“The concert was a memorable experience”

This Din Side article was written by Lars Petter Bendiksen.

On Sunday 21 April, Kvæfjord invited Male Choir to an anniversary concert with a great collaboration with Lars Bremnes, who now lives at his father’s homestead at Bremnes in Kvæfjord. For me, this collaboration was a fantastic concert which was performed on the FRAM stage at Borkenes. The great interest in this concert was carried out with two concerts on the same day to full houses.

Chairman Jan Meyer welcomed us and talked about the song “Sølvet”, with text by Henrik Ibsen which had just been presented and which was the first song that was rehearsed at the foundation in 1934. The Norwegian Choral Association was present with a flower presentation with good words about the choir’s ability to develop local texts and melodies arranged for the choir of local forces.

Men’s team gold

The concert started with “Gjensyn” with Ola Bremnes’ lyrics and melody. Ola Bremnes has contributed to several of the songs that have been specially created for the choir with lyrics and melodies. A separate song that presents the choir is “Kvæfjord Mannskor”. Another is “Kjære kvinne” which created a great atmosphere where the men’s choir also performed rehearsed dance trills with turns.

Jakob Norman’s “Helsing til Kvæfjord”, arranged by the choir’s conductor in the late 1940s, is Kvæfjord’s national anthem.

Otherwise, the conductor Harald Lind-Hanssen introduced male choir gold as “Når Fjordene blåner” with text by John Paulsen and with melody and arrangement by Alfred Paulsen who was then organist in several churches in Chicago, USA. The longing for Norway is clearly evident in the music he developed. Alfred’s brother Aksel was the famous artist, who on skates developed the well-known term double-axle. “In the midnight sun” also belongs to the gold.

Local dialect

Lars Bremnes performed good lyrics in the North Norwegian dialect that describe people facing challenges, such as the song about Elias as a refugee. And people who want a small farm and who face realities where human challenges in various social systems are expressed in “Ready for change”. The audience particularly liked the song about “Molta” where everyone laughed and recognized themselves in the description of the battle for molta between landowners and others who would like to taste the rare berry. “All Things You Are” is a translation into Northern Norwegian from a well-known song by Kern and Hammerstein.

Then Lars and the men’s choir presented songs in the local dialect with words that are about to disappear. Lyrics by Ole Habart Bremnnes in songs about “Gammeltorvmyra” with words such as krøking muing, setting and rauk. In the song “Drømmen om et orgel” there are words like contrari. Ole H.’s work is useful for reminding us of words and concepts that are at peace with being lost.

I myself have been a singer in Kvæfjord Mannskor (1974–) and have had the pleasure of hearing the choir at concerts in the past. This concert with Lars Bremnes and Harald Lind-Hanssen as musical director, together with the choir, has presented a great visual and musical framework around this anniversary concert.

The audience stood up

Perhaps the smile and the important contact with the audience could have been better with several of the singers. The same is my impression of the disparity in the use of aids, which detracted a little from the overall impression. A similarity in the use of scores creates a good visual expression. The fact that the choir appears via the stage, and that they were on stage during Lars Bremnes’ presentation, gave us a good image that contributed positively.

The musical part was presented brilliantly and it was difficult for me to find any weaknesses. My auditory recordings of the music gave me good feelings. I was particularly impressed by the songs that the men’s choir and Lars Bremnes performed for “Gammeltorvmyra”, arranged by Arne Dagsvik and “The dream of an organ”, arranged by Harald Lind-Lind-Hanssen.

The audience’s response can be described as everyone standing up and not wanting to end the applause until the choir had performed two encores.

There was little to complain about the musical performance. The contribution of light and sound from Audiolight AS was excellent. It created a particularly good soundscape.

The concert was a memorable experience for me.