This 2-disc set grew out of the fascination of Robert von Bahr, founder and managing director of BIS Records, for the television series House of Cards. It wasn’t only – or even primarily – the script or the acting that grabbed him, however, but just as much the music. Said and done – Jeff Beal, the composer of the House of Cards soundtrack, was contacted and it was soon decided that&&& he should compose a Flute Concerto for the virtuosic Sharon Bezaly.
To complement the concerto a selection of music from the series was agreed upon, but with five seasons worth of instalments to choose from, this quickly grew into a large-scale (very large-scale!) House of Cards Symphony which at 83 minutes takes up a disc all on its own. So now the decision was made to record and present a lavish two disc-set, with three further works: Six Sixteen for guitar and orchestra (performed by Grammy Award winner Jason Vieaux), Canticle for strings and a brand new House of Cards Fantasy for flute and orchestra. The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra has received international acclaim for its recordings of the hyper-intense music of modernist Allan Pettersson, but here, under the direction of the composer himself, it has taken to the new idiom and welcomes the additional instruments necessary to bring out that House of Cards feeling: electric guitar and bass guitar, drum kit, piano and flugelhorn.
