Knudage Riisager: Orchestral Works / Hardenberger, Dausgaard

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Label
Dacapo Classical
Release Date
April 27, 2010
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      RIISAGER, KNUDAGE
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
    • PERFORMER
      Hardenberger, Dausgaard
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      April 27, 2010
    • UPC
      747313158461
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      6220584
    • LABEL
      Dacapo Classical
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Orchestral & Symphonic
    Works ⌄

    1. I. Prelude

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    2. II. Departure

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    3. III. Princess Sweets

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    4. IV. The Lazybones' Polka

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    5. V. The Royal Gaurdsmen

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    6. VI. Fountains Of Liquers

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    7. VII. Procession Of Gluttons

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    8. VIII. Punctum Finale

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    9. I. Lullaby

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    10. II. The Rocking Chair

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    11. III. The Three Muskateers

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    12. IV. Leaping Dance

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    13. V. Pas de deux

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    14. VI. The Dance Of Dishes

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    15. No. 1. January

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    16. No. 2. April

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    17. No. 3. May

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    18. No. 4. July

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    19. No. 5. August

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    20. No. 6. October

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    21. I. Allegro

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Performer: Håkan Hardenberger

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    22. II. Andantino semplice

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Performer: Håkan Hardenberger

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    23. III. Rondo vivace

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Performer: Håkan Hardenberger

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    24. No. 1. Slumber Symphony

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    25. No. 2. The Cock Fight

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    26. No. 3. The Dust Storm

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    27. No. 4. Women's Dance

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    28. No. 5. The Wedding Procession

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

    29. No. 6. Dance Of The Free Feet

      Composer: Knudåge Riisager

      Ensemble: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester

      Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard




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