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."

Eichberg is the first composer in residence in the history of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. This CD presents the premiere recordings of his Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2 that was first performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and concludes an explosive phase of creativity in the young composer.

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)

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

There is, naturally, only a small region which sings in Danish. The psalms sung by religious communities during the time of the Reformation in Denmark were, for the most part, borrowed from other languages and used with existing melodies. With this recording, the Copenhagen based vocal ensemble Musica Ficta explores the Danish Reformation hymnody from an international perspective, with links to European musical works from the 16th century. Musica Ficta is a professional vocal ensemble, founded in 1996 by the composer and conductor Bo Holten. With this group he has realized his vision of a highly flexible ensemble, where the classical Oxbridge early music ideal is combined with the warmth of the Scandinavian choral sound.

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

Treason, desire and murder - served on a silver platter of glorious Romantic music from 1894 in this world premiere recording of a stirring opera about the murderous plot against Kleopatra, fabled Queen of the Nile. Beautiful melodies, alluring harmonies and tense leitmotifs, all expertly put to use by probably the most celebrated Danish opera composer of his time, August Enna. Born in Nakskov, Enna made his compositional debut in 1892 with The Witch, which was followed by several popular operas, songs, two symphonies, and a violin concerto. His work is strongly influenced by the music of Wagner, which can be heard in the present recording. He himself was a major influence on Danish composers, such as Carl Nielsen.

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

Classical Music

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.

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.

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

Danish composer Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen brings together two of his major orchestral works of the 2010s, Der Wind bläset wo er will and his Cello Concerto, for his third release on Dacapo Records. Olesen's stunning music is about life and about being alive: each piece is a world unto itself. They are recorded here with cellist Johannes Moser and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Otto Tausk. Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen trained both as a cellist and composer at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Aarhus. As a composer he studied with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Bent Sørensen and Olav Anton Thommesen at the Academy and privately with Henryk Gorecki and Poul Ruders. He has been the leader of Ensemble 2000 and chairman of the Aarhus Young Composers Society, and is at present director of the SPOR Festival in Århus. Outside Denmark TAO's music has been performed in Germany, England, France, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Chile, Russia and Finland.

REVIEW:

Olesen’s Cello Concerto is a wonderful find and worth the price of the disc on its own. Johannes Moser is completely inside it and it’s difficult to imagine a more emotionally powerful rendition. The Dutch conductor Otto Tausk is equally attuned to the essence of this singular piece and ensures world-class accompaniment from the DNSO. Dacapo’s teriffic recording exudes clarity—the balance between soloist and orchestra seems ideal.

These two substantial works add up to just under 50 minutes of exceptional contemporary music, but frankly who’s counting? In each case the sounds Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen has devised are utterly absorbing. He writes with tremendous sophistication and wit in the first piece and with an emotional directness in the second which is as daring as it is affecting. To echo the translation of the title of the first piece, both works last as long as they do. Each will amply reward any curious, sympathetic listener. That is surely enough.

– MusicWeb International

Axel Borup- J�rgensen (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- J�rgensen, 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- J�rgensen 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.

The last stop on a long journey, here is the third and final installment of a warmly received Langgaard cycle undertaken by violinist Gunvor Sihm and pianist Berit Johansen Tange. The present volume includes the violin sonatas Nos. 2 and 3 - highly accomplished works with strong individual features - and two single-movement pieces composed by Langgaard the precocious teenager: the charming Aubade written on a summer holiday with his parents, and the dark-colored Night Watchman's Song. Gunvor Sihm trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, from where she graduated in 2014 under Professor Serguei Azizian. Before that Gunvor studied 2 years at San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Ian Swensen. Gunvor Sihm has won several prizes, among others the prestigious Van Hauen's Music Prize 2011, the Eigil Harby Foundation's scholarship in 2015 and Gladsaxe Music Prize 2018. From 2011-15 Gunvor played in the 1st violins of Copenhagen Phil, until she won the position as 2nd Concertmaster for the 2nd violins of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Gunvor was a soloist with among others Odense Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Tivoli Copenhagen Phil, Danish National Chamber Orchestra and, on several occasions, Copenhagen Phil. With Nightingale String Quartet Gunvor Sihm has recorded the complete string quartets by Rued Langgaard for Dacapo.

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.