The Faroese composer Sunleif Rasmussen (b. 1961) let's the melodies of national songs become the musical DNA in powerful sound-evocations of nature; either as a basis for ingenious constructions of great sensuality, or so that anyone in the North Atlantic islands can hum along. Interpreted by members of Lapland Chamber Orchestra under the baton of John Storgards, Rasmussen's music is in strong fellow Nordic hands on this recording.

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

“It is strange that when I write these simple melodies, it is as if I am not the composer – it is people from my childhood or the Danish people who want something through me.” Thus said Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), who was devoted to renewing the Danish song tradition and whose melodies are still at the heart of Danish community song today. On this recording, Ars Nova Copenhagen presents a selection of Nielsen’s most popular songs under conductor Michael Bojesen.

The composer Andy Pape (b. 1955) was born in Hollywood, California but came to Denmark to study in 1971 and ended up making his home in this small Nordic country. The title work of this CD, An Amerikaner in Danmark, is not just a reference to the composer himself, but also a humorous and brilliantly orchestrated tribute to the composer George Gershwin. It is presented on this world premiere recording together with the tuba concerto Suburban Nightmares and the bassoon concerto Traces of Time Lost. - DaCapo

Anders Koppel: String Quartets - Mezzo Saxophone Quintet

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.

Per Norgard, who turned 85 this year, is widely regarded as the most influential Danish composer since Carl Nielsen. Since the beginning of his career, Norgard has composed music for all kinds of instruments, but the piano is probably the one he has remained closest to. Illustrating the development of the ‘universe of the Northern mind’ as well as early influences by both Bach and Stravinsky, the acclaimed pianist Niklas Sivelov presents a unique portrait of Norgard’s earliest musical thinking, including world premiere recordings of the Sonata determinate, Miniature Concerto G Major and Trifoglio. In fact, four of these six works are dedicated to Niklas Sivelov because Norgard is supremely pleased with Sivelov’s interpretations, making this a uniquely authentic recording.

With this new release, Danish musicians Henrik Dam Thomsen and Ulrich Staerk explore the music of four great French composers, Debussy, Faure, Vierne, and Saint-Saens. This is truly a unique album, as it is being released in conjunction with the special album app “French Pieces,” which puts the music together with videos, bonus tracks, and essays about the composers and performers, and can be downloaded in App Store or Google Play. “Henrik Dam Thomsen is a splendid player.” (Gramophone) “Thomsen is a Rolls Royce among players.” (Classic FM Magazine)

GRAM: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1

GRAM: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 - Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, Av

Peter Heise (1830-1879) is Denmark's peerless master of song, yet his string quartets lived for decades in the shadows. This complete 3-CD set brings together the Nordic String Quartet's entire survey, including world-premiere recordings of Nos. 1-6. Alongside the previously released first volume, these works reveal Heise's musical imagination in all it's brilliance, performed with a spacious, lyrical sensibility attuned to the composer's distinctive poetic touch.

For over four decades, Mogens Christensen (b. 1955) has crafted a unique musical world where the fluidity of dreams meets an aphoristic, crystalline concision. His works often draw on tangible inspirations - natural phenomena, Nordic myths, or literary echoes - guiding the listener through landscapes of intense atmospheric depth. From the 'friendly apparitions' of "Nordic Summer Ghosts" to the subterranean rivers of the monumental "Flumina mortis," this release showcases a composer who perfectly balances Arcadian poetry with a modern, functional clarity.

TRIBUTES-Pulse is a collaboration between American filmmaker Bill Morrison (b. 1965) and Danish composer and percussionist Simon Christensen (b. 1971).

Christensen originally conceived of the project as a tribute to four American composers, Charles Ives, Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich and Trent Reznor. The project is comprised of four movements, with the themes of Shifting (slightest change), Multiple (simultaneously different), Across (different directions) and Beat (moving synchronized) respectively corresponding to each composer.

The idea of "Pulse" is explored in both the music and the film. Christensen conceived of the role of Pulse - the rhythmic recurrence of vibration - in the music of these four composers. But pulse is also explored as the through-line in a life, civilization, and nature. Using exquisitely deteriorating nitrate-based archival film, Morrison weaves a story from the remnants of disparate narratives. The episodes appear intermittently between the undulating pulse of the film's decay, the imagery compromised - yet made all the more poignant - by a dying celluloid medium. The four sections correspond visually to the four elements as a frontier for Man - Water, Earth, Fire and Air. The first glimpses moments in a woman's life. The second cuts between two frontier stories, when buffalo freely roamed the plains. The third examines industry and the loss of the frontier. The fourth explores flight, humankind's attempt to escape to the heavens, and Man's inevitable return to earth.

Holmen: Oort Cloud

The story of DIEM (The Danish Institute of Electronic Music) is the story of 25 years of believing that the newest technology can move existing musical boundaries by creating new sounds, new structures, and pioneer the development of the music of the future. This double CD presents a broad selection of works produced at DIEM from 1987 to 2012; all of them presented in their original form and many of them released for the first time. DIEM is dedicated to artistic production, teaching, research and performance in the area of electronic music in Denmark. DIEM is led by the Californian-born composer Wayne Siegel, himself an electronic pioneer with several releases on Dacapo Records such as the recent TERRA in the spring of 2012.

In 1840s Leipzig the young Danish composer Niels W. Gade (1817-90) was welcomed with open arms, and became Mendelssohn’s successor with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. There, Gade himself conducted the first performance of his cantata Comala, which travelled as far afield as the USA and Russia. Comala is a lyrical-heroic legend based on James Macpherson’s famous Ossian poems about the warrior Fingal and his beloved Comala, here performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Choir and an inspired team of international soloists under the renowned French conductor Laurence Equilbey. While the dramatic work was one of Gade’s biggest successes, it has largely been forgotten over the last century. This first collaboration between Equilby and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir is a perfect revival.

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REVIEW:

Together they deliver a magnificent account of this undeservedly forgotten score. Taken from live performances, there’s also a vibrancy, which turns music that in lesser hands might be ordinary fare, into a highly memorable listening experience.

– Classical Lost and Found (Bob McQuiston)

" Mixed Company is the world premiere recording of a remarkable cycle of works by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b.1932) presented by London Sinfonietta, Theatre of Voices and conductor Paul Hillier. Composed around John Dowland’s iconic Lacrimae, these seven new pieces have all been tailored to the excellent “mixed company” of Danish and English vocal and instrumental performers gathered in Copenhagen to celebrate the Danish composer in 2012."

The Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) finds inspiration for his outstanding percussion music in the forces of nature, eastern mysticism and exotic rhythms. In the four works on this CD we encounter a melodic side to percussion, when for instance the soloist uses a violin bow to play the vibraphone and the musical saw. Two of the works were written especially for the Colombian-born percussionist Christian Martínez, who plays here with the Esbjerg Ensemble conducted by Petter Sundkvist.

Includes work(s) by Hans Christian Lumbye. Ensemble: Tivoli Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: David Riddell.

• Traditional Nordic folk music with Middle Ages roots meet three new compositions by Danish trio Gáman. • Drum songs from Greenland, chain-dances from the Faroe Islands, wedding music from Fanø island and brand new sounds enrichingly elucidate one another. • Gáman (the name refers to the old Norse word for “joy”), are three of Denmark’s most celebrated young classical musicians exploring their common musical passions. Gáman had their US debut at the Other Minds Festival, San Francisco in 2013.

Nielsen, C.: Maskarade (Masquerade)

Brodsgaard: Galaxy

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen has been one of the most striking composers from northern Europe over the past half century - a unique personality and a major figure in Danish musical life, even though he considered himself to be an outsider. In his early works, Gundmundsen-Holmgreen was inspired by figures such as Bartok and Stravinsky. He's considered extremely ambiguous and provocative.

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

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