Gerhard
Randers-Pehrson is dead at 62 years old.
For 40 years he worked as program secretary at Norwegian National Radio
(NRK), until he decided to retire 6 months ago. He first worked with the Record Archive; then he worked for a
generation in the Radio's Music Department, and in the last few years was
associated with Radio Theater where he produced literary readings.
Through
the years, Music producer
Randers-Pehrson entertained several generations of listeners throughout the
country with numerous programs. He used Bach against insomnia and awakened us
on Sundays with carefully chosen morning concerts. For five years, he taught us with his "Music
Dictionary": a series of 5 minute
sound-illustrated explanations of music terminology. Before the news captured nearly every corner of the morning
radio, he produced for many years "Word for the Day", intriguing combinations of poetry and music directed
toward that within us which seeks something beyond the news. His creative fantasy could take surprising
directions, such as when he got a Norwegian powerplant to sing by arranging concerts, sometimes with
special music compositions, deep within the energy plant's mountain halls.
He
took us to Moss to meet Gustav Mahler on Norgesreise (Norwegian travels) in
1892. He researched the lives of the
wives of Bach, Haydn and Mozart. He took us along to the Middle Ages
visionary composer Hildegard von
Bingen, "a noise that God breathed on". He let us observe a chance
meeting with composer Hector Berlioz at a little railway station between
Vienna and Prague – just to name a few of the innumerable radio amusements that
he threw out with a generous hand over the land.
With
clear literary understanding, he produced for several years, poetry, novels and
short stories for Culture Channel
P2. If only one production is to be
named, it must be the series with his own favorite novel: Johannes V. Jensens
mighty "the King's Fall", read by Svein Erik Brodal. Randers-Pehrson was himself also a capable
reader who found his own soft-spoken way into the texts. He understood what he read, transmitted that
without interpretation and did not force himself between the author's word and
the listeners' ears.
Gerhard
Randers-Pehrson stood for the best in NRKs popular education tradition. His
connection to his listeners was not in dry teaching, but was artistic and
intelligent. With knowledge and skill,
he worked for good taste and rich experience, and did not throw away time with
easy foolishness. Traces of his work
lie hidden both in NRKs archives and in many peoples souls.
By Nils Heyerdahl Translation by Sigrid Smith.