Scandinavian Virtuoso Henning Kraggerud Joins The Australian Chamber Orchestra For Grieg Celebration

It would be difficult to find a musician more well-rounded than Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud. The Scandinavian virtuoso is famed for his extraordinary reach as an artist, with a career that spans across performer, artistic director, composer, arranger and improviser - an approach that recalls the style of early 20th-century icons, including Fritz Kreisler and Eugène Ysaÿe.

Kraggerud's versatility, boundless technical ability, and genuine passion for music-making makes him a perfect match for the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), an ensemble renowned for their distinctively energetic and virtuosic performances. He will join the Orchestra in September for a national tour - Grieg and Beyond - that celebrates the music of Norway's most well-known composer. New music by Australian composer Ross Edwards and Kraggerud himself will also feature in the program.

As well as his role as Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Kraggerud performs as a soloist the world over, has more than 200 compositions to his name and is renowned for his talents as an improviser.

"I start every day by improvising for about 20 minutes," he said. "One of the reasons I do this is I want the path from thought to output to be instant. I'm personally against this thought of controlling everything, looking at the bow and looking at the fingers; I think the brain works best if you can sort of set it free. And if I need to work on some basic technical thing, I still do that as an improvisation. It's much more fun!"

Kraggerud has built a reputation as the world's leading interpreter of Grieg. Troubled by the dearth of Norwegian works for violin and orchestra, Kraggerud, along with his colleague Bernt Sime Lund, arranged all three of Grieg's violin sonatas as concertos with orchestral accompaniment. Their arrangement of Grieg's Third Sonata will be featured in these concerts with the ACO.

"[I love Grieg's] sense of melodic beauty, his fairytale-like musical storytelling, and the masterly harmonisations which colour everything," Kraggerud said of the composer. "Also, he is not afraid of trusting things to be simple. He does not intellectualize-away the charming or sad ideas; he understands that sometimes they speak best in a natural, simplistic way."

CONCERT DETAILS

GRIEG In Folk Style from Two Nordic Melodies

Ross Edwards Entwinings (World Premiere)

GRIEG (arr. Henning Kraggerud and Bernt Simen Lund) Violin Concerto (Sonata) No.3 in C minor (Australian Premiere)

HENNING KRAGGERUD Topelius-Variations (From Topelius' Time) (Australian Premiere)

GRIEG (arr. Richard Tognetti) String Quartet No.1 in G minor

Henning Kraggerud Director & Violin

PERFORMANCE DATES

Sydney - City Recital Hall

Friday 1 September, 1.30pm

Saturday 2 September, 7pm

Tuesday 5 September, 8pm

Wednesday 6 September, 7pm

Wollongong - Wollongong Town Hall

Monday 4 September, 7.30pm

Canberra - Llewellyn Hall

Saturday 9 September, 8pm

Melbourne - Arts Centre Melbourne

Sunday 10 September, 2.30pm

Monday 11 September, 7.30pm

Adelaide - Adelaide Town Hall

Tuesday 12 September, 7.30pm

To purchase tickets, call 1800 444 444 or visit www.aco.com.au

Photo credit: Kaupo Kikkas