Heartstrings

This year’s closing concert is inspired by an intricate emotional life between several great composers. The festival’s final concert plays on the most sensitive strings we have: the heartstrings.

Date: Sunday 28 June
Time: 16:00–17:45
Venue: Risør kirke

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Et opprevet papirhjerte holdes sammen av en tråd — Foto: Kelly Sikkema

About the concert

The music is drawn from composers who inspired one another in different ways. It is intricate, and Tine will give you an insight into just how intertwined it all really is.

A whole week in Risør is nearing its end, and with more classical concerts than in a long time, we bring this year’s celebration to a close in one of the country’s most important concert venues for classical music.

But do not despair: The heart gets what the heart wants. There is only one year left until we see each other again!

Works in the Concert

This concert has an intermission before César Franck’s Piano Quintet.

Bridal March from Sørfold

Bridal March from Sørfold (trad.)

For the first time, the Festival Choir will take part in a concert in Risør Church.

The Festival Choir has just sung the Nelson Mass in Frydendal Church and is making its way down to this year’s closing concert with Tine Thing Helseth on trumpet, for a heart-stirring opening to the concert.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo in D major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Rondo in D major, K. 382 (1782)

The Rondo in D major was written as a new finale to the original Piano Concerto in D major, K. 175, and Mozart wrote home to his father about the new ending: "making ... a furore in Vienna".

Performers:

Alexandra Dariescu, piano
Arabella Steinbacher, violin
Jan Söderblom, violin
Eivind Ringstad, viola
Amalie Thing Helseth, cello

Camille Saint-Saëns: 2 pieces for piano four hands

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): 2 pieces for piano four hands

Berceuse, Op. 105 (1896)
Feuillet d’album, Op. 81 (1887)

Performers:

Sveinung Bjelland, piano
Gunnar Flagstad, piano

Augusta Holmès: Selections from Vingt mélodies

Augusta Holmès (1847–1903): Selections from Vingt mélodies (1872–1902)

Augusta Holmès was a French composer of Irish descent who wrote music in a time when expectations of female composers were often narrower than those of men. Holmès was a pupil of Franck, and she wrote songs of great emotional force and drama, as well as larger, powerful orchestral works.

Toujours elle!
Aubade-Habanera
Plus Loin

Performers:

Tine Thing Helseth, trumpet
Roderick Williams, baritone
Gunnar Flagstad, piano

César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

César Franck (1822–1890): Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14 (1879)

Molto moderato quasi lento
Lento, con molto sentimento
Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco

Franck dedicated the work "To my good friend Camille Saint-Saëns" and completed it in 1879. Saint-Saëns played the piano part at the premiere on January 17, 1880. The work has been described as an explosion of stormy emotions, and today it is one of Franck’s major works.

Performers: