A unique and fresh combination of Jazz improvisations and classical music is presented on stage by the Norwegian ensemble Music for a while surrounding the singer Tora Augestad. Together with the congenial musicians Trygve Brøske, Stian Carstensen, Mathias Eick, Martin Taxt and Pål Hausken the ensemble interprets own arrangements of ballads and songs by Kurt Weill, but also of classical lieder and arias by J. S. Bach, Henry Purcell, John Dowland, G.F. Handel, Franz Schubert and other composers. The exceptional ensemble has already performed at the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Dresden Music Festival, the Handel-Festival Halle, the Musikfest Stuttgart and other festivals. With the new release “Essays”, the ensemble Music For A While continues its journey of interpreting centerpieces of the classical song canon.

 

Together with the albums “Graces that refrain” (2012) and “Canticles of Winter” (2014), “Essays” completes a trilogy dedicated to interpretations of classical music. “Essays” is the band’s 4th studio album, with songs written over three centuries, between 1614 and 1911, from the baroque masters of Monteverdi, Rameau and Charpentier, to the romantic era of Schumann, Brahms, Grieg and Fauré. The songs on the album are sung in French, Italian, German and Norwegian, as well as in English in two songs by Elgar and Engel. The Norwegian tenor, Magnus Rommetveit Staveland is a guest on the love duet “Pur ti miro” by Claudio Monteverdi. Thematically all the songs on this album circle around the ever-present themes of love and longing, represented by images and stories, thoughts and -Essays- or attempts on love. This album takes the classical variations even further, adding a variety of instruments, such as banjo, pedal steel guitar, pump organ and grand piano to the equation.