The cd "Resurrexi" has been released!
The female choir of Choeur grégorien de Paris and  organist Henrik de Rohan-Csermak are out with a new cd production! It contains music from three different sources: Gregorian chant executed in traditional way, organ pieces of the french composer Charles Tournemire (1870-1939), and new composisions by Henrik Ødegaard, with gregorian melodies as material. All pieces have connection with easter, Resurrexi means "I am risen". The choir is conducted by Olga Raudakova and the cd has been produced by Giedrius Gapsys. It can be ordered from Bayard musique.
Tracks composed by Henrik Ødegaard:
Resurrexi (Cantus I)
Kyrie Lux et Origo
Victimæ paschali laudes (Cantus XIII)
O filii et filiæ(Cantus XIV)
In exitu Israel (Cantus XV)

Seven years after it’s premiere, Henrik Ødegaard Beatitudes is set for an album release on Simax Classics.
Beatitudes feels like a journey - both across the world and through the centuries. The works’ lyrical origin is the Beatitudes as presented in the Gospel of Matthew.
On this record, Ødegaaard is joined by Oslo Chamber Choir, the vocal sextet Nordic Voices, and conductor Håkon Nystedt, who all were a part of the original performance. It started as performance on commission from the Oslo International Church Festival in 2013, and was rewarded with critical acclaim for it’s beauty, emotion, lyrics, and pure talent by some of Norways most regarded newspapers.
To put the 2000 year old text in relief, it’s commented by lyrics from the 20th century in an array of languages. Professor Jan Erik Rekdal is a lyricist, translator and literary expert, and has processed these lyrics. Beatitudes contains songs and lyrics by Pablo Neruda, the greek autoht Konstantinos P. Kavafis, the German speaking Romanian lyricist Paul Celan, Jean Jouve, Gunnar Bjørling, and Norwegian author Gunvor Hofmo. In these words, we hear voices from prosecuted jews, patients at mental institutions, the sick and elderly, the one who longs for death, and the one who longs for beauty and light.
The biblical texts are sung by the choir in latin, something that - in a sense - gives Ødegaard as a composer some creative distance. The commentating texts are sung by Nordic Voices, and the tonal language varies vastly from song to song.
– My motivation for this recording is first and foremost to document and put one of my greatest works till now out there, as well as showing a bigger audience the magnificent ensembles in both Nordic Voices and the Oslo Chamber Choir, Ødegaard says.

Links to the album: Beatitudes

10. december 10.2020: Some of the movements are published on Youtube, for example:

Beati qui lugent
Beati misericordes
Beati pauperes
 

The world premiere of "Te Deum with five poems and a hymn by Jon Fosse" should have been in april, but due to Covid-19 it was cancelled and put out in time. But now Tønsberg cathedral choir and conductor Nina T. Karlsen are ready to perform the piece in the cathedral, on september 27. at 19:00. They perform togehter with organist Otto Cristian Odland, the soprano Ditte Maria Bræin, the barytone Eirik Krokfjord as well as four horn players.
Te Deum is one of the olders christian hymns, dated back to 4th or 5th century. The song of praise has been attributed to Ambrose, men the origin is uncertain. The hymn has followed the christian church, and is among other places sung in cathedrals and monastries as a part of Matins every morning.
I have chosen to combine the latin text with new, norwegian poems written by the world famous playwright Jon Fosse. His world of images and simple, direct language contribute to pulling these classical texts  a little closer to us today, as well as giving a more relevant spirituality to the composision as a whole.

"Where day is the brother og night"
This oratory, composed by Henrik Ødegaard in 2002 with lyrics written by Laila Stien have now been recorded, conducted by Bjørn Andor Drage. Singers are Vokal Nord, conducted by Bjørn Andor Drage.
The lyrics are inspired by interview Stien and Ødegaard made in with people in Troms and Finnmark. They are performed in kven, sami and norwegian.  

See: Vokal Nord

The latvian womens choir BALTA have come together with Schola cantorum VOX IUBILANTIS, and they will perform two concerts with Henrik Ødegard's music. On the 6th of march they sing in St. Mary Magdalene's Church, Riga, and the 10th march in Bruknas church. "Balta" is conducted by Māra Marnauza, "Vox iubilantis" by Laina Tabora. They will perform 9 of Ødegaard's CANTUS-compositions, created during the years 2001- 2015. These are smaller pieces in wich a female schola and a traditional womens choir unite, and where the shola are the leaders in the rhytmic aspects of the performance.

Saturday 10th march Ghislain Gourvennec shall give world performance to Henrik Ødegaards composition "The Last Words" in Skien church. The piece is based on the seven last words from Jesus on the cross, and the seven movements have a duration of 25 minutes. Gourvennec also performs "Weinen, klagen, sorgen sagen" by Franz Liszt.

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