I like Christmas and some of the songs associated with it, but not all. I hate Christmas
compilations and concerts as they tend to feature most of the tunes I
hate. I found an incredible exception with a concert given by Norwegian subger Aurora Aksnes, who goes simply by the name Aurora, in 2017 in Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway.
It is a stunning musical as well as acoustic spectacular! She performed in front of a sold-out audience with the group, TrondheimSolistene (ensemble/orchestra), Oslo Fagottkor
(choir), Petra Bjørkhaug (organist) and Ruth Potter (harpist). This
concert was recorded on the 2nd of November, 2017 and was broadcast by
NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) on the 28th of December, 2017.
None of the songs have anything to do with Christmas and, with a couple of exceptions, most of the songs I have never heard of. What Aurora has said about the concert:
"There’s a lot of Christmas music out there that brings joy to the heart. Songs that give you a boost of happy energy. That can be nice.
But I think that if Christmas is a difficult time for you, it can be very hard to get in that mindset. It’s not that I ONLY make sad music, but I have a couple of sad songs. So, I hope that someone who's missing someone or feeling down this Christmas can find some comfort in that music and feel like it’s okay to feel that way they feel too.
It’s important that we tolerate both of these feelings during Christmas.
I’m very eager to find out how my music will sound like in such a big, magic, old room. It’s so beautiful here and it feels really special to be here. I feel like I’m obligated to do this show in a proper and respectable way."
The exceptions I mentioned above are her wonderful rendition of Nature Boy,
which opened the concert with her singing, accompanied by a string
bass then joined by harp for a delicate trio. An incredible way to open a
concert. Nature Boy was written by George Alexander Aberle, aka eden ahbez, and made poplular by Nat King Cole in 1948.
The other work I am familiar with was her song, Runaway, which has nothing to do with the song by the same name by Del Shannon. It is a dreamy, very slow and wistful tune with a bouncy beat.
Winter Song
is the closest she comes to anything Christmasy; is there such a word?
The song begins with the organ of the cathedral, played grandly by Petra
Bjørkhaug; it's a grand intro! It goes into a slow, gentle and
beautiful rock ballad. However, as beautiful as the song is, it has a
pretty dismal mesage: "My tears are always frozen . . . All I need is to
remember how it was to feel alive." (lyrics link below)
One of the songs, Soft Universe, has an upbeat tempo with a gorgeous choral backup by the Norwegian gay choir, Oslo Fagottkor. The choir's name literally means Oslo Bassoon Choir, a word-play on the similarity between the Norwegian word "fagott" (which means "bassoon") and the English slang term "faggot". Ya gotta have a sense of humor to get through life!
Near the end of the concert is a song with the title, Murder Song, it is a VERY quiet tretsie on mercy killing with grim lyrics (link below) accompanied by a gentle harp played by Ruth Potter and pizzicato strings; it is deceptively beautiful but grim and not what one would expect in a Christmas concert.
Well, in spite of the negative feeling I
seem to have evoked, the concert is an incredible experience to watch
and listen to and should not be missed. Viewfinder links:
Aurora ~ song lyrics:
Reverberate Music ~ Norwegian Singer-Songwriter and Music Magic Audio & YouTube links:
