Ketil Bjornstad

Ketil Bjørnstad’s passion for the writings of English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. The Norwegian pianist-composer’s settings of Donne’s verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace and the ECM album The Light. “After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years”, says Bjørnstad, “I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote - and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences – a passionate quest for meaning and reconciliation. Donne's dramatic life is reflected in the texts and everywhere in them you will find the passion, melodies and sounds”.

PERSONNEL:

HAKON KORNSTAD, saxophone, flute, voice
KETIL BJORNSTAD, piano
BIRGER MISTEREGGENM percussion
& THE OSLO CHAMBERS CHOIR

Recorded Live March 2012 at Sofienberg Kirke, Oslo

TRACKS:

01. Introitus – a passion for John Donne
02. Thou hast made me
03. A fever
04. Death, be not proud
05. Interlude no.1
06. The legacy
07. Batter my heart, three personed God
08. A nocturnal upon St.Lucy’s day
09. Farewell to love
10. Interlude no.2
11. Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
12. A valediction, forbidden mourn
13. Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in
14. Interlude no.3
15. There we leave you