Ten Classical Pieces You Don't Care About (Yet): #10

      The first piece you don’t care about comes from Klaus Egge, born in 1906, one year after Norway gained independence from Sweden. It’s his Piano Concerto #2, Op. 21, "Symphonic Variations & Fugue On A Norwegian Folktune" (1944). My recording hails from a Naxos disc that explores the richness and variety of Norwegian composers’ responses to the powerful folk-music stimulus. Although taught by Fartein Valen, Norway’s lonely Schoenbergian, Egge crafted many successful non-serial pieces with fairly traditional forms and melodies. In his ‘Symphonic Variations & Fugue’, Egge bases seven variations on the traditional folk tune ‘Solfager og Ormekongen (Sun-Fair and the Snake-King),’ culminating in a neo-Baroque fugal finale.  

           There’s no folk music without transmission—the act of passing down melodies or instrumental skills to the next generation. Egge’s is not a direct transmission, but an inventive one. Check out Egge in the thick of it: 

           In certain pieces of music, you can’t go two minutes without re-experiencing the wellspring that sparked the piece—but it’s what happens in those exploratory two minutes that counts, that gives the origin its true meaning and life. In Egge’s concerto, the entire effect is to burnish the receiver of the folk transmission with Norwegian warmth and icy chill. I know you don’t care about this piece yet, but come on! When the strings state the fugal theme one final time after a dazzling display of virtuosity in the piano, you’ll feel it’s over all too soon.