This is the fifth release in the acclaimed series of the complete symphonies by W. A. Mozart recorded by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and their renowned chief conductor Adam Fischer. On this volume you can enjoy the symphonies nos. 31 33 and 34 composed during 1778-80. The performances are as fine as this music has ever received.

This is Volume 1 in the acclaimed series of the complete symphonies by W.A. Mozart, recorded by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and their renowned Austro-Hungarian chief conductor Adam Fischer. On this volume you can enjoy the childhood symphonies nos. 1, 4 and 5 plus two unnumbered works showing the young composer's compositional growth. The CD booklets in this series offer the conductor's commentaries to each symphony as well as reflective essays on W.A. Mozart and the Classic period. - DaCapo

Mozart: Symphonies, Vol. 3 (1769-1770)

Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, P.: Plateaux / For Piano

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

REVIEW:

Flemming Dreisig is the organist of Copenhagen Cathedral, and thus is enrolled in the “royal succession” of Danish organists. He has been a pioneer in performing Langgaard’s organ works, and made the first recording of Messis on the Ronna organ for Danacord in 1997-8. His new performance can be regarded as authoritative. Given the huge resources of the five-manual 1995 Marcussen organ of Copenhagen Cathedral and DaCapo’s technically excellent multichannel recording on SA-CD, this 2-disc set is another valuable item in the current reinstatement of Langgaard’s music.

There is no doubt that although Messis might be off-putting on account of its length and complexity, it really does grow on you. A fearsome challenge to organists, it is certainly an experience which organ-lovers should have, although I would not advise newcomers to Langgaard’s music to start with Messis, its seminal status notwithstanding. But clear some space in your diary and schedule a three night organ marathon at home; you could not have a better organ and organist to convert you.

– SA-CD.net

SCHMIDT: Concertos

Nielsen, C.: Maskarade (Masquerade)

In the gloomy sky of a winter’s night a bright star emerges and ignites Advent’s anticipation of the Nativity –the year moves towards the rebirth of light just at the time of greatest darkness. With evocative works by the Baroque master Dietrich Buxtehude and the circle of 17th-century northern German composers around him, Paul Hillier conducts his Grammy award-winning ensemble Theatre of Voices in a stimulating addition to the traditional Christmas repertoire. Theatre of Voices, widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost vocal groups, was founded by Paul Hillier in 1990 and re-established in Denmark when he moved to that country in 2004. The group presents a wide range of contemporary music, often juxtaposed with elements of early music. Their programs feature many of today’s most eminent composers - Berio, Pärt, Reich, Cage, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Stockhausen - while among their current favourite ‘early’ composers are Perotin, Dowland, and Buxtehude.

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REVIEW:

This latest exploration of Buxtehude and his circle from Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices is a joyful, festive program divided into four sections, with each one containing a work by Buxtehude, at least one substantial motet by a related composer and an organ solo. It was recorded in the warm acoustic of Garnisonskirken, Copenhagen.

The last motet, Ab Oriente venerunt Magi by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) is Theatre of Voices at their level best: tender, blended, and deliciously phrased. If you are looking for the Christmas disc of 2017, here it is.

– Gramophone

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.

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)

The impetus behind this disc seems to have been two fold, firstly, after Sweden set up a border post on the famous Øresund bridge, the Swedish members of the choir had to cross over the physical border to rehearse and perform, and secondly, it grew out of the group’s first performance of Line Tjørnhøj’s Vox Reportage, a work which pushes the bounds, and thus borders, of vocal music.

The disc opens with hardly familiar music and this despite it being by probably the best known composer on the disc, Carl Nielsen. Anyone who has heard Ars Nova Copenhagen’s wonderful disc of the composer’s choral songs (6.220569) will know what an accomplished composer for choir Nielsen was, however this aspect has, until recently, been neglected outside Denmark. They are finely brought pieces that build well upon the Danish choral tradition, here however, Nielsen takes a step away from the traditional and produces music based in the ‘Palestrina style’ whilst also including aspects of his own orchestral writing in the vocal line, this was due to his composing the tune first, only after this did he look for words to fit, despite this the resulting Motets are wonderful.

The following short piece, Som markens blomst henvisner fage by Niels W. Gade, a composer of the ‘Golden Age’ of Danish choral music. It is a deeply romantic work, Gade knew the likes of Schumann and had for a short time replaced Mendelssohn after his untimely death in 1847 as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and his own music was deeply influenced by the romanticism that flourished in central Europe of the time.

Although Swedish, Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Tre Körvisor set Danish texts by the poet Jens Peter Jacobsen. Again, this is a neglected area of the composer’s music outside his native land, and while he is primarily known for his symphonies and piano concertos, these three tiny pieces, the longest is only two minutes long, show a composer more than at home with composing for the voice.

Paul Hillier, in his excellent notes that accompany this disc, talk of the music of Vagn Holmboe as being largely ignored outside his native Denmark, I must be an exception to the rule as I have a lot of discs devoted to his music, as well as a book dealing with the composer. That being said, the Two Border Ballads are new to me, and despite the texts being two British songs, they are still imbibed with the composers own nationalistic style. Anyone who knows Benjamin Britten’s Serenade will recognise the second piece, The Lyke-Wake Dirge, but here it is treated in a totally different way, one that removes it from its original folk inspired tune and made to sound anew.

Whilst the first four composers address national, language and physical borders, Line Tjørnhøj, in her work, Vox Reportage, which was composed especially for the choir, addresses more the borders of the vocal soundworld. This is a compelling work, one that takes a few listening, but the rewards, it builds partly on the concept of the vocalise, but here the choir produce sounds more akin to synthesised music, whilst also singing and speaking the text, some of it almost in the form of news bulletins. So a challenging work at first, but as you listen again the fruits of the composers work with individuals and small groups of the choir during the compositional process starts to pay off.

This is a wonderful disc, one in which the Ars Nova Copenhagen are, as ever in peerless form, they meet whatever is thrown at them head-on and produce a wonderful sound. I have a number of their discs, but this one is one of the most compelling, with its breadth of styles and music it would challenge any choir, but I am glad to say that the Ars Nova Copenhagen are equal to all of them. As mentioned above, Paul Hillier’s booklet notes are excellent, he discusses the performing difficulties of the Nielsen and the choices made of the performing edition well, and Line Tjørnhøj introduces her piece in a manner that only enhances the performance. Excellent recorded sound helps the choir, especially in the Line Tjørnhøj, making this a very desirable release.

– MusicWeb International (Stuart Sillitoe)

The Danish composer Knud+�ge Riisager (1897-1974) was a violin player and composed for the instrument throughout his career. This collection demonstrates the composer's fascinating musical development, featuring student works from 1920s Paris and 1930s Leipzig as well as mature compositions. = "For my money, Riisager is Denmark's finest composer after Nielsen." 10/10 Classics Today.

Lars Graugaard (born 1957) has always been very active in music creation with more than 200 score compositions and numerous vinyl, CD and digital releases. Graugaard's production comprises digital experiments into the latest trends of interactive music and cross-modal forms, as well as popular projects and compositions in the modernistic European tradition from opera and large-scale orchestral works to chamber music, vocal and solo works. Of Graugaard's four compositions on this CD, the aim was to discover within a strictly contemporary sonic configuration those variables that will allow the composer to project distinct and discernable emotions that in turn can form the basis of a rich, varied and intelligible musical discourse. For this purpose, Mr. Graugaard designed a piece of software that uses the findings in recent years' experimental studies into the correlates between emotion and score notation, performance qualities and audio attributes, all independent of musical style.

• 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.

Issued to celebrate the 80th birthday of Danish composer Per Norgard this CD features three of the composer's most captivating vocal works in new recordings with the Danish National Vocal Ensemble conducted by Fredrik Malmberg. In musical landscapes, we encounter the composer in his most prophetic vein, with the human voice as a catalyst of new awareness in both the musical and universal sense.