“SYMPHONIC DANCES was written by Gisle Sverndokk for the Stavanger [Norway] Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of Norway’s constitution in 2014. In 2013, the orchestra, with a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, had asked the composer to create a symphonic piece freely based on folk music from among the amazingly diverse ethnical groups living in the Stavanger area--180 of them!-- not all of which have a symphonic musical tradition of their own. He chose twelve: Norway, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Kurdistan, Madagascar, Eritrea, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, and he ended up using music from each country represented in recorded samples he was given.
Kverndokk decided to write a concerto for orchestra, highlighting the orchestra's different groups of instruments. Thematic connections in the folk music were suggested to him by songs about loneliness, the sea, love, weddings and funerals. The movements in this forty minute work are: 1.The Sorrow of Loneliness; 2. Waltz; 3. Songs about the Sea; 4. Dance in the Night; and 5. Weddings and Funerals.
Kverndokk reports that "after a while, [he] felt that all this music became [his] own, that the material no longer came from different parts of the world, but rather a wide spectrum of beautiful melodies and rhythms living their own lives in his head." I would not dispute that. The melodies and vigorous rhythms are beautiful and exciting even on first hearing.
The recorded performance is highly successful and I can recommend it without reservation, even though the recording runs just shy of forty minutes. The conductor, Ken-David Mazur (son of Kurt Mazur) has wide international experience; he is Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Symphony and Associate Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has, of this writing, just been named Music Director Designate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. His prospective audience in Milwaukee will have a treat if Mazur should conduct this welcome new work there.”

R. James Tobin