Norwegian Wind Ensemble with Marius Neset and Erlend Skomsvoll

Established in Halden in 1734, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble is not only Norway’s oldest orchestra, it is also – due to its striking combination of modern wood and historic brass instruments – equally at home performing Baroque and Renaissance music as it is with real-time music and improvised jazz. Together with the tenor and soprano saxophonist Marius Neset, winner of the Sildajazz Award in 2011, the ensemble has asked the renowned Norwegian jazz composer Erlend Skomsvoll to compose new versions of works chosen by Neset for the orchestra. The brief was to write music for an ensemble that gives the individual members an almost equal role alongside the soloists – a very different approach to that usually taken by jazz orchestras. That has resulted in symphonic poems that are at times unrestrainedly elegiacal, at times alarmingly forceful, but always charged with tension and full of surprises for the audience and musicians alike.