A spirited folk celebration with a twist: Andsnes plays Tveitt’s “What Beer!”

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“Noko té øl”, which is folk tune no. 11 in the collection, draws on Hardanger traditions connected to weddings and festive gatherings. The music bubbles with rhythmic drive and joy, yet also contains a surprising layer of complexity: in the midst of the cheerful atmosphere, the expression is interrupted by dissonant outbursts. In a footnote to the score, Tveitt describes this as a symbolic “smuggling in” of folk tune no. 16.

And what is folk tune no. 16? “Sorrowful song about an empty liquor flask.”

Here, two drinking songs with very different points of departure are interwoven. But in the end, the joy of the beer prevails!

The recording is part of Andsnes’ upcoming album Geirr Tveitt, to be released on April 24, 2026. The album is the result of several years of immersion in Tveitt’s music and presents a wide-ranging portrait of the composer, from the monumental Piano Sonata No. 29 “Sonata etere” to a selection of folk tunes and songs based on poems by Norwegian writers, performed in collaboration with sister and vocalist Solveig Andsnes, marking their first professional partnership.

The piano sonata holds a unique place in Tveitt’s output: of his 36 piano sonatas, this is the only one to have survived the fire at the Tveitt farm in 1970, in which much of the composer’s life’s work was lost. For Andsnes, the work represents “perhaps the most epic piece ever written for solo piano in Norway,” and a landmark in Norwegian music history.

With this project, Andsnes highlights a composer who merges Norwegian folk traditions with currents from European modernism into a highly distinctive musical language. The result is music that is deeply rooted yet open, expressive, and internationally oriented.

The album was recorded at St. Jude-on-the-Hill in London, with Jørn Pedersen as producer and Arne Akselberg as engineer, and will be released on CD, LP (with a selection of the tracks), digital formats, and in Dolby Atmos.