Here is an interesting conflation of choral and organ music by the Norwegian cleric Trond Hans Farner Kverno (b.1945). He graduated with a degree in church music from the Oslo Conservatory. As well as training in choral conducting and theology, he was also organist at a number of Norwegian churches. Later he became Professor of Church Music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. On his clerical side, he was formerly a priest in the Norwegian Orthodox Church and is now an auxiliary bishop of an Orthodox denomination affiliated to Christ Catholic Church International. The disc's booklet has a fine colour photo of a very jovial-looking Kverno in his red and silver Orthodox vestments, standing in Orthodox surrounds.

This selection of his music is performed in Bergen Cathedral, with choral and organ pieces interlaced. The Cathedral's new organ, with 61 stops, was built in 1997 by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria. It is sited in a rear organ loft, and boasts an imposing ornate golden casement in high Gothic style. Nothing is said about the organ in the booklet, a surprise, for LAWO Classics has made a number of fine organ discs. For the present recording, English-trained Arnfinn Tobiassen is organist, rather than the present Cathedral's incumbent.

Although the Cathedral has had various kinds of choirs in its long history, the present mixed-voice chamber choir consists of 32 singers from 20 to 50 years old. As well as singing at the Church of Norway's evangelical Lutheran services in the Cathedral, they give local concerts and also with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Baroque and the Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Kjetil Almenning (b.1979), a highly distinguished choral conductor, who established the present choir in 2009; he is its Musical Director now.

In the booklet, Terje Kvam (himself an Norwegian church musician) writes an enthusiastic assessment of Kverno's output, including his large works like The St Mark's Passion and The St Matthew Passion. Kvam's music is essentially tonal, with tastefully placed inclusions of bitonalism and further patches of dissonant harmonies to indicate a modern origin. A deep love of Norwegian folk music and Folklore is evident in the organ music (e.g. the joyous Intradas and Toccata), and in the choral music by Triptychon II, a rather complex piece based on a Norwegian mystery ballad where one Olav Åstersen sleeps over the 12 days of Christmas, but records his visionary dreams. The composer also provides a track by track of his own views in the booklet.

Kverno's choral writings must be marvellous to sing, with beautiful cantabiles, many hushed passages, interesting textures and many to and fro dialogues in double choir settings. The Bishop's positions in the Orthodox and Catholic traditions are also reflected in song, e.g in Canticum Zachariah (Benedictus) which presents with Orthodox textures, deep bass voices and soaring sopranos, all effectively encouraged by conductor Almenning. The final and longest piece is an exposition of the Credo, the Nicean Creed, where the statement of belief is interwoven by the sopranos singing a simple lullaby of folk origin (many Norwegian folk songs have a religious slant). Overall, the standard of singing is that of a semi-professional choir and gives great pleasure.

While the choral pieces are rich and colourful, I found the organ works of lesser interest, partly because of a seemingly limited use of the organ registrations. The two Intradas sound quite similar, and the Toccata and the Triptychon II are rather bland in colour, considering the 61 stops available. Many of the cantabile sections use the same 4' flute in several different pieces. Nevertheless, the organ works punctuate the choral works quite well, and do clearly illustrate one of Kverno's characteristic musical outputs.

I don't have a great deal to say about the sonics, surprisingly, considering the simplicity of the high-roofed building of the Cathedral, which has had a long history of rebuilding and fires. Even in 5.0 mode, the ambience is surprisingly low, although the sound decays cleanly in only a few seconds. The chorus are towards the sound stage front and are very clearly focussed, while the organ seems to be placed well behind the voices, and is slightly muffled, perhaps from the enclosure of the organ loft, the ceiling of which appears to be wooden. Stereo and 5.0 playing is quite similar.

Presentation of the disc is in an attractive 2 gate digipak with the book in a sleeve at the front. Helpfully, the booklet thoughtfully uses different paper colours to guide you to each section; white for Norwegian, pale green for the English version and pale pink for the Latin texts with Norwegian and English translations.

Probably this disc will be of most interest of Norwegians as Norwegian church music of various kinds, but it may also attract choir members from elsewhere; the scores are available from Norsk Musikforlag AS, so they can try themselves. I also recommend "Credo" for anyone (religious or not) wishing to expand their interest in church music.

Copyright © 2015 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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