Alfred Janson

Alfred Janson (born 10 March 1937) is a Norwegian pianist and composer. He was born in Oslo as the son of sculptor Gunnar Janson and pianist Margrethe Gleditsch, and was sister of journalist Mette Janson. He was first married to actress and singer Grynet Molvig and later to Berit Gustavsen. He made his piano debut in 1962. Among his early compositions is the piano piece November from 1962 and the orchestral Vuggesang from 1963. He composed the ballet Mot solen for the Bergen International Festival in 1969, and in 1991 he was the festival's principal composer.

A number of Janson’s works bear the mark of his jazz background, and several of his earliest compositions are written for a jazz line-up, including Patrice Lumumba (1961) for piano, bass and drums. From 1962 onwards, Janson would gradually focus more on notated music and gained recognition with works such as November (1962) for piano and Vuggesang for 48 strykere og sopran (1963). 1966 saw his orchestral work Konstruksjon og hymne winning the prize for best non-Dutch work at the Bilhoven Festival. The same year also saw Janson’s international breakthrough at the ISCM World Music Days with the work Kanon for chamber orchestra and audio tape. Other major Janson works include the ballet Mot Solen (1969), the opera A Mountain Fairytale (1972), Interlude for violin and orchestra (1975), Interlude for orchestra (1985), National Hymn (1988), Livsfrise for cello, choir and orchestra (1999) and En bibelhistorie for actor and 15 musicians. For the latter work, Janson was bestowed with the 2008 Edvard Prize.

One of Janson’s most frequently performed works is Sonnet No 76 for choir and solo voice (2000). The work has been recorded for a number of releases including The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir (2006), which commissioned it, as well as NOVA Chamber Choir. 2014 saw Tine Thing Helseth performing Janson’s trumpet concerto Variations over Variations on a Norwegian folk tune, a work that has its basis in Edvard Grieg’s work opus 24, Ballad in g-minor.

Political themes have often served as an inspirational source for Janson, and he is one of the few Norwegian composers who have had a demonstration held against a performance of one of his works, Interlude for orchestra og accordeon, a work written as a salute to Arne Treholt, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union in a trial in 1985. In the more humorous-political genre, Valse Triste marks a milestone – and is viewed as a critical collage of early 70s Norwegian cultural debate. More recent works with a clear political trait includes 2003’s A Bagdad Blues (not for Blair, not for Bush) which Janson wrote in protest against the Operation Iraqi Freedom invasion of Iraq.

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