Dietrich Buxtehude was not only the greatest organ virtuoso of his time and a celebrated composer of both sacred and secular music; he was also a highly enterprising and innovative artist with a unique ability to form networks around himself. This CD, conceived by Theatre of Voices and Paul Hillier, gives a rare insight into the circle around Buxtehude – a musical circle of time, place, friendships, teacher-pupil relationships and even family ties; a network of excellent composers from northern German musician families, all of whom worked in or migrated to Scandinavia in the course of the 1600s.

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REVIEW:

These compositions are stylistically all of a piece with one another and make for a splendid recital. And there are few artists as well equipped to perform this repertoire than Paul Hillier and his Theatre of Voices ensemble.

– Fanfare

This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players.

Also available on Blu-ray

Spanish maestro Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (1933-2014) concluded his acclaimed international conducting career of almost six decades with two memorable years as the venerated Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Recorded live in concert at the new DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, this exclusive release combines Fruhbeck de Burgos’ powerful interpretation of the complete symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven with his spectacular renderings of Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz and Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie as well as Joaquin Rodrigo’s popular concierto de Aranjuez, featuring the world-renowned Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero. Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos has led the most renowned American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, to name just a few. In 2010, Fruhbeck de Burgos was named “Conductor of the Year” by the prestigious magazine Musical America. More than 100 recordings testify to his reputation as one of the most renowned orchestra conductors in recent times. Some of his albums are considered to be reference recordings: Mendelssohn’s oratorios Elijah and St. Paul, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bizet’s Carmen and the complete works of Manuel de Falla.

A Bridge of Dreams

Anders Nordentoft’s stirring cello concerto Light Imprisoned (1996/98) and the solo piece Cathedral (1986) are deeply personal works dedicated to the cellist Henrik Brendstrup. This world premiere recording presents these two important works in the company of selected Nordentoft chamber music: beautiful and harmonious, yet at the same time typified by great contrasts, suppressed pain and restless energy.

With his four concertos for marimba the Danish composer Anders Koppel (b. 1947) has played a crucial role in the development of a concert repertoire for this distinctive sounding instrument. + His concertos have been performed by virtuoso percussionists all over the world, but for this premiere recording the composer has personally selected a special soloist - here making her CD debut - the young Polish marimba player Marianna Bednarska, who finds herself accompanied by the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra an conductor Henrik Vagn Christensen. + The young Ms. Bednarska is already a well-recognized percussionist. + She has won 19 first prizes in national and international percussion competitions, the most important the marimba competitions in Paris (2009), Fermo (Italy 2008) and the Percussion Competition in Plovdiv (Bulgaria 2007), where she also received a Special Prize, and in several percussion competitions in Poland. + In 2013 Ms. Bednarska was awarded the ‘Polish-Danish Friendship Prize’ for her close connection with Danish musical life, culminating in the CD recording presently under consideration.

"There are so many musical gems on this release that, as a curious listener, you should indulge yourself and become acquainted with these concertos." - Christian Times, Denmark

"Subtle interpretive qualities and restraint combined with an abundantly accessible melody in tonal anchoring makes Koppel's music immediately appealing to the listener." - Upsala Nya Tidning, Sweden

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Anders Koppel (b. 1947) is to a rare degree a composer of his time. With one foot firmly planted in the classical European musical tradition and the other in world music, rock and jazz, Anders Koppel's career as a composer can be seen as one long continuous mission to unite these cultures in a contemporary musical idiom. This has resulted in a long succession of original works, all bearing the mark of a special ability to communicate emotions and energy, powerfully and straightforwardly, between musicians and audience.

Atrium, Danish cellist and composer Josefine Opsahl's (b. 1992) debut for Dacapo Records, is a strikingly original statement, focusing on her own music. The title has two definitions: one biological, one architectural. Out of their collision, Opsahl draws a reverberating series of dualities: soft/hard, organic/manufactured, natural/cultural. These are expressed most fundamentally in her distinctive instrumental set-up of cello and live electronics, which allows her to build entire orchestras of electronically modified and duplicated cellos live and in response to her acoustic playing.

Every sound in Bent Sørensen's music has been considered with the greatest care and refinement. His quietly spoken universe incorporates loneliness, nostalgia and a feeling of loss and leave-taking. His triple concerto, L’Isola della Città (2015), has a purity that makes it one of Sørensen’s most immediate and gripping orchestral works. As he has said, 'this music unfolds at night, as most of my music does, because it was written at night’. The concerto's solo parts are performed by Trio con Brio Copenhagen who has played Sørensen's music extensively. Sørensen’s Second Symphony (2019) is a ‘classic’ symphony. The work dives into the resonance of music’s history: the imagination showers itself in melodies, sounds and structures while at the same time, from a rational perspective, it can be seen both from outside and from a distance.

REVIEWS:

Sørenson is a composer whose pieces strike me as truly dreamlike. There is often a core of something familiar, tonal, pleasing at its heart, but it is also layered over with distortions and inflections that make it less familiar. One might say that it takes something attractive and comfortable and renders it uncanny.

The two works here fall very much into this description. L’Isola della Cittá is a sort of concerto grosso for piano trio and orchestra. It is more intimate, poetic, and the contrasts and juxtapositions are more extreme, even though they are subtly modulated. (The “island” of the title is the composer’s home in Copenhagen; one senses the world constantly encroaching on the precious quiet of the creative space). The symphony, not surprisingly, is more abstract, its rhetoric more forceful. But its meaning remains elusive—as I assume is the composer’s intent. And that’s a positive.

This is music that projects genuine mystery, but it’s a mystery that comes out of the familiar. While Postmodernist, it doesn’t engage the more “classic” Postmodern practice of quotation and pastiche. Everything is a very personal creation of this composer.

I note that Sørenson won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award a few years back (for L’Isola), and now I can see why. Highly recommended.

-- Fanfare

Although Sørenson is often regarded as an introspective writer there is much here that is bold and exciting. This is a welcome release of world premiere recordings of the title track (L’Isola della Citta) and his Second Symphony.

-- Lark Reviews

‘I feel each of my symphonies is a whole continent in itself,' one of the greatest symphonists of our time, the Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) has said. His music stems from an insatiable urge to explore the phenomena of the world and the possibilities of music, and his eight symphonies stand as milestones over the course of six decades. This 4 album set contains spellbinding performances of his symphonies that harvested a bumper crop of critical superlatives on their initial release, providing a fascinating insight into the symphonic thinking of Nørgård, the composer of the famous ‘infinity principle’.

REVIEW:

Per Nørgård’s eight symphonies have just been gathered into a four-disc boxed set by the Danish Da Capo label. Although these recordings with three different conductors and orchestras were released separately from 2009 to 2016, this is the first time that all of Nørgård’s symphonies have been packaged in one box. Each disc is programmed as originally issued, so you’ll have to skip around from CD to CD to sample the cycle in the order in which it should be heard, for there is an illuminating, at times mind-bending, progression at work.

Nørgård’s cycle starts with an impressive First Symphony (“Sinfonia austera,” 1953–1955) that is said to reflect his early Sibelius influence...the symphony hangs onto tonality for dear life as the anxiety tightens.

In the Symphony No. 2 (1970–1971), Nørgård’s personality begins to bloom. He had just invented what he called the “infinity series,” a form of serial composing based on intervals and less forbidding to the ear than Schoenberg’s 12-tone system. This one-movement symphony begins with a single sustained tone that splits into pitches hugging close to, and colliding with, each other, sometimes in quarter tones. The whole thing is quite beautiful, drifting along while maintaining a steady pulse.

The Symphony No. 3 (1972–1975) is the great one, swapping the steady flow of the Symphony No. 2 for a series of explosions of color. Eventually it settles into a new, fantastical, pleasurable, sometimes colliding wonderworld of sound, with voices gradually creeping into the mixture and taking over the second movement, which luxuriates for nearly 26 minutes. It even includes a brief outbreak of Afro-Cuban dance rhythms (how did he manage to slip that in?) before everything vaporizes as if in a dream.

From this point onward, Nørgård’s ideas become more rigorous and somewhat more succinct. The short Symphony No. 4 (1981) is in another sound world, one of understated, underlying anxiety in the opening movement that bursts out in thumping drums, dissonant strings, and brass blasts in the second (and last) movement, where for the first and only time in the cycle, you can hear a quote from Nørgård’s countryman Nielsen — a motif from the latter’s own Symphony No. 4.

In the Symphony No. 8 (2010–2011), the mood and textures suddenly lighten with twinkling points of brightness from the glockenspiel, playful winds, and caressing strings, if not a real tonal center that at one point dwindles down to a single line on the piano. Given Nørgård’s advanced age, this would appear to be his last symphonic word, although who knows? In any case, the orchestral playing and sound on these discs are top-notch, making this the obvious go-to choice for exploring in depth the works of one of our few remaining living symphonists.

--San Francisco Classical Voice (Richard S. Ginell)

Past praise of previously released volumes included in this set:

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 8 / Oramo, Vienna Philharmonic:

The premiere recording of Nørgård’s latest symphony is a rewarding listen, the Vienna Philharmonic bringing their perfection to his fascinating and attractive sound world.

-- Gramophone (Editor's Choice, August 2014)

Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6 / Storgårds, Oslo Philharmonic

There’s something almost miraculous about the way Finnish conductor John Storgards has brought this music so finely and compellingly into focus. In the Second, all is ghostly detached sounds, but then a melodically tight little figure in running notes starts to unfold, somehow transforming yet remaining essentially the same. The effect isn’t coldly cerebral: it feels natural, instinctual – as do the exultant brass and bells climaxes that grow out of it.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7 / Dausggard, Danish National Radio Symphony

This is wonderfully approachable, glowing music that includes everything from clusters of microtones to Latin American rhythms and languorous melodies.

-- The Guardian (UK)

A most promising start to an essential, richly recorded survey', observed Gramophone about the first volume of Vagn Holmboe's complete string quartets by the Nightingale String Quartet. In this, the second instalment, the Nightingale's continues convincingly with energetic, precise, yet lively and poetic interpretations of the Holmboe quartets, which stand amongst the most significant contributions to the genre in the 20th century. 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.

Prodigiously gifted Danish composer and pianist Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000) wrote nearly 1,000 musical works in every known classical genre and style. He retained a constantly questing and exploratory nature throughout his life, as we can hear in his five known wind quintets, recorded here by The Carl Nielsen Quintet. The results are captivating in their own way, stoked by Bentzon’s distinctive, virtuosic language and great ingenuity. The Carl Nielsen Quintet is a young Danish ensemble formed in 2006. The members have positions in Danish and Swedish symphony orchestras alongside their career in the quintet.

Explorations of continuity and discontinuity are central to Danish composer Kasper Rofelt’s (b. 1982) aesthetic. Dichotomy, the aptly- named album title work, presents a challenge, combining contrasting and even incompatible materials. This can be heard across this album, which features new chamber works by Rofelt including a great variety of musical characters and idioms. Kasper Rofelt is a student of Bent Sørensen and Per Nørgård. His music often relies on small collections of materials and a large amount of repetition as well as a big musical curiosity and imagination.

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month for July 2022!

Aladdin’s story, taken from the Arabian One Thousand and One Nights, has been told many times and in many different ways. This operatic version by the Danish composer, C.F.E. Horneman, dates from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and has the lush harmonies and flowing melodies you might expect from a piece of its time. Horneman adds new lustre to the old fairy tale about Aladdin and Princess Gulnare as they escape the forces of nocturnal magic and pursue happiness.

Soloists include Bror Magnus Tødenes, Dénise Beck, Johan Reuter, Stephen Milling, Henning von Schulman, Hanne Fischer, Steffen Bruun, Elisabeth Jansson, Frederikke Kampmann, Sidsel Aja Eriksen, Klaudia Kidon, Rikke Lender, and Jakob Soelberg.

Review

The history of [Horneman’s Aladdin] as summarised here is fully laid out in a fascinating booklet essay by Inger Sørensen, and we are further informed by Niels Bo Foltmann that for this recording the score has been newly edited to include amendments made by Horneman during the course of the 1902-03 performances; so that effectively we can now hear the opera for the first time in the form that the composer finally intended.

It is clear from this recording that Aladdin is a work of real weight, which well deserves revival and performance. The orchestra...plays powerfully and superbly throughout under the direction of Michael Schønwandt, who displays all the energetic involvement and sense of panache required...some of the delicate singing of Bror Magnus Tødenes (notably in the lullaby mentioned earlier) is absolutely beautiful in both placement and tone. Johan Reuter is also notable for the strength of his contribution as the villainous Noureddin, and the two principal female roles are admirably filled by the vibrant Dénise Beck and the warmly maternal Hanne Fischer.

[The] presentation of the set in its...imposingly handsome box, three discs in cardboard sleeves and 152-page booklet in Danish and English with complete libretto and translation, is absolutely excellent – just what is required if an altogether unknown opera such as this is to receive proper appreciation. One looks forward eagerly to further such revelations.

--MusicWeb International (Paul Corfield Godfrey)

 

Attend the tale of Beinta Broberg. So dark an aura gathered around this unfortunate seventeenth-century soul that she became known on her native Faroe Islands as ‘Wicked Beinta’. ‘I think that society reacted to her rebellious spirit by trying to stain her reputation, by casting her out and portraying her as a kind of fallen woman’, says Faroese singer and electronic composer Anna Katrin Øssursdóttir Egilstrøð. Composed by Øssursdóttir Egilstrøð and Allan Gravgaard Madsen, the symphonic song cycle’s introspective, veiled songs are couched within a mostly passive-aggressive orchestral landscape: not a roaring and surging ensemble but a brittle, desolate and minutely changeable one.