David Monrad Johansen: Piano Concerto in E Flat Major, Op. 29, Johan Kvandal: Piano Concerto, Op. 85

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Editor's Info:
In Norway, the most famous example of the musical father/son relationship is the one between David Monrad Johansen (1888-1974) and his son Johan Kvandal (1919-99).. Although Johan Kvandal always referred to his father as "The Boss", he chose not to call himself by the family name. It could have given him a great support in his profession, but he wanted to make his own way and be evaluated for his own artistic expressions, not in comparison to his father's.

David Monrad Johansen had a key position in the Norwegian musical life in the time between the World Wars. In this period the whole musical society was influenced by nationalistic ideas, and Monrad Johansen was inspired by the old Norwegian sagas as well as the writers of his time. In his music he succeeded in blending the Norwegian roots with the musical expression of his time. Johansen's orchestral piece Pan, a tribute to the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, is probably his most popular work and the one performed the most internationally. The piece combines impressionism and polyphony and is, according to the composer, an expression of the powers of nature that exist in Hamsun's literature. David Monrad Johansen's striking but highly melodic piano concerto was given its first performance in the mid 1950s is a three movement piece with a classical structure.

Joahan Kvandal shared his fathers relationship with the Norwegian arts and music, but his own style of writing was more influenced by European music than Monrad Johansens. Kvandal's Piano concerto was the last thing he wrote, and it was finished in 1998. The Norwegian pianist Havard Gimse was the prime force behind this piece, and played all the movements as soon as they were ready from the composer's pen. The second movement is unique in the literature of concertos, opening as it does with a 19 bar phrase for solo tuba.