Letters from Scandinavia

• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
• Til Norge 'To the Motherland' Op. 58 No. 2

• Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 - 1927)
• Jutta kommer till Folkungarna 'There came a maiden from Denmark' (1918) Op. 37 no.1

• Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847 - 1907)
• Sildig 'Late' Op. 17 No. 7 from Sange ved Havet

• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
• Møte, 'The Tryst' (1895) Op. 67 no.4 from Haugtussa

• Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847 - 1907)
• Till mit Hjertes Dronning 'To the queen of my heart' Op. 1 No. 3
• Skjærer 'The Magpies' Op. 52 no.6

• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
• Foraarsregn, 'Spring Rain' (1889) Op. 49 no.6
• På Norges nøgne fjelde, 'The Pine Tree' Op.59 no.2

• Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 - 1927)
• Jungfru blond och jungfru brunett, 'Miss Blonde and Miss Brunette' (1909) Op. 26 no.4 from Visor och stämningar, 'Songs and Moods'

• Laura Netzel (1839 - 1927)
• Säg mig, du lilla fogel 'Tell me, you little bird'

• Helena Munktell (1852 - 1919)
• Fjerran på enslig stig 'Far Away on a Lonely Path'

• Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 - 1927)
• Vid fönstret 'At the window' (1903) Op. 20 no.2 from Fem sånger till dikter av Bo Bergman (Five songs to poems by Bo Bergman)

• Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957)
• Norden 'The North' (1917) Op. 90 no.1
• Kaiutar 'The Nymph Echo' Op.72 No.4

• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
• Ved Gjætle-Bekken, 'At the Brook' (1895) Op. 67 no.8 from Haugtussa

Letters from Scandinavia is, I hope, an adventure.

It certainly has been for me in creating it. It began with a chance stumbling on Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway & Denmark, written on the cusp of the nineteenth century, at a time when most of the rest of Europe was almost entirely ignorant of the 'wild north'. I soon discovered a treasure trove of historic travel writing about Scandinavia, which I duly devoured - from Selina Bunbury’s Life in Sweden to Helen Emily Lowe’s wonderfully titled Unprotected Females in Norway.

These writers’ awestruck impressions of Nordic landscapes and culture, and their excitement at discovering for themselves something so special that they simply must write home about it, reminded me of my own first encounters with Swedish and Norwegian song. Scandinavian song has to be the most unjustly underperformed of the song repertoire - but once discovered, it is difficult not to evangelise to everyone you meet about what they might be missing out on. It set me off on my own journey; I devoured all the travel writing I could find, poured over historic maps, and raided the archives of Nordic composers, both well-known and little performed.

It has grown into something between a song recital and a historical audio travel guide, I suppose. A weaving together of music and text as it follows in the footsteps of women journeying to nineteenth-century Nordic countries for the first time. The music is drawn from a rich vein of song by composers including Agathe Backer-Grøndahl, Edvard Grieg, Helena Munktell, Laura Netzel, Jean Sibelius and Wilhelm Stenhammar, and interwoven between the songs are new texts inspired by colourful and evocative nineteenth-century travel writing. I’ve had the huge pleasure of working with composer Peter Facer to bring these texts to life with new music to underscore the spoken word.

This period is truly a golden age of Scandinavian song, with a repertoire full of (often undeservedly neglected) gems that are hugely rewarding to perform for both singer and pianist. I’m grateful that my fellow traveller is pianist Sholto Kynoch, who first introduced me to Backer-Grøndahl’s works a few years ago, and who plays this repertoire so beautifully.

Letters from Scandinavia is above all a love letter to all things Nordic. I very much hope you enjoy it. (Best served with a cinnamon bun…)

~ Joanna Harries