Drum solos on Wedding Tune from Halandsdalen
Drum roll from Melhus
Spissrot (Running the gauntlet)

Anon.:
New Mad Tom of Bedlam

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber:
Sonata jucunda
Battalia
Sonata representativa

John Eccles:
Restless in Thought

Henry Purcell:
Bess of Bedlam

Georg Philipp Telemann:
Ouverture Burlesque de Quixotte

In the course of this highly original programme, TerjeTonnesenand his CamerataNordicatell us tales of madness and love, of battles and delusions. Building on imaginative scores by Biber, Telemannand Purcell, Tonnesenhimself and MikhelKeremhas fashioned even more colourful arrangements that bring human follies and passions to the fore. In the course of the disc we are treated to rousing drum solos, a trio of Hungarian folk musicians makes a guest appearance in Biber’s‘joking sonata’ and a Swedish nyckelharpaadds colour to the plaintive Ariain Battalia, before the listener is telescoped into the famous battle scene itself. Featured soloist soprano Karin Dahlberggives us memorable portraits of madness in three English ‘Mad Songs’, and throughout the programme the members of the ensemble with equal conviction play their instruments, bay as a pack of hounds and groan as wounded musketeers. The result is a pageant fit for a street performance during a carnival –at turns absurd, burlesque, frightening and moving.