This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord, we’re off to Norway for music by a couple of composers, neither of which are terribly well-known.

Halfdan Cleve (1879-1951) received an unusually strict musical upbringing. His father was an organist, who insisted his son play nothing but Bach until he was 16! The young Cleve later went to Germany, where he received instruction from the Scharwenkas, brothers Philipp and Franz Xaver. The latter, a pupil of Franz Liszt, was regarded as one of the towering keyboard virtuosos of his day.

Cleve became widely known as a composer and pianist, but his popularity waned after World War I. He reacted to the rise of modernism by clinging more firmly to his Norwegian roots, celebrating the Norwegian countryside and its folk idioms in his music. His Violin Sonata of 1919 is reflective of this attitude.

Also from 1919, we’ll hear the Piano Concerto of Eyvind Alnaes (1872-1932), a figure who is known, if at all, for his art songs, some of which were recorded by Kirsten Flagstad and Feodor Chaliapin. Alnaes’ musical language is less overtly “Norwegian” than that of Cleve. In fact, his concerto echoes Brahms and Tchaikovsky, with some interesting suggestions of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4, which was not completed until seven years later. Did Rach know this work? You can’t a-fjord to miss it!

I hope you’ll join me for “Dark Horse Norsemen,” works by neglected Norwegian composers, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Flagstad sings Alnaes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aT6ZdY320Q

PHOTO: Norwegian horse can’t stop yawning because of “The Lost Chord” late start time