北歐當代弦樂三重奏及二重奏 / Trio Aristos / Nordsending: String Trios

Nordsending was the name given by southern Norwegian
people of the late Medieval and Early Modern period to
magical attacks from the sorcerous sub-Arctic and Arctic.
It was the 'broadcast from the north'. Other peoples had
other names for it, but they all understood it similarly: the
invisible medium through which splinters of iron, stone
arrowheads and little mice were shot into the bodies of
the healthy by Northern witches.

With this programme of string trios – and one duo – by
four Nordic composers, Trio Aristos has devised a
nordsending of their own: thoroughly contemporary, but
equally magical. The members of Trio Aristos have in
various constellations worked with each of the composers
– most extensively with Per Nørgard, the grand old man
of Danish music, who is represented here with three
works composed in the years around 1990, including the
duo Tjampuan for violin and cello.

His younger colleagues all contribute one work each to
the disc, written between 2009 and 2014. Kaija Saariaho
found inspiration for her four-movement trio in different
cloud formations, while Bent Sørensen added to a series
of works inspired by Venice when he composed Gondole:
its five movements are impressions of gondolas waltzing,
mourning and falling in love. Gondole was commissioned
by Trio Aristos, and so was Rift, by the Norwegian
composer Henrik Hellstenius, who recomposed the piece
for these performers from his earlier series Imprints.