Diptych

Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

John W. Duarte: Diptych no. 2, op. 86

Ravi Shankar: L'Aube enchantée

Nikita Koshkin: Sonata for flute and guitar

Hans Haug: Capriccio (1963)

The beauty of the guitar and flute

The intimate duo-setting of guitar and flute has rarely been more beautifully presented as on the album “Diptych”. Two of Norway´s premier solo performers on their instruments, Gro Sandvik and Stein-Erik Olsen, gets together to perform some of the 20th century´s most alluring works for this particular combination of instruments. Together they perform works from all parts of the world by composers such as Astor Piazzolla, Ravi Shankar and John W. Duarte, to mention a few.

Gro Sandvik and Stein-Erik Olsen has throughout the years frequently collaborated in chamber musical projects all over the world, and performed a range of newer works for flute and guitar. They have also teamed up for the album “L´espace entre nous”, consisting of ground breaking new music, also available on Simax Classics (PSC1268).

Reviews

"Gro Sandvik und Stein-Erik Olsen lassen eine sehr intensive Zusammenarbeit ahnen. Ihr musikalishes Verstehen ist sehr weitreichend. BRAVO!"
-Guitare und Laute 1994 (Germany)

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"Sandvik and Olsen are a really fine pairing, and anyone at all interested in the flute and guitar medium simply must have this disc for the Koshkin alone. ..On this occasion it's first class. Likewise the final movement, with its energetic drive, its excited flute shrilling, its somewhat Eastern theme and interesting guitar harmonics, there are big chords, some deliberately rough-edged flute tones. This all sounds really well with very good ensemble, and a brilliant climax!"
-Classical Guitar Magazine 1995 (UK)

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"Both Nikita Koshkin's and Hans Haug's sonatas fir into the category of contemporary classical music; three movements that effectively exploit the instruments' possibilities. Koskin's sonata, which is not exactly standard fare in flute and guitar recitals, receives here a performance that should advocate for its assimilation into the repertoire. Gro Sandvik and Olsen go for broke with it. In the last movement the duo becomes far wilder than in Piazzolla's tangos. After many outbursts they come together in the grand ending as if coalescing into a powerful but controlled point."
-Ballade 1995 (Norway)

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"Intimate duo: Let us swiftly state that the Tango had its origins in the bordello and ended up in the concert hall. Astor Piazzolla, represented in this album by “Historie du Tango”, contributed significantly to the artistic development of the genre. The flautist Gro Sandvik and the guitarist Stein-Erik Olsen reveal themselves as spiritual Tango phantoms. However, they have a lot to offer besides Tango. Ravi Shankar's sonically spicy “L'aube enchantée” constitutes an exotic highlight in the album. Sandvik and Olsen lovingly attend to the sensually titillating and ecstatic traits of this work."
-Jarle Søraa, VG (Norway)