The Three B’s

Bach, Beethoven, Brahms. Three men that have greatly shaped the classical music sound throughout history.

But which composers have influenced me the most musically? The famous three are of course a big part of my musical education, but as a viola player I would add Luciano Berio and Frank Bridge to my “B”’s.

In this concert, developed for and performed on Norwegian Radio Orchestra’s Chamber Music Series on September 11th, 2021, I create a program based on my B’s.

The program starts with Frank Bridge’s Lament for two violas and continues with Luciano Berio’s “Naturale” for viola, percussion and recorded voice (of Sicilian folk singer). The voice recording is of a Sicilian street vendor and Berio skilfully composed a sort of conversation between the viola and the recorded voice, with accompaniment by the percussion.

Brahms also incorporated a foreign element in the second movement of his String Sextet no. 2 - “La Folia”. Sources suggest that this ancient melody first arose as a dance in the Iberian Peninsula during the fifteenth century, and just as Berio reworks the Sicilian folk melodies in “Naturale, Brahms reinvents it and makes “La Folia” relevant again.