Ondine Releases 3/2024: Wallin: Five Seasons, a.o. - Wei, Hemsing, Nielsen SSO & Poga ODE 1429-2

This album of works by the prominent Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin (b. 1957), one of Scandinavia’s leading composers, performed by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra from Norway under Andris Poga includes new works with three outstanding soloists: Wallin’s concerto for the traditional Chinese instrument sheng features award-winning artist Wu Wei, and his violin concerto rapidly-rising violin star Eldbjørg Hemsing. Wallin’s ‘Spirit’ for electric bass guitar and orchestra was written to and here recorded by Ida Nielsen, voted as one of the most notable bass players in the world and known as Prince’s bassist.



The artistry of internationally renowned Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei reaches far beyond the traditional boundaries of his more than 3000-year-old Chinese instrument and brings it well into the 21st century. Wu Wei’s radiant and transparent tone as well as the infinite possibilities offered by his instrument in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm, polyphony have led him to collaborating with many artists and composers (Huang Ruo, Guus Janssen, Unsuk Chin, Jukka Tiensuu, Bernd Richard Deutsch, Ondrej Adamek, Donghoon Shin, Enjott Schneider, Man Fang, Rolf Wallin…). In the new music repertoire, Wu Wei has been invited by orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, just to name a few. Since 2013, Wu Wei has been a Professor teaching the Sheng at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.



One of the most charismatic and leading young violinists on the international scene today, Eldbjørg Hemsing is acclaimed for her “radiant and sophisticated performances” (BBC Music Magazine) and is a musician committed to bringing her art form to new and emerging audiences across the globe. Her international career took off quickly, leading to four award-winning albums and world premieres of numerous compositions in many of the greatest halls of the world. She has developed a close collaboration with the composer Tan Dun with whom she has premiered, toured, and recorded several award-winning works. She plays a 1707 Antonio Stradivari ‘Rivaz, Baron Gutmann’ violin, on loan from the Dextra Musica Foundation.



Ida Nielsen started playing bass at the age of 16. She studied at the Royal Danish Music Academy of Music from 1993 to 1998 with electric bass as her main instrument. She got her life turned upside down when Prince discovered her music online in 2010. Shortly after, she was a member of his band, played, and toured with the New Power Generation and later 3rdeyegirl until the iconic artist passed away in 2016. The bass player, composer and vocalist released her album TURNITUP, in memory of Prince, in 2016 with more albums to follow: Time 2 Stop Worrying in 2019, 02022020 in 2020, and her latest album More Sauce, Please! in 2023.



Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO) performs and has its concerts in the Fartein Valen in Stavanger concert hall in Norway which is considered one of the best concert halls in Europe. Andris Poga is SSO’s Chief Conductor. Tianyi Lu is the orchestra’s current Conductor-in-Residence. Recent guest conductors have included Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, James Gaffigan, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Dalia Stasevska and Vassily Sinaisky. Frans Brüggen was the SSO’s Artistic Director for early music from 1990–1997; Philippe Herreweghe had the same position from 2000 to 2004 and Fabio Biondi from 2006 to 2016. The orchestra has recorded several albums of Scandinavian music, as well as baroque music with Fabio Biondi. The orchestra was founded in 1938 and consists of 85 musicians from 23 different nations.



Andris Poga is the Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He was the Music Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2013 till 2021 and continues to collaborate with the LNSO as its Artistic Advisor. Highlights of recent years have included concerts with the leading orchestras of Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Scandinavia. After the first successful collaborations he has been invited back to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, WDR Symphony Cologne, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. He has also conducted the Wiener Symphoniker, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, among others. He was an assistant to Paavo Järvi at the Orchestre de Paris from 2011 to 2014, and from 2012 to 2014 he served as an assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.


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