Ingar Bergby
Audun Breen Arne Nordheim
Dmitri Shostakovich

Carl Nielsen wrote the opera Maskarade in the years 1904–06. The plot is based on Ludvig Holberg’s comedy of intrigue of the same name about a young couple that meet and fall in love at a masquerade ball. The opera had its premiere in Copenhagen in 1906 and was an immediate success with the audience. Since then, Maskarade has become a kind of unofficial Danish national opera and its overture has become one of Nielsen’s most played orchestral pieces.

Arne Nordheim (1931–2010) completed his last great work, Fonos – Three Memorables for Trombone and Orchestra, in 2005. Nordheim received the Edvard Prize and the jury described it thus: “The musical expression here is like a fusion of late European romanticism and international modernism but with an indefinable Nordic patina and developed with great sureness of form and intelligence into a fully personal style.” The soloist is the Oslo Philharmonic’s trombone soloist Audun Breen.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1931–2010) enjoyed his greatest international success during World War II with his seventh symphony. This symphony received the title Leningrad and was premiered in that besieged city in 1942. One year later he wrote Symphony No. 8, which was a much darker symphony than its predecessor. Later, he explained that he wanted to express the people’s experiences and reflect the tragedy of war. This message was not received well by the authorities and the symphony was rarely played. Today many consider it to be one of his best.