During the last two decades of the 19th century, the generation of Danish composers born in the 1860s started to make an impact. Among them was Fini Henriques, who also had a veritable soloist career as a violin virtuoso and became one of best-known Danes of his age, appealing to virtually everyone, both high and low. Fini Henriques' production comprised stage music, piano and chamber music, and in addition, a large number of songs. Johannes S�e Hansen and Christina Bj�rk�e explore here his shorter pieces for violin and piano, both individual pieces and those in the collections Kleine bunte Reihe and Novelletter (Novelettes). Short pieces with a sharp characterization - works with charm, warm-heartedness and gravity.

The five works presented in this second volume of the Riisager “Symphonic Edition” reflect the composer’s neoclassical leanings: specifically, you can readily detect the motoric rhythmic style of Roussel. French also is the composer’s preference for clarity and brevity. The 1927 Second Symphony, in one movement, lasts slightly less than 15 minutes, the 1935 Sinfonia (Symphony No. 3) only a bit more than 20. The Concerto for Orchestra, a brief quarter-hour of sparkling orchestral activity in four parts composed in 1931, joins similarly titled pieces by composers such as Hindemith and Casella, while the poème mécanique T-DOXC recalls Martinu’s Thunderbolt P-47 in its early representation of an airplane.

Through it all, Riisager’s personal style reveals itself in the music’s pellucidly clean and clear scoring, as well as its thematic distinctiveness. He also has the ability to write a sequence of consistently energetic movements that never become tiresome. The Sinfonia, for example, has three movements marked Feroce, Violento e fantastico, and Tumultuoso, but they remain distinctive and well-contrasted. These performances offer just what the music requires: they are snappy, spirited, and full of energy. The Aarhus Symphony and Bo Holten capture the rhythmic ebullience of Riisager’s inspiration effortlessly. Solo winds and brass relish their opportunities to shine, and they are very well recorded. If you have been collecting this series, don’t hesitate for a minute.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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

NIELSEN / LANGE-MULLER / WEYSE / HARTMANN / KUNZEN: Serenade

HARTMANN, J.P.E. / GADE: Works for Organ

This new release features concertante works from one of Denmark’s most iconic composers and one of its freshest new voices. Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was the great maverick of contemporary Nordic music until his death in 2016. For Violin and Orchestra ventures into the jungle in classic Gudmundsen-Holmgreen style, leading us to consider our place in a world full of noises. Allan Gravgaard Madsen’s double concerto Nachtmusik takes the opposite route, blossoming outwards from the microscopic examination of a single note. Danish National Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Christina Astrand brings both works to life, joined by her duo partner Per Salo in Nachtmusik written for them.

Buxtehude: Complete Organ Works, Vol. 3

BENTZON, N.V.: Variations on 'The Volga Boatmen', Op. 354 /

BORRESEN: Kongelige Gaest (Den) (The Royal Guest)

This release delivers the thrill of discovery when Jakob Davidsen (b. 1969) and company take the listener away from safe, conventional paths into a striking genre-hopping adventure. It’s a somber tale, based on selected texts of William Shakespeare, Ursula Andkjær Olsen and Ole Sarvig but ones Davidsen imbues with gentle intimacy and vibrant colors. The pianist and composer Jakob Davidsen is known for his pioneer work with music in the border between improvisation and composition. It has resulted in 3 Danish Music Awards, the Honorary Prize of The Danish Composers Association, DJBFA, more than 15 album releases in his name and concerts in Europe and South America. "When the whole world is shouting on the top of each other you can either choose to participate with even louder and more penetrating shouts. Or you can keep silent or speak in a low voice insisting that the silent and the subdued may reveal more depths and nuances than any superficial roar."

KOPPEL, Thomas: Los Angeles Street Concerto / Moonchild's Dr

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.

These Goldberg Variations present new perspectives on a well-known score. Danish composer Peter Navarro-Alonso's composition is a note-by-note reinvention of the original Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. Thus Alpha's innovative performance adds no additional notes in comparison to the original. It is merely through the very creative and extreme orchestration that the new composition gains it's own life. "The combination of recorder, saxophone and percussion is clearly not very well suited to a baroque-style reorchestration," claims Peter Navarro-Alonso, responsible for this arrangement tailor made for the members of Alpha. "But the richness in that combination lies in it's enormous diversity in timbre and dynamics." Alpha is a unique Danish ensemble, founded by Bolette Roed, Peter Navarro-Alonso, and David Hildebrandt, who all graduated from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen. As early as 2003, they were the first to explore this instrument combination, attracted by it's many possibilities. Alpha was an immediate success, and have been prize-winners at contests and festivals all over Europe.

Per N�rgard is one of the most frequently played composers of his generation. He has written more than 400 works in all genres and inspired innumerable colleagues in Denmark and abroad. This album presents all of N�rgard's music for the Oscar winning Babette's Feast film version by Gabriel Axel of Karen Blixen's short story - not just the snatches of it one can hear in the film. One can also get to know the hypnotic Spell, the ripples and bubbles in Whirl's World and Trio Breve, which according to the composer himself are to be regarded as three as short expressive phrases - dream-like pictures - that change between light and dark, fast and slow but with introvert melodic features in common.

Bent S�rensen's music can feel like the product of a dream, at once vague and precise, present and intangible. With Rosenblad and Pantomime, the recording of S�rensen's trilogy Papillons is complete. This is music filled with the ebb and flow of fear, hope and nostalgia and unified by common musical material through the same anchoring piano part across it's movements. All works including the Fantasia Appassionata for solo piano are written for Katrine Gislinge, S�rensen's wife and one of the most significant pianists in Scandinavia, here accompanied by Esbjerg Ensemble and the Stenhammar Quartet. All of the pieces on this release are premiere recordings, and are being released at the same time that S�rensen will receive the prestigious Grawemeyer Award.