Ståle Kleiberg’s album Across the Ocean towards a Higher Firmament is a modern classical work that is highly reflective and develops around the themes of longing, memory, identity and a sense of belonging. It is performed by the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra with Peter Szilvay conducting, and the five-track set alternates between intimate recollections and more expansive orchestral passages, thereby producing a clear sense of progression from start to finish. The emotional impact of the album arises from its link with real experiences of loss, migration and the quest for a new idea of home, which gives the pieces a definite narrative character without detracting from the music itself.
The opening piece, Lamento – Cissi Klein in memoriam, right from the start gives an indication of the reflective nature of the album. Since it is a tribute to Cissi Klein, a young Jewish girl from Trondheim who was murdered during the Second World War, this 13-minute composition has the importance of serving as a reminder. The piece The Town and its People then extends the album’s scope, taking it from a personal memorial to a more general portrayal. The two pieces together form a smooth transition before the album reaches its main work, thus enabling the listener to move step by step from individual memory to a much broader historical journey.
The journey is most clearly shown in ‘Across the Ocean towards a Higher Firmament – Symphony No. 3’, a work divided into three movements and tracing an emotional journey from yearning via drama and mystery to a hymn-like ending. The first movement, marked ‘Espressivo e rubato. Andante’, opens the journey, after which the second movement, ‘Tranquillo. Drammatico. Misterioso’, changes the emotional tone, and the third movement, ‘Maestoso. Quasi corale’, brings the piece to its final statement. The symphony, which is inspired by the Norwegian emigration to North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, is therefore the one that gives the album its greatest sense of scope.
The album is so impressive because of the way its three pieces produce a continuous flow relating remembrance, place and migration. While Lamento focuses on an individual life destroyed by persecution, The Town and its People broadens the scope, and the symphony deals with the experiences of those who crossed the ocean in order to find a new life. Thanks to the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Peter Szilvay giving a steady performance, Across the Ocean towards a Higher Firmament becomes a unified orchestral statement, achieving a balance between intimate emotion and the grandeur of a wider historical narrative.
