Eivind Buene

Schubert Lounge

Schubert Lounge for Soprano, 2 Baritones and Ensemble was commissioned by Oslo Sinfonietta. Franz Schubert was a singer/songwriter, says Eivind Buene. A Schubertiade as a role model, the composer - who himself grew up with pop music - imagined Schubert in the singer/songwriter pose of the 70s: with a Fender Rhodes and the voice of a pop singer. So, he staged his first Schubert Lounges for his friends in Oslo. Inspired by one of these house concerts, baritone Halvor Mellen suggested Buene that they could work together as singers. Eivind Buene is interested in this friction between different aesthetics and different systems of thought. In the further developed Schubert Lounge, three different musical styles meet: Buene's own recontextualized version of Schubert songs, Halvor Mellen's interpretation of Buene's music composed for his voice based on fragments from Schubert's diary, and Tora Augestad's very personal interpretation of Schubert songs.