Wagner with Lise Davidsen won the Gramophone Opera Award 2025!

The Decca Classics release of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman won the Gramophone’s opera recording of the year 2025 award!
It’s thanks to the brilliant singing and playing from the chorus and orchestra of the Norwegian Opera, the amazing soloists - including Lise Davidsen and Gerald Finley, and of course the brilliant conductor Ed Gardner.

Also, many thanks to the dedicated sound crew of the Norwegian Opera and the balance engineers, Arne Akselberg and Åsgeir Grong!

Sibelius cycle with Klaus Mäkelä launched!

Very exited about the release of the first ‘single’ for the Sibelius complete symphonies cycle for Decca Classics

Tremendous playing from the Oslo Phil conducted by their brilliant chief Klaus Mäkelä - we had a great time working together, despite all the the challenges with the pandemic.

The whole set will be released for real in April.

Vilde Frang plays Bartók and Enescu

Vilde is getting rave reviews everywhere for her latest album on Warner Classics with Bartók first violin concerto and Georges Eneuscu’s Octet for strings. It was wonderful working with her and her collection of excellent musical partners at the magnificent Schloss Elmau - here’s a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=DEJdY5z1cTY

Eivind Buene og Det Norske Kammerorkester

I februar inntok Det Norske Kammerorkester ledet av Terje Tønnesen Jar kirke for innspilling av fire verk av Eivind Buene.

Palimpsest, Garland, Stilleben og Langsam und Schmachtend ble fremført med meget imponerende kvalitet både fra Kammerorkestret og Terje - og foreviget i et flott lydbilde skapt av lydmesteren Arne Akselberg.

Spennende musikk og superprofesjonelle folk!

Gregorian chant

Recently I had the opportunity to work with gregorian chant for the first time in my career. It became an incredibly rewarding and interesting process, partly because compared to most other music the framework is at first sight very restricted: It's a single line sung in unison in two or three different pitches with no tempi changes. However this opens up to a completely new world with an immense depth of subtle variation in sound (timbre) and phrasing. 

Rave reviews for Beatrice Rana

Beatrice Rana's new recording of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky piano concertos on Warner Classics has received some fantastic reviews since it was released in January 2016.

It was chosen as BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month in February 2016 and Editor's choice in after a rave review in Gramophone January 2016. It also got a five-star review in the Guardian.

Beatrice was recently named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist 2015 - 2017 and it will be very exiting to follow her in the future.

 

Vilde Frang's new disc

I had the pleasure of working on Vilde Frang's wonderful new disc with Korngold & Britten violin concertos, which has had some fantastic reviews and was chosen as Recording of the Month in the February 2016 issue of Gramophone. It was also featured as Disc of week on BBC Radio 3 February 2016

The recording was made in Frankfurt with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by the amazing James Gaffigan.

Beatrice Rana & Antonio Pappano in Rome

In June I spent a wonderful week in a sweltering Rome recording Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky with the astonishingly talented young pianist Beatrice Rana - partnered with the supberb Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by fabulous Maestro Sir Antonio Pappano.

Great music making and concentrated work from everyone involved!

The post-production is well under way and the disc will be released on Warner Classics.