Positive Feedback

I have to admit to a weakness for recorders. I love the “woody” timbre (is that even a proper description) and the variety of all the different tonal ranges in which recorders are made. And, when playing music of the Baroque, there is nothing better than a good recorder, to my tastes. Leave the metal flutes in their cases, please.

Caroline Eidsten Dahl is a true master of the tenor recorder. In this album we are introduced to baroque composers active in Norway… All are new to me. All proved quite enjoyable. Dahl is joined in collaboration with Ensemble Freithoff for this album. We have pieces featuring recorder, but performed with a ensemble comprised of baroque violin, baroque cello, lute and harpsichord.

This album makes a very attractive addition to my music library and I highly recommended it to any lovers of the Baroque.

Rushton Paul - Source

Musicweb International

This album is undoubtedly quite interesting, as it sheds light on a part of the musical map of Europe which is little known. These four musicians deliver very fine and stylish performances, with an excellent ensemble. In short, this is a very enjoyable album, which shows once again there is still much to discover outside the mainstream repertoire.

Johan van Veen

ResMusica

The eighteenth-century composers appearing on this recording present at least one common point: all descended from the Germanic geographical sphere. A second element connects them. Their aesthetic close enough to meet the musical spirit of their time.

To revive these sonatas Caroline Eidsten Dahl (recorder) sometimes joins the violin, the cello, and the Baroque guitar without forgetting the reinforcement of the theorbo and the archiluth. Obviously, the instrumentalists belong to the family of historically informed musicians. They plunge us into a delicate and singing Baroque musical universe, well before the national romanticism, where the respect of forms, the technical mastery of harmony and the melodic control are part of clearly delineated shackles. The four composers selected represent and illustrate the canons of this period without being strictly superposable with their common base resting on Galante music, with sometimes advances towards the Viennese Classicism, always respectful of an accepted academicism.

If Georg von Bertouch represents this definition well, Hinrich Philip Johnsen discreetly recalls Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and his Empfindsamkeit, which is new, reveals some personal feelings and unknown dramatic traits. until then. Johan Daniel Berlin represents the Baroque high and Johan Henrik Freithoff expresses himself through more personal writing, richer in melodic and rhythmic nuances enriched with luminous flashes (Allegro of the Trio Sonata in g major) and pages (Adagio of the Sonata in g major).

All except Freithoff (Dano-Norwegian) belonged to the Germanic sphere and went to Scandinavia still young where, while claiming their artistic ambitions, they were obliged to earn their living by exercising other trades.

Caroline Eisdten Dahl, a native of Drammen (Norway), after studying at the Bergen Conservatory in Stockholm, belongs with the artists of the Freithoff ensemble to the best of the European Baroque. They all inspire their love of this music played with virtuosity, but also embellished by gentle melodies and enhanced by a convincing rhythmic verve.

A kind and informative return to a musical past that touched all the nations of the old world in the eighteenth century.

Jean-Luc Caron - Source

Pizzicato

The Norwegians Johan Henrik Freithoff, Georg von Bertouch, Johan Daniel Berlin, and the Swede Henrik Phillip Johnsen are Composers with whom probably even some Insiders of the Baroque Scene have to fit.

The Music world is still mostly Euro-centrically oriented. What’s going on at the Ends of the Continent, it’s hard to be heard. Wrongly!

This teaches us once again this Recording with Baroque music from the Scandinavian Area. Four composers are hard to locate in purely geo-historical terms, as today we think within limits that did not yet exist in the 18th Century.

This also applies to music, which cannot be unceremoniously labeled as a Scandinavian Baroque. Freithoff, Bertouch, Johnsen, and Berlin have gone through different schools, Inspired in a variety of musical ways.

‘Sonata Norwegica’ thus primarily expands our musical horizon and does so in an excellent, very vital and dynamic way.

The ‘Ensemble Freithoff’ and the Flutist Caroline Eidsten Dahl play the seven Sonatas unpretentiously, without artificial musical face lifting. The Opposite is true. The Performers strike a pleasantly rough tone in places, which is to the advantage of the Music, as it is only in this way that it gets the necessary relief and real edges. This also benefits the slow, lyrical Sentences, which stand out as important dynamic counterpoints.

With works by not well known Norwegian composers Johan Henrik Freithoff, Georg von Bertouch, Johan Daniel Berlin, and the Swede, Henrik Phillip Johnsen, Sonata Norwegica agreeably widens the musical horizon. The performances by Ensemble Freithoff and flutist Caroline Eidsten Dahl are unpretentious, dynamic and provide a wonderful sound.

Guy Engels - Source