Olav Berg (*1949) Norwegen/ Norway

Vertigo für Fagott Solo/ for Bassoon solo (1992).
NMI (Norwegian Music Information Center)

Sonatine für Fagott und Klavier/ Sonatina for Bassoon and piano (1995).
Schott FAG 29   Review

Olav Berg was born in 1949 in Kvelde a small village in the Norwegian region of Vestfold. He first met Antonio Bibalo, who would be his teacher for five years, in 1972, and it was thanks to him that Berg decided to become a full time composer. However, he first had to earn his living as a trumpeter in the music corp of the Royal Marines in Horten. During this period, (1973-79), he still managed to find time to study with Lennox Berkley in London for a year, and dedicated his life to composing from 1981 onwards.

Olav Bergs music usually takes shape in the following way: he improvises on the piano until he comes accross an idea or a theme that he likes, which he then writes down. While improvising, he collects musical "cells" which he later uses to compose with.

The "Sonatine for Bassoon and Piano" illustrates this method of composition well. The beginning sounds like a timid search for something special. During the first six bars, the bassoon plays around a high C in the smallest of intervals. This "hesitant moment" returns later in the work but never to the same extreme. The formal construction of the work doesn't seem to follow any strict regularity, but it more a development by trial and error. Such experimentation with a small tonal field as the initial idea for a sonatine, coupled with subtle dynamics and expressive articulation mean one couldn't be further from the music dismissed by the composer as "mezzoforte music", which just "exists", without contrast or excitement.

Olav Bergs musical credo is easily perceptible in "Vertigo", a work for solo bassoon, premiered by Dag Jensen 1992 in Amsterdam. "The listener should come with an open mind and let himself be led by his imagination. Only then will he be part of the creative process and not sink into passiveness."