Taking us on a highly personal journey of grief and release, Norwegian violinist and composer Helena Maria Falk’s new album Nordic Lullabies is her journey through the past and the present.
Helena Maria Falk (photo by Marco Feklistoff)
In her telling, Falk has always written music, starting with a lullaby at age 7. That work, Berceuse, was written for her brothers – a simple melody that she could play on her violin and sing. Now, years later, transformed by her profession as a composer, the work is no longer that of a child but of a grown woman, seeking the happiness of her childhood.
Track 1: Berceuse (Helena Maria Falk, violin; Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Ingar Bergby, cond.)
The sadness and loneliness in that childhood work are clues to the most touching work on the recording, Fragments. A work for solo violin, it was written in response to a ‘period of unbearable grief’ at the death of her little brother Åsmund. Matching this is Åsmund’s Lullaby, a work to soothe a child who was alive.
Falk’s take on the lullaby is unique. She says, ‘I’ve always written lullabies for people I love, trying not just to soothe them but to capture their essence – even what their soul sounds like’. Each of the six pieces on this album has that quality: capturing in music the ineffable details that define a person.
She’s also spoken about being in the nearly unique position in classical music of being both composer and performer. We used to expect this of Mozart and Beethoven, but it’s much rarer nowadays as orchestras play so much historical music and leave modern music out of their mix. Even when modern pieces are performed, it’s rare that the composer is on stage as a performer.
The final work on the album, Håp (Hope), is the resolution at the end of a highly emotional journey. Despite the despair of today, there is another world to be achieved, full of light and life.
Nordic Lullabies captures a feeling, a time, and a place when the composer was very unhappy. Grief-stricken at the death of her younger brother, she says it took her years to come back to life again. This is that album of darkness and, at the end, of light.
Nordic Lullabies
Helena Maria Falk: Nordic Lullabies
Helena Maria Falk, violin; Sterling Ensemble Los Angeles; Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Ingar Bergby, cond.
CAT1772613
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