Let Beauty Awake Ellen Nisbeth & Bengt Forsberg

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958):
• 1 Songs of Travel: No. 1, The Vagabond (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano) 03:01
• 2 Romance for Viola & Piano 06:29
• 3 Songs of Travel: No. 2, Let Beauty Awake (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano) 01:47
• Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979): Viola Sonata:
• 4 I. Impetuoso 08:10
• 5 II. Vivace 03:39
• 6 III. Adagio - Allegro 11:35
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958):
• 7 Songs of Travel: No. 3, The Roadside Fire (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano) 02:02
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87 (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano):
• 8 I. Introduzione. Lento 02:30
• 9 II. Marcia. Allegro 01:39
• 10 III. Canto. Con moto 01:22
• 11 IV. Barcarola. Lento 01:44
• 12 V. Dialogo. Allegretto 01:40
• 13 VI. Fuga. Andante espressivo 02:32
• 14 VII. Recitativo. Fantastico 01:20
• 15 VIII. Moto perpetuo. Presto 00:52
• 16 IX. Passacaglia - Mournful Song - Autumn - Street Song - Grant Repose Together with the Saints 08:15
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958):
• 17 Songs of Travel: No. 4, Youth & Love (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano) 03:28
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Cello Suite No. 3, Op. 87 (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano):
• 18 Lachrymae for Viola & Piano, Op. 48 "Reflections on a Song of John Dowland" 13:55
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958):
• 19 Songs of Travel: No. 6, The Infinite Shining Heavens (Transcr. E. Nisbeth for Viola & Piano) 02:30
• Total Runtime 01:18:30

Info for Let Beauty Awake

Despite her youth, Ellen Nisbeth has received acclaim both in her native Sweden and abroad and is one of the Rising Stars selected by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) for the 2017/2018 season. A former student of London's Royal College of Music, she hails from a family of Scottish origin and feels a particular affinity for the landscapes of Scotland, and for the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.

For her first recital disc Ellen Nisbeth has devised an all-British programme which includes her own transcriptions of selected songs from Songs of Travel – Ralph Vaughan Williams's settings of poems by Stevenson. The songs intersperse the remainder of the programme, and one of them – Let Beauty Awake – has also lent its title to the entire disc. Together with the eminent pianist and chamber musician Bengt Forsberg, Nisbeth goes on to perform the impassioned Viola Sonata composed in 1919 by Rebecca Clarke – a well-known piece among viola-players, but deserving of a wider audience.

The centrepiece of this amply filled disc is Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite for Cello, transcribed for viola by Ellen Nisbeth herself – composed for Mstislav Rostropovich, the suite is based on Russian themes which Britten only presents in full towards the end of the substantial work. The same method is used in Lachrymae, here in the original version for viola and piano, where John Dowland’s song If my complaints could passions move is presented in full at the very end of the piece.

Ellen Nisbeth, viola
Bengt Forsberg, piano

Ellen Nisbeth
The Swedish violist Ellen Nisbeth has performed with orchestras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Brandenburger Symphoniker, collaborating with conductors including Neeme Järvi, Daniel Blendulf and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. She has premièred a viola concerto written to her by Britta Byström, as well as her own version, published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen, of Arne Nordheim’s cello concerto Tenebrae. A frequent guest at prestigious festivals including the Bergen International Festival, Risør Chamber Music Festival, Mora Vinterfest

and Verbier, Ellen Nisbeth has performed with musicians such as Martin Fröst, Leif Ove Andsnes, Akiko Suwanai, Daniel Hope, Truls Mørk, Alexander Melnikov and Bengt Forsberg.

She has studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Royal College of Music in Stockholm and Royal College of Music in London. Ellen Nisbeth regularly gives masterclasses and, since 2015, has been associate professor at the Music Department of Stavanger University.

Ellen Nisbeth is the recipient of both the Swedish and the Nordic Soloist Prize. In the season 2017/18 she has been selected for the Rising Star programme of the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO), performing in venues such as Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Barbican Centre, London; Musikverein, Vienna; and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Bengt Forsberg
studied at the Gothenburg School of Music and Musicology, where he first majored in organ, receiving his soloist’s diploma as pianist in 1978. Much of Forsberg’s renown is focused on his work as a chamber musician, both in Sweden and abroad. Among his regular partners are prominent instrumentalists such as the cellist Mats Lidström and the violinist Nils-Erik Sparf. His collaboration with the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has been particularly successful and they regularly perform all over the world. They have also made many joint recordings, which have received great international acclaim.

Bengt Forsberg also appears as a soloist with orchestra, and has performed with all the major Swedish symphony orchestras, as well as a number of international ones. His repertoire is exceptionally wide and he has become particularly renowned for playing unknown music by well-known composers as well as for exploring lesser-known and unjustly neglected composers, such as Medtner, Korngold, Alkan, Chabrier and Percy Grainger. He is also the music director of a well-regarded chamber music series in Stockholm.

Booklet for Let Beauty Awake