Olav Berg is the winner of the 2016 EDVARD Prize in the Contemporary category, for "Concerto for viola and orchestra." - It's great to win the EDVARD Prize, not least because it comes from colleagues, something I value very highly, says Olav Berg.
/ 28/11/2016 / codexBerg (on the right in the picture above) was presented with the award on stage before the closing concert of the Chamber Music Festival in Tromsø on Saturday, November 26. It was the EDVARD Prize jury chairman Nils Henrik Asheim who presented the award on behalf of TONO's EDVARD jury. The award consists of a trophy by Bruno Oldani, a diploma and 50.000 kroner.
– It is great to win the EDVARD Prize, not least because it comes from colleagues, something I value very highly, says Olav Berg.
"In this work, the composer does not hide behind neat artifices and impressive staging. From beginning to end, Olav Berg's concerto for viola and orchestra is an honest and sober account. In many ways, it is about the solo instrument as an individual. With a searching, careful hand, the viola draws out expressive, lyrical phrases. Everything that happens in the orchestra seems to be derived from this process.
At first, and many times later in the piece, the orchestra only forms a gentle veil of sound around the solo instrument. Subtle effects of light and shadow frame the viola's journey of discovery.
Then at times the orchestral part grows in intensity, either against a bright light or a cutting rhythm, so that it takes over the stage completely, but always with an organic connection to the material that the solo instrument has developed.
There is a perfect match between the character of this work and the character of the viola as a solo instrument in general. The composer also shows a very precise hand with instrumentation. Here, not a note is too little or too much, and even when the whole orchestra is in motion, it never sounds massive, but expressive and poetic.
"Olav Berg is not the composer who has stood out the most in Norwegian contemporary music. It is all the more pleasant to give him an EDVARD prize for a work that is so personal and perfect in form, and which we believe will defend its place in the repertoire."
The EDVARD Prize
The EDVARD Prize, named after Edvard Grieg, is a prize that TONO has awarded annually since 1998, and is awarded to composers and songwriters who have created musical works and lyrics of high artistic quality. With the prize, TONO wants to increase attention to Norwegian composers and lyricists, and to increase Norwegians' understanding of and knowledge of newly written Norwegian music. The prize winner's music or lyrics must have been premiered or published in the previous year. Emphasis is also placed on the composer's other production. See a OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS EDVARD WINNERS HERE.
The 2016 EDVARD jury consisted of composers Nils Henrik Asheim (jury chairman), Arvid Wam Solvang, Claudia Scott, Rita Engedalen, Terese Birkeland Ulvo, and music publisher Jan Stefan Bengtsson.
For more information:
Janne Sievers, communications advisor at TONO, mobile 95760286, email: janne.sievers@tono.no
Photo above: TONO