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)

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

The 500 years that separate Renaissance master Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410-97) and Danish composer Bent Sørensen (b. 1958) seem to disappear in this extraordinary Requiem which is a totality integrated both dramatically and musically; a work that unites the stylistic contrasts in a mode of expression that seems at once timeless and entirely present. The project has been initiated by conductor Paul Hillier and interpreted by his GRAMMY-winning ensemble Ars Nova Copenhagen.

R E V I E W:

Shoots straight into the soul and lingers long in the mind.

This is a fascinating and highly successful project. Without going into the kind of detail which the booklet notes give us, this is Johannes Ockeghem´s Missa pro defunctis, integrated with newly composed movements by Bengt Sørensen to create what is, if not an entirely new piece, certainly a very new and fresh way of connecting the new in the old, with the old in the new. This is an extension of Paul Hillier’s more frequent combining of contemporary with early music in his programming, and here he has brought in Bengt Sørensen to complete ‘the bits which are missing’ in Ockeghem’s work.
 
Ockeghem’s Missa is full of moments which can wrong-foot you into thinking that you are hearing something contemporary. Harmonic shifts and quasi-romantic melodic lines abound, and just listen to some of those startling female-only passages in the Kyrie. The Graduale flows from Sørensen’s Lacrimosa as if from the same fearlessly expressive source, and there are moments in the Offertorium which are truly overwhelming.
 
Sørensen’s contributions are idiomatically sensitive and integrate by way of atmosphere, but are by no means a soft-pedalled imitation of ancient style. The opening Responsorium has plenty of reassuring parallel intervals and open harmonies, but immediately alerts the ear to what is to come, with close harmonies and strange dissonances which have inner resolution, but no ultimate cadence. The central Recordare Jesu pie in the Sequentia is one of those impossibly melting creations which make your hairs stand up with some kind of prehensile spiritual angst. Separated by plainchant, the first two minutes of the following Lacrimosa is truly beautiful: a moment of suspended time where the tears fall, but never reach the ground. There are moments of restrained drama here and in the Benedictus, where vibrato is used as a textural effect, making the air itself ring like a Tibetan bowl. The entire Requiem cycle closes with Sørensen’s In Paradisum, is the most extensive and in some ways the most far reaching, as the booklet notes describe, “with cluster-like chordal effects that are thinned out, recondensed and break like waves against each other.”
 
All of the texts are printed in the booklet in Latin, English and Danish, revealing a contribution from Dylan Thomas in the Responsorium: Memento mei Deus: “Hourly I sigh,/for all things are leaf-like/and cloud-like. Flowerly I die/for all things are grief-like/and shroud-like.” There is a diagram at the back of the booklet which shows the position of singers and microphones, with a more conventional choir setting for the Ockeghem, and singers all around the venue for Sørensen’s work. In stereo this effect is not so very noticeable, though there are enough added dimensions and everything remains perfectly balanced. With a surround set-up the effect is quite magical. I searched high and low for the name of the church where this was recorded, but even un-named this is a perfect acoustic for such unaccompanied vocal scoring. This is one of those recordings for which you close your eyes and give yourself entirely over to a very rich musical experience indeed. Paul Hillier’s Ars Nova Copenhagen is a remarkable collection of vocalists for which this work is tailor-made, and the music is brought to life in a way which shoots straight into the soul and lingers long in the mind.
 
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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

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.

For Dacapo and the Nightingale String Quartet (NSQ) alike, this is a quickish follow-up to volume 1 of Rued Langgaard's string quartets, released in spring 2012. It has a very similar feel. The only noteworthy difference, arguably, is the fact that the three works heard here come from an earlier period. That was before his music became more idiosyncratically flirtatious - or "filled with so much frustration and weirdness", as the NSQ's first violinist referred to the first-disc quartets. Indeed, this trio in particular is said to encapsulate feelings of love towards a certain 'Dora' that would stay with Langgaard all his life - even after his later marriage to Constance. There is, consequently, a lot of lyrical warmth and nostalgia embedded in these scores, which are basically late-Romantic-cum-neo-Classical in spirit. They are indeed conservative enough for Carl Nielsen's somewhat earlier quartets to be considered a useful reference point.

Dacapo have promised nine string quartets, the six numbered ones plus the A flat and Rosengaardsspil, both heard here, and the set of variations already appearing on volume 1. There exists also a late and very short quartet movement, the 'Italian Scherzo', which may or may not be included on the single volume to come. With the cycle Dacapo are, curiously, in direct competition with themselves: a double disc featuring quartets nos. 2-6 was recorded by the estimable Kontra Quartet in the 1980s, originally appearing on RCA LPs (DCCD 9302). It appears the Kontras never did complete their Langgaard cycle, although that may be due in part to gaps in the scholarship at the time.

Lest the collector be drawn to the present set primarily by the 'SACD' badge, it may be worth recalling that the first disc, recorded by the same team at the same location, did not really deliver 'Super-Audio' engineering, despite a short-listing for the 2013 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Volume 2 is no different: spacious, but so bright that the NSQ might have been given protective sunglasses for the recording sessions. Furthermore, although microphones have thankfully been kept away from players' noses, background traffic does intrude repeatedly in the more tranquil passages - of which there are quite a few.

Still, these quibbles are not so major as to constitute a true caveat emptor. Besides Langgaard's delightful, fundamentally hospitable music, the NSQ's interpretations are also most commendable. Volume 1 was in fact their commercial recording debut, but they showed little sign of greenness or nerves. A year or so on, they seem even more relaxed and in tune with the works of their maverick compatriot. A blend of expressive astuteness and technical self-confidence leaves the whole project smelling aptly of roses. The CD's credit side is further augmented by extensive and informative booklet notes, in English and Danish.

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Axel Borup- Jørgensen (1924-2012) was born in Denmark, but he grew up in Sweden where he was influenced by the incredible scenery and by the gloomy, introverted mood of Swedish poets and composers. The dark, unique tone of the viola fascinated Borup- Jørgensen, and throughout his composing career he utilized this instrument as an opulent resource for expression. The works on this album chronicle the development of Borup- Jørgensen as a composer. His Duo for Violin and Viola Op. 12 is lyrical and accessible, and contrasts Mobiles after Alexander Calder Op. 38 which displays more abstract tonalities. Finally, O Baume Lebens Op. 81 shows intense lyricism and extreme attention to detail.

Emil Hartmann (1836-1898) had a heavy family heritage to lift, being the son of one of the true greats in Danish music life, the composer and organist J.P.E. Hartmann. In Denmark, Emil Hartmann had difficulty freeing himself from his father's shadow, but in Germany, things were easier. On this release, Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider and friends delve into his chamber musical key works, providing the perfect showcase for the romantic flair of Emil Hartmann, making his lines sing beautifully and virtuosic passages dance, and finding intimacy and eloquence at telling moments.

This third and, sadly, last entry in Dacapo’s Riisager Symphonic Edition contains some of the best music so far, smashingly performed and recorded. The Summer Rhapsody on Danish folk melodies sounds just as advertised. It’s a jolly potpourri of catchy tunes, scored with glittering abandon. The Sinfonia concertante for string orchestra dates from 1934, and it reveals the composer’s ability to use limited resources without compromising his music’s timbal color or textural interest. A new, vigorous (indeed, relentless) rhythmic element is very evident in this piece, and it characterizes the two symphonies as well. So although they are relatively short (less than twenty minutes each), they pack quite a punch.

The Fourth Symphony, subtitled Sinfonia gaia, is actually a wartime work, its avowed cheerfulness sometimes taking on an air of desperation in the rhythmic obstinacy of its outer movements. Riisager’s Fifth Symphony also belies its title: Sinfonia serena. Scored for strings with a virtuoso timpani part, the movement titles are curious. There’s a scherzo marked “Vivace ilare” (“hilarious”), and the finale is an “Allegro spregiudicato” (“Unprejudiced allegro”), surely a first in musical history. As can hear for yourself from a sample of the second movement, the hilarity is primarily rhythmic, and once again the limited forces give no hint on paper of the actual range of tone color that Riisager actually obtains from his ensemble.

Bo Holten and the Aarhus Symphony play all of this music, most of it shamefully neglected, with unflagging energy, and that is precisely what it needs. I would not listen to the entire disc at a sitting. Riisager’s emphasis on dextrous counterpoint and intensive rhythmic interplay can be exhausting in large doses. Take each work one at a time and you’ll be delighted. The engineering, too, is superb, save perhaps for a touch of performance noise in the Sinfonia concertante. This is a splendid conclusion to a great series.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Knudåge Riisager (1897-1974) holds a special place in Danish music, enriching it with an extra dimension of spirituality and pithiness. Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andreas Delfs here present two key works in Riisager's catalogue, one of which clearly represented a turning point in his output, namely his orchestral reworking of a selection of Carl Czerny's piano etudes for his and Harald Lander's ballet Etudes. The other heralded a stylistic change and ranks as a highly personal contribution to the concerto genre - Riisager's Violin Concerto is played here by Danish violinist Ian van Rensburg. Van Rensburg has been first concert master of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He also enjoys a versatile international career as an active soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.

“The five singers of Ars Nova Copenhagen blend beautifully in the deeply expressive Introitus and the fantastic quality of consort singing is no more notable than the touching communication of the text. Each singer performs their solo lines insightfully...this spellbinding performance is well worth acquiring.” - Gramophone Magazine, August 2010

This album, performed by the Danish National Choirs, under the direction of Michael Schonwandt, Phillip Faber and Susanne Wendt, features 25 choral arrangements of the most popular pieces by Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Featured among the 25 tracks are popular works such as "Den danske sang er en ung, blond pige" and "Solen er sa rod, mor", alongside lesser-known pieces such as his proposal for a new Danish national anthem. The Danish National Vocal Ensemble is made up of 18 full-time professional vocalists. Since their 2007 debut, the ensemble has tackled all styles of music, from Baroque, to Romantic, to modern. The ensemble was recently awarded the Diapason d’Or for a recent release.

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REVIEW:

Performances throughout are excellent. The variety offered by the different types of choir is part of the pleasure of the music, but even within choirs of similar type, there is considerable variety.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

In one of my earlier reviews of recordings of Nørgård’s music, I remarked that his musical and stylistic progress is far from a straight line. This composer is used to surprising even his staunchest admirers with unexpected twists and turns. This is certainly valid when considering his string quartets - ten at the time of writing. It may be worth reminding ourselves that his first essays in the genre are available on Kontrapunkt 32015 played by the Kontra Quartet. It’s a disc still worth looking out for.

The String Quartet No.7 opens mysteriously “with faraway signal notes”. The music quickly gets more animated and unfolds through contrasting episodes characterised by capricious rhythms. The slow movement makes use of various techniques and is almost a study in microtonal writing. It creates harmonic and tonal ambiguity that is fairly quickly dispelled by the energy at play in the final movement in which we hear reminiscences from Nørgård’s Second String Quartet Quartetto Brioso composed in 1954 and revised in 1958. The Seventh String Quartet was written to celebrate the bicentenary of the Danish Royal Library, a rather improbable commission indeed considering that there is absolutely nothing academic in the music.

The String Quartet No.8 subtitled Natten sænker sig som røg (“Night Descending like Smoke”) was completed in 1997. Its five movements derive most of their thematic material from Nørgård’s Apollinaire-inspired opera Nuit des Hommes - available on DaCapo 8.226011 and reviewed here some time ago. The first movement opens with siren-like sounds before proceeding further with what is mostly a distorted rendering of a Danish hymn-tune and building to violent, final, climactic and heavily repeated chords. The second movement Man – Animal is a short brutal war-like Scherzo. The third movement Voyage suggests exactly that in various ways, mostly through rhythm. The fourth movement Night Descending, opening with a variant of the opening gesture in the preceding movement, is a sort of tense Nocturne which at times seems to come to a standstill. The final movement Epilogue – Elegy reverts to the material of the first movement albeit presented in a totally different way, “including the chorale, but now transformed or distorted into a lament” as well as brief reminders of material from the other movements. Nørgård’s Eighth String Quartet is one of the grimmest of works, but this should not surprise anyone who knows the opera on which the piece is based.

Completed a few years later, in 2001, the String Quartet No.9 subtitled Ind i kilden (“Into the Source” or “Into the Spring”) is again completely different from its immediate predecessors. Whatever the intended meaning of that subtitle - maybe “the further forward, the further backward” as suggested in the excellent insert notes accompanying this release - the music is far more approachable. It is full of typical Nørgård hallmarks and remains rather demanding, while ultimately rewarding.

Much the same can be said of the most recent work here, the String Quartet No.10 subtitled Høsttidløs (“meadow saffron”). It is in one movement and, again, is almost plain sailing – by Nørgård’s standards – when compared to the much more acerbic Eighth Quartet. The music here is mostly characterised by clarity and transparency. The very opening is a good example of such almost disarming new simplicity although much of the ensuing music is clearly from the same pen as that heard in the other quartets. This is a beautiful and engaging work and one likely to earn Nørgård new admirers.

The Kroger Quartet, for whom the Tenth Quartet was composed, play beautifully throughout and clearly have the full measure of the music Their committed and carefully prepared readings deserve only praise and admiration. The recorded sound is magnificent and the production of this release, particularly Jensen’s well-informed insert notes from which I have quoted, is first rate and well up to DaCapo’s best. This most welcome release is a must for all fans of this composer’s music. It usefully and splendidly completes Kontrapunkt’s recordings of the earlier string quartets. This is quite strong stuff but it is all well worth the effort.

-- Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International

Captures the rhythmic vitality of this brilliant but tricky music.

This is the second of Ars Nova Copenhagen’s Taverner discs. The first centred on Taverner’s Western Wynde Mass (see review) and at least one commentator said that it was the version which succeeded best in dispelling his doubts about whether the mass ever quite transcends the four-square element in its construction.
 
This new disc uses Taverner’s Gloria Tibi Trinitas mass as its main work. Like the first disc, Paul Hillier intersperses the movements of the mass with other motets and plainchant to create a more liturgical feel. They open the disc with Fayrfax’s glorious Magnificat ‘Regale’ from the Eton Choir Book and continue with motets by White, Byrd and Tallis.
 
The presence of the Fayrfax makes this disc something of a hymn to the great Tudor choir books. The Taverner mass is found in the Forrest-Heather part-books which were compiled for use at Cardinal College, where Taverner was choirmaster. His time there proved to be brief as the choral provision at the college was vastly reduced on Cardinal Wolsey’s fall.
 
The title of the Taverner mass comes from the plainchant ‘Gloria tibi Trinitas’ which is a Vespers antiphon for Trinity Sunday. Hilliard and Ars Nova Copenhagen include the plainchant propers for Trinity Sunday, thus allowing us to hear the plainchant which forms the cantus firmus of the mass.
 
The choir of Cardinal College comprised 16 choristers and 12 clerkes; Ars Nova Copenhagen deploys some 15 to 17 singers, with women sopranos and altos. They make a goodly noise and the performances on this disc are notable for the excitement and vigour which the singers bring to this music.
 
Fayrfax came from the previous generation to Taverner, and his elaborate 5-part Magnificat ‘Regale’ is filled with rhythmic energy and brilliantly elaborate contrapuntal parts. It makes an apt complement to Taverner’s 6-part Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas. The choir are similarly glorious in this music. In both works, the solo sections work very well, with the unnamed single voices providing fine contrast to the larger-scale full passages. The tessitura of the soprano part occasionally seems to give the singers pause. The top line of both works is high, in the typical early Tudor manner but generally the sopranos are ideally flexible and light.
 
Rather annoyingly the CD liner notes do not indicate what pitch the Taverner is sung at and, lacking a printed score, I am entirely unable to determine whether Hillier performs the mass at the high pitch which modern scholarship suggests, but I suspect that they don’t.
 
Hillier has obviously urged his singers on vigorously and there are one or two passages, particularly in the Magnificat, where you can feel the choir being goaded on by Hillier and just failing to follow him. This is a small point and does not greatly detract from the performance; frankly I am not sure I would have noticed but at the moment I am rehearsing the Magnificat with my own group so was paying particular heed to it.
 
Robert White came from a later generation than Taverner. He seems to have had a fondness for the Vespers hymn Christe ui lux es et dies because he made four settings of it. Each alternates chant with a setting which is woven around the chant. Here Hillier and his group perform the final two, each a gentle and tiny masterpiece. Byrd made his own setting of the same words and this setting is also included on the disc. In it Byrd sets himself a technical challenge - and succeeds, of course. Each verse has the chant threaded through it, but in a steadily higher voice starting with bass in verse 1 and ending with soprano in verse 5. Part of the charm of Byrd’s technical solution is that it is possible to appreciate the piece without ever knowing this. The group finishes with Tallis’s Te lucis ante terminum - another masterly little work.
 
The group is recorded in quite a generous acoustic, but the recording preserves the vigour and clarity of their singing and individual lines have both clarity and vitality.
 
The CD booklet includes an informative article by Sally Dunkley together with full texts and translations.
 
Having said how much I enjoyed this disc, then I have to confess that there is one place where you ought to look if you are interested in a performance of Taverner’s Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas. In 2007 Christ Church Cathedral Choir - the present day successors to Taverner’s Cardinal College Choir - issued a recording of the mass under their conductor Stephen Darlington. This was the first recording of the work by the sort of choir - men and boys - which Taverner had in mind. And it is a release which demands to be taken seriously. So the choice is yours, depending on your views on the boy trebles v. female sopranos controversy.
 
This is definitely a disc for those for whom many recordings of music from this period come into the perfect but cool category. Hillier and his singers, whilst retaining sufficient perfection, bring the elaborate music brilliantly to life.
 
You might hear more polished and perfect performances than this one. But I don’t think you will hear one which excites more, or one which better captures the rhythmic vitality of this brilliant but tricky music.
 
-- Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International

MOZART Symphonies Nos. 1, 4–31, 33–36, 39–41. Symphonies, K 19a, 42a, 45a–b, 73l–n, 73q, 111b • Ádám Fischer, cond; Danish Natl CO • DACAPO 8.201201 (12 CDs: 716:42)

I mentioned in my review of a single disc from this series, which included symphonies Nos. 28–30 (Fanfare 34:4), that I didn’t think that Ádám Fischer’s performances captured “Mozart’s drama as well as they capture his elegance,” but added the caveat that it’s difficult to gauge an entire series of symphonies by one CD. Alas, in later reviewing the disc including symphonies Nos. 31, 33, and 34, I had the opposite feeling, that Fischer was making a “race to the finish line” and playing the symphonies too quickly. Now, as it so happened, I reviewed those two discs about two years apart, and so did not have the first still on hand to compare to the second, or to think about the differences in approach. But now I have the full set of 45 symphonies to review, and my feelings have changed. Now I am inclined to agree with Patrick Rucker, who gave a rave review to the single disc of symphonies Nos. 15–18 in Fanfare 31:1 (a disc reviewed, I believe, before I joined the magazine staff), stating that he was “grasping for superlatives.”

The difference? Listening to the entire series in chronological sequence. By doing so, I noted that, despite an overall theatrical approach to these symphonies (in the liner notes, Fischer admits that he tends to think of orchestral music “operatically,” i.e., finding a dramatic theme or thread in the music that he then tries to bring out), he does make distinctions between the earlier and the later symphonies. Reducing his approach to a few basics, he plays the earlier symphonies with equal drama and electricity but with far fewer changes in dynamics and fewer rubato touches. In addition, I was able to download the scores of four of the symphonies—two of the most famous late works (40 and 41) and two early symphonies (Nos. 5 and 15, chosen pretty much at random)—and although these are not up-to-date, verified, Urtext scores like the ones Fischer worked from, they do include dynamics markings. And, as any number of conductors of the past have mentioned, they do not tell you what to do between the forte here and the piano four or six bars later (or vice versa). You are expected to follow your own good taste in approaching them.

Perhaps another deciding factor for me was in hearing Philippe Herreweghe’s more dynamic performances of symphonies Nos. 39 and 41 and, believe it or not, Bruno Walter’s historic performances of symphonies Nos. 39–41. Despite Walter’s slower tempos (and richer string sound), he actually elicited much more nuance and detail from those symphonies than did Jaap ter Linden, whose set I gave a good review to and suggested at the time that it was a fine historically-informed set of the Mozart symphonies. But, to be honest, what really sold me on Fischer’s approach were his performances of the early, lesser-known, oft-neglected, and unnumbered symphonies. Each and every one of them sounded as if it was just bursting with excitement, yet not too much that it overpowered the music on the printed page.

Moreover, what struck me in the single disc of symphonies 31, 33 and 34 as too fast now, suddenly, made sense in context. And, for the several Toscanini-bashers out there, I found it almost comical to note that Fischer takes the Finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony at virtually the same tempo that they consider “too fast.” The difference, of course, is that musicians of the 1940s and 50s weren’t used to playing Mozart this swiftly, and so they tended to sound pressed, whereas Fischer’s Danish National Chamber Orchestra skips through the music deftly and nimbly, like snow rabbits dashing across the landscape. It’s the comfort level of the executants that makes the difference, then, not the “wrong” tempo.

A good example of Fischer’s approach is CD 3, where he presents no less that four symphonies in a row that are all in the key of D Major (K 73l, m, n, and q). It would have been very easy for him, and the orchestra, to simply slip into an all-purpose style for these works, which of course would make them sound pretty much the same, yet he continually varies his approach from work to work. I do, however, caution the listener to approach this set one CD at a time. That is what I did, listening on consecutive nights to only one CD per evening, and it worked out pretty well. You get a better feel for the magnitude of Fischer’s achievement that way, and you are being fairer to both him and the Danish orchestra, whose players helped prod him on to take chances with the music and do things differently from the norm. After all, this was a seven-year project for them. These symphonies did not just get all rehearsed and recorded within a year or two.

I should also point out the work that went into Symphony No. 15, one of the four I obtained scores of. In the notes, Fischer asserts that if this work had not been by Mozart, who wrote so many symphonies and so many of good quality, it would probably be a much better known work, possibly a repertoire staple. Just reading the score, the music does look promising but certainly not brilliant. The first movement, for instance, is in a quick 3/4 time, featuring a jagged melody with the usual wide-ranging melodic leaps. From the first bar, the dynamics marking is forte, which changes to piano at bar 13, then back to forte at bar 22, piano again at bar 25, forte on the first beat of bar 30 with a sudden fp on the second beat (a half note played by the oboes, trumpets, and first violins, while the second violins play 16ths and the violas, cellos, and basses play eighth notes). It’s all pretty cut-and-dry, you might say, and this is how most conductors play it. Fischer adds a little burst of extra volume at the top of bar 5, when the agitated strings play against long-held notes by oboes and trumpets, and there are all sorts of little gradations of sound in various places, including slight crescendos to emphasize the musical drama. More interestingly, none of this sounds particularly fussy; if you didn’t have the score in front of you, or if you hadn’t heard any number of flat-response historically-informed performances, you’d think that this is simply the way the music goes. Toscanini once said it isn’t the f here or the p there that’s difficult to gauge, but what to do in between. Sadly, Toscanini paid little attention to most of Mozart’s symphonies because, except for the last three, he found most of them boring: “Is always beautiful, but always the same!” In Fischer’s performances, nothing is “always the same.” In the Andante of this Symphony, for instance, there are no dynamics markings at all, yet Fischer plays it at a moderate mp with further gradations down to p or pp and back again. By such means does he create and sustain interest.

The notes also explain the reason why the music sounds so vibrant and alive: His string players all use steel strings, which gives the music a consistently “edgy” quality that reveals, as Fischer put it, Mozart’s “earthily honest side.” The more you think about it, the more this makes sense, since Mozart was strongly influenced by both Haydn and C. P. E. Bach, both of whom exploited an earthy, dramatic quality in their symphonies.

Probably the most difficult aspect of the earlier symphonies to overcome was the monotony of orchestration. Clarinets, horns, and other instruments only begin to appear in Mozart’s symphonies later on; earlier, the composer had to rely on his ingenuity of counter-rhythms and occasional harmonic changes to sustain interest, and unlike Haydn, Mozart almost invariably sought the widest possible popularity for his music (perhaps one of the reasons why Toscanini found it “always the same”). Yet, as the notes also point out, in Mozart’s day no one bothered to listen to music more than three years old as a rule. It was all about what was new, not what had come before. No one gave a hoot back then about “historical performance practice” because they didn’t want it and wouldn’t have listened if you gave it to them.

I still feel that occasional movements, such as the Andantes of the “Paris” Symphony and No. 39, are a shade too fast for my taste, but in the context of Fischer’s overall musical conception what he plays works very well. I can now accept what I hear in those later symphonies because my tolerance was built up through what he did with the numerous early works. In short, I have taken this symphonic journey with Fischer, the only difference being that I did it in 12 nights rather than in seven years.

I have now replaced the Jaap ter Linden set of Mozart symphonies on my shelf with this one. I strongly urge you to give them a listen and see if you don’t agree.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Apocalyptic and paradisiac visions of good and evil meet aphoristic miniatures of nine small, mainly malignant insects. The rousing graphic imagery of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) is on full display in this third volume of piano works by the deeply original Danish composer. Including three world premiere recordings, Berit Johansen Tange captures the mysterious forces, poetic gracefulness and absurd hysteria that are all part of Langgaard's both dark and wondrous expression.

This second volume of Kayser symphonies makes a more favorable impression than did its companion. The First Symphony, composed in 1937/38, is the precocious work of a 19-year old. Its three compact movement play for only a bit more than sixteen minutes, and the influence of Nielsen is obvious in the work's formal shapeliness, rhythmic vitality, and freshness. The Fourth Symphony by contrast, Kayser's last, is a large piece beginning with a pastoral prelude followed by an exciting scherzo, a very long Lento (20 minutes) and a finale nearly as big. It's a major work and far finer than the Second and Third Symphonies already released. The idiom is aggressively tonal, melodic, but shot through with diatonic dissonance. Occasionally, as the notes point out, Bartók or Hindemith may come to mind, but Kayser's harmony is far more traditional than either of those composers. That big Lento is very impressively sustained, rising to a very powerful, gut-wrenching climax about three-quarters of way through. The finale meanders a bit towards the middle, but recovers in plenty of time to bring about a very satisfying conclusion--brilliant but also somewhat emotionally ambivalent.

In sum, if you're interested in good post-Romantic music than you should hear this. The performances are quite satisfying: the orchestra sounds a touch more confident than on the previous outing--perhaps the quality of the music shows them in a better light, though I do wish they would invest in a decent-sounding pair of cymbals. The engineering is good, a touch dry, with a bit more ambient performance noise than otherwise would be ideal, but it doesn't get in the way of the music. Kayser spent nearly twenty years polishing his Fourth Symphony (1945-63); it really is a most distinctive piece, and I'm sure you'll agree that it was worth the effort.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

ROMANTIC TROMBONE CONCERTOS • Jesper Juul (tbn); Henrik Vagn Christensen, cond; Thomas Dausgaard, cond; 1 Danish Natl SO • dacapo 6.220526 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 69:43)


HOLMBOE Concerto No. 12. HYLDGAARD Concerto Borealis. JØRGENSEN Romance. Suite for Trombone and Orchestra. GRØNDAHL Concerto (1924) 1


A bit oddly titled, the disc contains five original works for trombone and orchestra, not all of which are concertos, and only one or two of which, strictly speaking, are romantic; though I would qualify that by saying that music that once sounded determinedly modernistic to our ears seems less so with the passage of time. What these works do have in common is that all are by 20th-century Danish composers, all of whom, according to the note, were inspired by Nielsen’s scoring for trombones in his symphonies, and by a national musical culture that has promoted the trombone and produced some of its finest players.


Of the four composers represented here, Vagn Holmboe (1909–1996) is likely to be the most familiar from a large catalog of symphonic and concerted orchestral works. His 1950 Concerto for Trombone and Chamber Orchestra has been previously recorded by famed trombonist Christian Lindberg, and is available on two different BIS CDs, (same recording): one, an all-Holmboe program, contains concerted works for various solo instruments; the other, all works for trombone but by different composers. Take your pick. Overall, I find the current program more satisfying, and Juul’s tone smoother and more evenly balanced between registers. Holmboe’s concerto is a mostly buoyant, bouncy affair that has much in common with Honegger and Milhaud.


Søren Hyldgaard (b. 1962) and Axel Jørgensen (1881–1947) were both new to me, though Jørgensen’s Romance and Suite have also been recorded by Lindberg on separate CDs, neither of which I’ve heard. Ironically perhaps, it is Hyldgaard’s 2000 (revised 2005) Concerto Borealis , the most recently written work of the bunch that comes closest to fitting the “Romantic” label. Lyrical, yearning, mysterious, and extremely moving, it has about it the character of one of those quiet, contemplative, chorale-like, open-plains movements reminiscent of something by Aaron Copland. I’d spring for the disc just for this one piece—it’s that gorgeous. Jørgensen’s Romance and Suite are also very effective, but more conversational in tone; more than once I had the impression of listening to music that could serve as background to a light-hearted romantic film, which of course always has its episode or two of tears and wistful nostalgia.


If it was written for trombone, Christian Lindberg must have recorded it, as he has Launy Grøndahl’s (1886–1960) concerto as well. In this case, so has another trombonist, Branimir Slokar. Since I am not familiar with either of these recordings, however, I am unable to say whether either or both present the piece in its 1924 first version, as it is played here by Jesper Juul. This being the earliest composed piece on the disc, it is not surprising that its musical language, for its time, is fairly conservative, as is its form, a standard fast-slow-fast three-movement concerto. It does not rise, however, to the state of romantic bliss that Hyldgaard conjures in his concerto.


One doesn’t usually think of the trombone as a melodic soloist in concerted works; but if nothing else, this release proves that preconceived notions often fall before such persuasively contrary evidence as that offered by this CD. Strongly recommended, and not just to fans of the instrument.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins


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

RIISAGER Slaraffenland (Fools’ Paradise): Suites 1 and 2. Tolv med Posten (12 by the Mail): 6 Dances. Concertino for Trumpet and Strings. Darduse: Suite • Thomas Dausgaard, cond; Hakan Hardenberger (tpt); Ars Nova Copenhagen; Helsingborg SO • DACAPO 6.220584 (SACD: 72:35)


Knudåge Riisager is certainly not the only composer who had a career in an unrelated field. He is more unusual in the recognition that he received, for his compositions and his musical advocacy, during his lifetime. After working as a civil servant for much of his life—he was educated in political science and was, in the last decade of his career, a department head in the Danish Ministry of Finance—he retired in 1950 and turned his full attention to music. This was not where it started, though, as his most productive years as a composer—and the ones chronicled here—paralleled his government career. He began his music education as a teenager. Then, before beginning his office job, he took a study trip to Paris, became a pupil of Albert Roussel—himself a latecomer to music—and Paul Le Flem, fell under the influence of Les Six, and experienced the new music of Prokofiev, Honegger, Bartók, and Stravinsky. He returned to successfully champion new music—his own and other’s— in Nielsen-besotted Denmark, achieving what near-contemporary Rued Langgaard had failed to do during the same period. Of course, Riisanger had charm and a sense of humor, and wrote beautifully crafted and easily appreciated neoclassical works inspired by his French mentors and Russian muses. Such was his success that in 1937 he was named the chairman of the Association of Danish Composers, a position he held for 25 years. In 1956 he began an 11-year tenure as director of the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He died in 1974, a revered and popular artist.


I’m not quite sure what all of this research, and a passing familiarity with the Trumpet Concertino, led me to expect, aside from formality and clarity of texture mixed with, perhaps, some French nonchalance. I was not prepared for the first three ballet suites on this release. There is an appealing surface artlessness to the Fool’s Paradise suites and the six dances from Twelve By the Mail that suggests, in their hidden sophistication, the musical revels of Les Six. They are otherwise reminiscent of English light music of the period. Riisager’s orchestrations are uniformly brilliant, his lovely melodies charming or nostalgic. Their obvious popular appeal—almost movie score-like at times—is spiced with some piquant, though subtly applied, dissonances and occasional forays into polytonality. It is all very pleasant, generally bright and cheery, though perhaps best taken in smaller doses to prevent overdose.


The Trumpet Concertino is a more substantial work, very much influenced by Stravinsky’s neoclassical style, though with little of the Russian composer’s occasionally chilly perfection. The opening and closing movements are, in fact, decidedly quirky, almost a parody of a classical concerto. The central movement is notable, however, for a depth of feeling unique among the works on this disc, though the first movement of the suite from Darduse comes close. In this latter piece, one hears the influence of Roussel’s tutelage most clearly, and more than a bit of the Impressionism that his teacher had eventually rejected. Thereafter, we are back to the lighter music, depicting cock fights and wedding processions. What sets this suite apart is the darker orchestral palette, more dissonant language—though still relatively mild—and the innovative use of chorus. The voices are used to suggest the violent wind of a Grofé-like dust storm (uncharacteristically forbidding, though all, including the chorus, ends peacefully) and the singing of the participants in the folk-inspired Women’s Dance.


Paul Snook welcomed this release in these pages ( Fanfare 21:6) in its 1998 CD incarnation. This SACD rerelease restores it to the catalog. While I cannot say I am quite as enthusiastic as my colleague—he included it on his Want List for that year—I certainly enjoyed the disc. Thomas Dausgaard and his fine Swedish orchestra are eloquent advocates. Håkan Hardenberger is luxury casting for the not terribly challenging trumpet solo, as is the superlative Ars Nova Copenhagen (as it is now known) in the choral segments. The sound is very fine in stereo, though a quick check of the multichannel layer reveals little information in the rear. Those who missed this on the first go-around will be pleased, as will students of Danish music, and fans of well-made lighter music.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

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