding with No. 8 (1998), a telling contrast. The first one is in a pure, refined Baroque polyphonic style and its six parts show a delightful interplay between the chorale theme itself and other motifs and textures. Dahl's articulation, aided by the clarity of Lawo's recording, combines beautifully with the selected organ tone colours within the church.

Dahl, a former pupil of Hans Fagius, is Cantor of Bragernes Church in Drammen, SW of Oslo. This large church is well-known for its Music Festivals and chorus work. As the latest in a succession of organs, its current main organ by Carsten Lund (1998) has about 39 stops and three manuals. For fans of deep bass, it has a single rank Bordun 32'. The organ is not invested with a very wide range of many divisions, but it is tonally well-balanced, with solid, rounded diapasons (principals), sweet flutes and buzzy reeds with a slightly sharp edge. The Bordun, frequently used in company with a low reed, is used as the pedal line (often carrying the chorale tune), and its deep growling is impressive.

Following a work which might be called "contemporary-friendly", track 2 is definitely unfriendly, as Hovland set about writing a large piece for solo organ, drenched in radical modernism. 'Elementa pro organo' Op. 52 (1965, rev. 1966) was the culmination of much experiment. In size, austerity, exploration and difficulty for the organist, 'Elementa' falls into a group of similar organ behemoths by Nielsen ('Commotio' Op. 58, 1931), Langgaard ('Messis', 1932- addendum1947) and Aho (Organ Symphony, 2005).

In five sections (Introitus, Improvisation, Ostinato, Passacaglia and Completorium) 'Elementa' stretches both organ and organist to their extremes, and requires two Registrants to set stops and even blow across the top of flute pipes for special textures; they even have to introduce matchsticks between clusters of keys in order to keep them playing for long periods of time. 'Elementa' revolves around a Schönberg 12-tone row using all the chromatic notes. These can be transposed upward and downward as well as forward and backwards, giving a large number of fixed possibilities. Glissandi were inspired by György Ligeti's own large organ solo. Hovland also adds the Gregorian hymn "Christe, qui es lux et dies" in several places, confirming that 'Elementa' is a religious work.

Dahl provides a fascinating reading of 'Elementa' with its huge dynamic range and totally unexpected developments. 'Improvisation' is an aleatory movement with blocks of sound interspersed with silence, itself musical because of the decay of the reverberation of the church, and here the organist becomes the composer. None but Hovland fully understood the meaning of 'Elementa' (if it had a meaning at all), but a Norwegian poet, Øyvind Rimbereid placed the work in a mystic, cosmic, futuristic context which in his poem even involved the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr. The poem is presented in the disc booklet, but sadly only in Norwegian.

Hovland brought to himself a large measure of controversy over such a modernistic work, some churches forbidding its perfromances in their buildings. Some suggested that he should go into a mental asylum. Nevertheless, Hovland continued his experiments in how to get everyone in a church service to takefull part in services, and in doing so professed that he was heading back again to the "friendly modernism" of his early days. The Fourth book of organ chorales has a richly expressive and tuneful, attractively coloured by Dahl's intuitive registrations. Track 14, a toccata, bears more than a passing resemblance to Widor's famous Toccata from his Fifth Organ symphony, much in demand for weddings these days. Quite tongue in cheek, this shows that the composer had a full sense of humour, despite his piety.

In the process of his desire to fully envelop all the congregation in church affairs, Hovland wanted the women at a service to dance, in their underwear! This developed another controversial affair (there is a Biblical description of such a dance), and music was written for such an occasion - in the Four Interludes to Missa Vigilate, Op. 67 (1969-70), which also reflects his experiments in the country's uniform search for a new musical kind of church service. The Eighth Choral Partita, based on a folk tune, shows his modernism to be cheerful, homophonic and fully tonal, no longer polyphonic, and wielded his ability as a lyricist. Dahl captures this piece in all its majesty, bringing the disc to a very satisfying ending.

Lawo's engineering places the organ well in the reverberant air of Bragernes Church, but close enough not to loose fine details and timbres, particularly in the colourful 'Elementa',which produces many sounds not normally found on organs. 5.0 multichannel is the best, but even then, stereo shows something of the lateral spread of the organ pipes.

All together, this programme, one of few recordings of Hovland's organ works, provides a well-balanced and insightful assessment of one of Norway's most popular composers. Very well recorded and presented, with good information about the musical contexts in Norwegian and English, this is a fine contribution to the organ's discography. Highly recommended.

Copyright © 2015 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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