Hedda Gabler

Per Nørgård's Hedda Gabler - Incidental Music and Suite (1993)  for Viola, Harp and Piano. Programme note The music was composed for the BBC production of Henrik Ibsens's famous play “Hedda Gabler”. For the production the director Deborah Warner changed the location from Bergen, Norway to Dublin - two cities with many things in common, both in size and atmosphere.  All the movements are played attacca, as one movement, and the reason that I accepted this incidental music to be performed as a concert piece is that it has a unity - decided by Deborah Warner and me - always following the character of Hedda. In Fiona Shaw's' interpretation Hedda Gabler isjust as ruthless as Ibsen created her - but also deeply felt, understood and shown as a victim of the suppressed role of women in the Victorian age.  Therefore the associations to the salon music of the era are coloured with a strong expressionistic expression - the music being entirely created from the inner universe of the main character Hedda.  Per Nørgård (1993)