Concertos & Fairytales - PK Svensen, Malmö symfoniorkester, Terje Boye Hansen, Christoph König

”I found! I found!” says Askeladden, the hero of countless Norwegian folk tales as he picks up numerous strange and seemingly worthless objects from the road, objects everybody else would go by without noticing. Askeladden possesses this uncanny creative intuition which outwits any sinister force, and helps him in his quest to achieve his aims - most frequently being marrying the Princess and ruling half the Kingdom. The Askeladden creativity has been the underlying power source when one of Norway’s most prominent trombonists, PK Svensen, gives away four Norwegian treats for trombone and orchestra.

Wolfgang Plagge: Concerto op. 138
Egil Hovland: Concerto op. 76
Magne Amdahl: Elegi
Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen: Fanfares and Fairytales 

The trombone is a sonorous, mind-boggling and graphic musical instrument perfectly suited for solo performances in concert. In spite of its long and distinguished career – trombones were already in frequent use in Venice throughout the 16th century – the contemporary trombone repertoire has been somewhat lacking in quantity. That is why outstanding virtuosos have been of immense importance for getting new works written for the instrument: In Mozart’s lifetimes the famous player Thomas Gschladt inspired several composers to write for the trombone, as did Mendelssohn’s favourite bass trombone player Karl Traugott Queisser, two generations later. PK (Per Kristian) Svensen, therefore, stands in a brilliant tradition as he himself also has been encouraging composers to focus on the trombone as a solo performance instrument. Two of the works presented on this disc have been written for him.