• The Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century is known as a period with an abundance of artistic expression, famous talents H. C. Andersen, Kierkegaard, Weyse and Gade. But according to Paul Hillier, we can speak of a continued "Golden Age" for Danish choral music today – which is why this collection of Hillier’s Danish Golden Age jewels with Ars Nova Copenhagen includes Classical and Romantic works as well as music from subsequent generations and right up until our own time.
Olesen: Der Wind bläset wo er will / Moser, Tausk, Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Dacapo Classical
CD
$17.99Jan 01, 2021
Danish composer Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen brings together two of his major orchestral works of the 2010s, Der Wind bläset wo er will and his Cello Concerto, for his third release on Dacapo Records. Olesen's stunning music is about life and about being alive: each piece is a world unto itself. They are recorded here with cellist Johannes Moser and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Otto Tausk. Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen trained both as a cellist and composer at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Aarhus. As a composer he studied with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Bent Sørensen and Olav Anton Thommesen at the Academy and privately with Henryk Gorecki and Poul Ruders. He has been the leader of Ensemble 2000 and chairman of the Aarhus Young Composers Society, and is at present director of the SPOR Festival in Århus. Outside Denmark TAO's music has been performed in Germany, England, France, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Chile, Russia and Finland.
REVIEW:
Olesen’s Cello Concerto is a wonderful find and worth the price of the disc on its own. Johannes Moser is completely inside it and it’s difficult to imagine a more emotionally powerful rendition. The Dutch conductor Otto Tausk is equally attuned to the essence of this singular piece and ensures world-class accompaniment from the DNSO. Dacapo’s teriffic recording exudes clarity—the balance between soloist and orchestra seems ideal.
These two substantial works add up to just under 50 minutes of exceptional contemporary music, but frankly who’s counting? In each case the sounds Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen has devised are utterly absorbing. He writes with tremendous sophistication and wit in the first piece and with an emotional directness in the second which is as daring as it is affecting. To echo the translation of the title of the first piece, both works last as long as they do. Each will amply reward any curious, sympathetic listener. That is surely enough.
After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find. Nightingale String Quartet is based in Copenhagen and is made up of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola, and Louisa Schwab, cello. All the members of Nightingale String Quartet studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where Professor Tim Frederiksen has been their faithful mentor ever since the Quartet was founded in 2007.
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REVIEW:
Vagn Holmboe’s 20 numbered string quartets constitute one of the 20th century’s most substantial and rewarding bodies of work in the genre. Collectors have come to know these compositions largely through the Kontra Quartet’s complete recorded cycle on Dacapo. The label now launches a new Holmboe project with the young Nightingale Quartet, whose Rued Langgaard quartet cycle set reference standards. In every way they match the Kontra’s technical polish, ensemble discipline, and textual integrity. Yet their interpretations sometimes differ.
For example, the Nightingale’s leaner spelling out of the gorgeously dense chords in the third-movement introduction of the First quartet contrasts to the Kontra’s massive and fuller-bodied impact. On the other hand, the second movement’s slithery Presto passages gain from the Nightingale’s faster tempo and lighter articulation.
Although the Third quartet’s five-movement “arch” form (slow-fast-moderate-fast-slow) owes an obvious debt to Bartók’s own Third quartet, Holmboe’s somewhat sunnier harmonic language goes its own way. It’s a toss-up between the Kontra’s intensely expansive, dynamically varied opening Lento and the Nightingale’s cooler temperament, brisker pace, and precisely calibrated attacks and releases. Some listeners may prefer the Nightingale’s supple scampering in the Allegro assai to the Kontra’s slightly heavier reading, yet the latter’s broader tempo allows the occasional “droning” bass lines to resonate more effectively.
My colleague David Hurwitz describes Holmboe’s late quartets as more complex but also more personal and concentrated, and that’s especially true of his three-movement No. 15. The Kontra’s slower unfolding of the fourth-movement introduction conveys a sense of mystery and otherworldliness that I feel digs deeper than the Nightingale’s drier reserve. But once the Allegro kicks in, the Nightingale’s gaunter, crisper approach better enlivens Holmboe’s knotty contrapuntal writing.
If this first volume is any indication, the Nightingale Quartet Holmboe cycle will complement rather than supersede the Kontra Quartet, and that’s all to our advantage. And to Holmboe’s advantage, of course!
• Denmark’s four leading composers have allowed the experimental trio Alpha to take their music 'behind the looking glass' and let their works re-emerge in the trio’s very own sound world.
• Played and recorded entirely by heart.
• Alpha is a classical ensemble devoted to commissioning pieces, improvising, playing the world's folk music, diving into electro-acoustic music, electronica and medieval music as well as composing themselves.
Langgaard: Complete Works for Violin & Piano, Vol. 1 / Sihm, Tange
Dacapo Classical
SACD
$16.99Oct 20, 2017
In the veritable musical frenzy that struck Rued Langgaard(1893-1952) near the end of his life he composed several violin sonatas –a genre he had not paid much attention to since his early days. In this first in a series of three recordings presenting Langgaard’s complete works for violin and piano the award-winning violinist Gunvor Sihm and the Langgaard expert Berit Johansen Tange perform three late, incitingly Romantic works in addition to the unfinished sonata of Langgaard’s youth, which is given its world premiere recording. Gunvor Sihm was born in 1986 and started to play the violin at age 5 with Jan Mathiesen at Aarhus Music School. Through the years Gunvor has won several prizes, most recently the 1st prize at RDAM’s violin competition. Previously she has won a Gold medal at Berlingske Tidendes Classical Music Competition, 1st prize at Jakob Gades Violin Competition, Talent prize at “Young Classical Musicians”, 2nd prize at Oeresund’s Soloist Competition, and a Fine Arts Award from Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.
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REVIEW:
In the unfinished sonata of 1909–11 we hear that these musicians can do Romantic rhetoric as well as human impulse. Langgaard weights the piece towards the piano but Sihm holds her own on her 1725 Guarneri while enjoying the fight. She finds a way to bend wild phrases into submission and is thrillingly aware of where one might tip from joyous rhapsody into railing anger. In the central section of the second movement, Johansen Tange’s chords move from the thunderous to the consoling, while Sihm’s poise and control in the final bars is wondrous. Recorded sound is good and this is essential listening.
The music of the two composer cousins C.F.E. Horneman (1840-1906) and Asger Hamerik (1843-1929) was never properly appreciated in their native Denmark during their lifetimes. Now the Arild String Quartet sheds new light on the forgotten string quartets of the two composers with this debut CD for Dacapo Records.
The Danish composer Anders Koppel's musical collaboration with his son, saxophonist Benjamin Koppel, forms the background for these two unusual concerts with a quite unique soloist configuration, now released for the first time on CD. In the double concerto the saxophonist meets the classical recorder virtuoso Michala Petri in a fantastic interplay of tradition, improvisation and tonal diversity, while the triple concerto features the warm sound of the mezzo saxophone as framed by cello and harp, played here by the soloists Eugene Hye-Knudsen and Tine Rehling.
Madsen: Nachtmusik - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: For Violin & Orchestra / Duo Astrand/Salo, Danish National Symphony
Dacapo Classical
CD
$16.99Jan 03, 2020
This new release features concertante works from one of Denmark’s most iconic composers and one of its freshest new voices. Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was the great maverick of contemporary Nordic music until his death in 2016. For Violin and Orchestra ventures into the jungle in classic Gudmundsen-Holmgreen style, leading us to consider our place in a world full of noises. Allan Gravgaard Madsen’s double concerto Nachtmusik takes the opposite route, blossoming outwards from the microscopic examination of a single note. Danish National Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Christina Astrand brings both works to life, joined by her duo partner Per Salo in Nachtmusik written for them.
Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Gilbert, New York Philharmonic
Dacapo Classical
CD
$6.99$13.99Save 50%May 28, 2013
REVIEW:
The Finnish composer-pianist Magnus Lindberg has been the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic since 2009, at which time the post was initiated by the NYPO’s current Music Director, Alan Gilbert.
I have been aware of Lindberg for some time, but this was my first opportunity for in-depth listening. First impressions were of a restless, often aggressive musical persona; of constantly changing musical landscapes, and brightly coloured, dramatic orchestration. Lindberg’s music is not excessively dissonant or discordant, and he does not shy away from key-centres either. In that sense his music is, as represented here, relatively accessible. On the other hand, it is very complex, and almost profligate in its material; none of these works has a single dominating motif … that I could discern, anyway.
As you listen, you become more and more aware of how cunningly shaped his music is, following definite emotional paths, and evolving, as it were, organically. Thus Expo, on track 1, has a kaleidoscopic feel to it, yet in the end seems satisfyingly inevitable and complete. The performance by the NYPO in the première, recorded here, is quite wonderful, reminding us what a very great ensemble this is.
They are matched by the astonishing pianism of Bronfman in the concerto. This is in three movements, which play without a break. Though it requires both hands to perform (and how - an extra one or two wouldn’t have come amiss), it has a close and intriguing affinity with the Ravel D minor concerto, written for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WW1. Lindberg’s work follows the same kind of progress as the Ravel - from an opening in Stygian depths of darkness to an affirmative conclusion. There are also numerous specific references to the French composer’s themes, rhythmic patterns and textures that are both fascinating and maddeningly elusive. It is a fine and often thrilling work, and Bronfman’s performance, again in the première, is breathtakingly assured.
The Italian phrase Al largo - apparently man being offshore, on the open sea - has much in common with Expo in its sense of shifting land- and seascapes. It is, though, a much longer, more fully developed work, dominated by heroic brass fanfares, busy tuned percussion, and delicate woodwind writing; the solo oboe is particularly prominent. Again there is a sense of finding, then losing, then rediscovering tonal centres as points of rest and stability.
This is an exciting CD, brilliantly performed and recorded; as an introduction to one of the most approachable and individual voices in contemporary music, it could hardly be bettered.
Norgard: Will-o'-the-Wisps in Town - Out of the Cradle Endle
Dacapo Classical
CD + DVD
$16.99Jul 31, 2012
The Will-o'-the-Wisps in Town is an extraordinary fairy tale cantata created by the Danish composer Per Nurgerd and his close friend, author Suzanne Brugger, on the basis of a little known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. This world premiere recording focuses on the charismatic "Marsh With", sung by mezzo-soprano Helene Gjerris, who also premiered the work in Birmingham, UK, at the international celebration of the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth. Helene Gjerris has captivated audiences and composers since the mid-1990s. Several new works have been written especially for her. In contemporary music in particular her charismatic performance comes into it's element.
Drama, surprise, humour and still life - with a bubbling undertone of anarchy. Composer Ib Nørholm (b. 1931) presents us with a delightful twist on Danish nocturne and condensed music drama for two in Tavole per Orfeo. This world premiere recording by soprano Else Torp and guitarist Per Pålsson unfolds as a fascinating testimony to an inspired encounter between words and music and a meeting of strong artistic personalities. Else is a core member of Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, with whom she has performed around the world.
Holten: Schlagt sie tot! / Ringborg, Malmö Opera Orchestra, Malmö Opera Chorus
Dacapo Classical
CD
$25.98$51.99Save 50%Aug 27, 2021
Schlagt sie tot! is an opera about radical change and religious fanaticism. It paints a multifaceted portrait of a complex figure who transformed the world, namely the controversial catalyst of the Reformation, Martin Luther. He was a charismatic, uncompromising artistic personality, at times hateful and in constant struggle with his inner demons. Five hundred year old events, not unlike the politics of our own age, are brought to life in Bo Holten’s and Eva Sommestad Holten’s music drama, which reflects human emotion in a society set ablaze by the fire of change.
This new release is a premiere recording of Bent Sorensen’s Sneklokker (Snowbells). Performed by the Danish National Vocal Ensemble conducted by Paul Hillier, the vocal work arose in 2010 as the audio accompaniment for an art installation titled “The White Forest.” “A ground-breaking, intimate art of yearning.” (Information)
Peter Heise: Drot Og Marsk (King And Marshal) / Schonwandt, Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra
Dacapo Classical
SACD
$51.99Feb 05, 2021
This is a story about a struggle for power in old Denmark, and a magnificent opera about events which led to the murder of King Erik Clipping in 1286. To present this dramatic episode from Danish history, a power play rooted in love, jealousy and honor, Heise composed gripping music with a razor-sharp dramatic sense and great lyrical beauty. It is Danish romance at its most powerful and immediate. Drot og Marsk has been called “the best opera of the 17th Century”. The opera was composed in the years 1876-77 to a libretto by Christian Richardt and had its premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen in 1878 and was quickly established as part of the theatre’s regular repertoire. Drot og Marsk is amongst the most frequently performed Danish operas.
A professor for many years, Per Nørgård has been loudly praised and awarded great prizes around the world. His music, though, can be relatively quiet in its exterior and searching by nature. Per Nørgård holds his senses open to signals from the planet and the cosmic miracle. This Danish Nestor works not so much for deafening fanfares or death by double bar lines — so, ‘when do you begin to get things finished?’, as his mother once sighed! For this reason his pieces may require a little extra attention. A work by Nørgård comes to life when its listeners attend to it with just the right amount of openness. Our receptiveness is rewarded tenfold as pleasure in responding to the works, and in the longer term by a generally enhanced attentiveness. Singing Secrets is a thoughtful and profoundly lyrical album which is both a strikingly original statement and a splendid addition to Dacapo Records’ extensive Norgard catalogue. The program demonstrates the range of Norgard’s compositions, with chamber and vocal pieces illustrating some of the distinctive steps of his musical journey.
Long regarded by Danish musicians as their secret treasure, the songs of Peter Heise perfectly represent the unique qualities and achievements of the Danish Golden Age. Though mostly not in direct contact with each other, these artists and writers shared a profound interest in exploring and understanding their personal life and experience, and left a body of introspective work which has had a huge impact on European culture. No longer a secret, these songs can now take their rightful place alongside the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Christen Kobke, Soren Kierkegaard and so many others.
REVIEW:
The Danish composer Peter Heise 1830-1879 composed about 300 songs, most of them on Danish texts, a few also on German poems. Dacapo now presents the complete recording of those songs. Anyone loving lieder will appreciate these romantic and melodically fine songs in consistently good interpretations. The producers must be given credit for always finding the right voice type for the songs with a variety of male and female voices.
