A Desperate Light: Orchestral Works by Gisle Kverndokk opens as a cry for help. It is the struggle and despair of being locked up, wings clipped, denied access to life, without knowing when it will all be over. Relations, isolation, the longing to meet others again – everything we experienced together during the Covid lockdown.

This is a work tailor-made for a choreographer, and once again I am struck by how visually Kverndokk composes, and with what agility. The source of inspiration here is stated by the composer himself: it is a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, inspired by maestro Bernstein’s symphony “The Age of Anxiety”.

But what is impressive and fascinating is this: despite the nod to his hero in his themes that touch upon scenes in “West Side Story, such as “Mambo” and “The Rumble”, it is Kverndokk through and through, and not Bernstein.

When all is said and done, I would like to quote Stephen Sondheim, who also wrote the lyrics to “West Side Story”, and the protagonist of his musical, “Sunday in the Park with George”: Finishing the hat, mapping out the sky! That is always what it’s about.

The work was written during the pandemic, but it would be inappropriate to associate it with this period, for the dramatic scope of the work is larger than what the lockdown of the country gave us.

Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera
Aage Richard Meyer, Conductor (Three Pictures, Tracks 1-3)
Peter Szilvay, Conductor (Around The World & A Desperate Light, Tracks 4-11)