Australian born, Israeli by nationality, clarinettist Ron Chen-Zion has been a member of the premier Danish chamber group Esbjerg Ensemble since 1991. Chen-Zion is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and was appointed principal clarinettist of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra in 1990. The following season he moved to Europe to join Esbjerg Ensemble and since then Ron Chen-Zion has been one of the most sought after soloists throughout Europe. For his debut CD as soloist Ron Chen-Zion chose the complete clarinet works by Max Reger, not very often recorded repertoire, accompanied by his regular duo partner, pianist Roglit Ishay from Israel.

In the summer of 1910 Carl Nielsen was asked to write incidental music for the inauguration of Denmark’s first open-air theatre in the royal deer park (Dyrehavbakken) just north of Copenhagen. This theatre was in use for about three decades and Nielsen composed for a few dramas for this theatre. As the scores have never been published, the music was little known to the later generation. In collaboration with Odense Symphony Orchestra, Kontrapunkt revived these “unknown” Nielsen works to add to our Nielsen series. Though the scoring is limited to voices, wind instruments and some percussion due to the open-air circumstances, music is very typically Nielsen from his most creative period.

Kontrapunkt is proud to announce the release of Robert Schumann’s incidental music “Manfred” in the complete form. This is probably the only complete “Manfred” (digital) recording available on CD presently. The text used here is in German, revised by Dr. Dietrich Steinbeck for this recording. BSO’s Chief conductor Michael Schønwandt is Danish and just turned 40. Despite of his youth, Schønwandt has conducted most major orchestras in the world. He was the first Scandinavian conductor to conduct at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth in 1987. Earlier releases by Berliner Sinfonie Orchester with Michael Schønwandt: Ravel “Daphnis Et Chloé” (KPT 32152) and Berlioz “Requiem” (KPT 32143/4).

This fourth release of the Nielsen symphony series includes the first recording of At The Bier Of A Young Artist (Andante lamentoso) in orchestral version. Odense Symphony Orchestra has recently finished recording a hitherto unknown Nielsen orchestral work called “Dyrehave musikken” which we plan to release later this year.

The principal flautist of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Toke Lund Christiansen together with the Orchestra’s solo pianist Per Salo launched on the French flute project a few months ago and found quite a few rarely performed repertoire. Many of the titles here are first recordings. Lund Christiansen/Salo duo’s earlier release of flute works by Joachim Andersen (Kontrapunkt 32079) was a critical and commercial success.

Though they are still in their late 20s, The Copenhagen Trio is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year. Started playing together as teen-agers while still at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, their extraordinary talent was soon recognized by the critics and the public alike. The Copenhagen Trio has been active in giving concerts in major cities of Europe and later this month they are performing at the Wigmore Hall in London. in recording. This their sixth CD on Kontrapunkt includes very rarely recorded Trio Élégiaque G Minor.

Ib Nørholm’s Symphony No. 2 “Isola Bella” was first performed in 1972 by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. It has since been considered as of paramount importance among Nørholm’s symphonic works. Odense Symphony Orchestra and the chief conductor Edward Serov gave their superb rendition of this ambitious work inspired by the intriguing scenery on an island in the Italian lake Lago Maggiore for the Kontrapunkt’s Nørholm Symphony series.

Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam who is celebrating his 50th birthday on March 2, 1994 has been a prolific composer as well. This “birthday” CD concentrates on his compositional vintage 1977. The three orchestral works here bear the unmistakable Segerstam characteristics of freedom from the restrictive formal system, which he calls “free pulsative style”. Segerstam’s wife Hannel who is the leader of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra plays violin solo on the Concertino-Fantasia. Soloist on the Piano Concerto, Rainer Keusching is the pianist of the Wiener Philharmoniker who also performs regularly with Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphonics, Chamber Orchestra of Europe just to name a few.

This is the fourth release (two more to come) of N.W. Gade’s Cantata Series. Earlier releases (KPT 32070 “Elverskud”, KPT 32072 “Kalanus”, KPT 32148“Zion, Die Heilige Nacht, Gefion”) have been received with enormous interest throughout the world and generated quite an excitement around this composer who has unjustly been placed more or less in the shadow of Carl Nielsen. “Comala” is Gade’s first attempt in his orchestra/chorus works which he called “Concert Pieces” composed in 1846 in Leipzig where he was taken under the wing of Mendelssohn whose post at the Gewandhaus Gade succeeded eventually.

Denmark has produced quite a few world class cellists and Henrik Brendstrup is among the very best of them. The rave reviews for the earlier releases of Brendstrup (KPT32007 Mendelssohn/Complete Cello Works, KPT32026 Chopin/Works for Cello and Piano and KPT32088 Peter Heise/ Complete Cello Sonatas) include “ Voici un disque tout à fait remarquable....superbe!” from the French DIAPASON which gave Brendstrup’s debut CD the seal of “Diapason d’Or”. Here with the cello works by Gubaidulina, Brendstrup shows his powerful “contemporary” side. The solo pieces on this CD constitute the only complete collection available presently.

This CD is a historical sequel to “The Danish Golden Age-Works for Mixed Choir a cappella” KPT 32068 documenting the rather forgotten period of the first three decades of the 20th century. The works presented here are by the Romantic composers who, in spite of the high quality of their achievement, sunk into obscurity due to the reformist movement in that period initiated by Carl Nielsen.