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Music Of Poul Ruders, Vol. 6 / Søndergard, Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Bridge Records

Music Of Poul Ruders, Vol. 6 / Søndergard, Norwegian Radio Orchestra

$18.99

Details

Composer
RUDERS, POUL
Artist
ODENSE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Format
CD
Label
Bridge Records
Released
Mar 08, 2011
Catalog #
BCD9336
UPC
090404933622

About



RUDERS Piano Concerto No. 2 1. Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean 2. Bel Canto 3 • 1 Vassily Primakov (pn); 1 Thomas Søndergard, cond; 1 Norwegian RO; 2 Mikko Luoma (acc); 2 iO Str Qrt; 3 Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (vn) • BRIDGE 9336 (64:03)


Bridge Records, a company primarily known for its commitment to contemporary American composers like Elliott Carter, continues to promote the music of the Dane Poul Ruders (b.1949). This disc is the sixth in its Ruders series. It contains compelling performances of two recent works of considerable power.


Ruders’s music has been described as a triumph of stylistic pluralism. What that means in listener’s terms is that you can never be sure the composer is going in the direction you think he is; he retains a genuine ability to surprise. Both the larger works on this disc provide examples of this. His very recent Piano Concerto No. 2 (2009–10) begins in a relatively romantic vein, evident more in its flow than its thematic material or harmony, but as the movement evolves the piano develops an almost aggressive desperation: a determination to break the formal and harmonic boundaries with frequent attacks and note clusters. The roles are reversed in the extraordinary slow movement. This consists for the most part of a tentative, exploratory line of single notes in the piano’s treble, discreetly supported by vibraphone, harp, and a solo violin. The soft, meandering solo is confronted from time to time by orchestral onslaughts of dissonant brass, squealing piccolos, and fearsome fortissimos , which seem to have no effect on the dissociative soloist, although the first of these interruptions would probably have a visceral effect on concertgoers in a live performance! In the third and final movement, the piano takes control and ushers in a brilliant and rapid moto perpetuo that crams as many notes as possible into its four and a half minutes. Ruders uses a traditional framework but fills it with quirky episodes, unexpected colors, and—in a phrase—pushes the concerto envelope. The work is similarly formal in shape but more wide-ranging in effect than his first Piano Concerto of 1994.


Color is at the forefront of Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean , a 2004 suite in nine continuous movements for accordion and string quartet. Here Ruders displays great imagination in his exploitation of the extremes of the accordion’s range, and by blending it into the many textural devices available to the quartet. The work is inspired by literature from a variety of sources, including Shakespeare, Darwin, and Conrad; quotations or references preface each section. It begins with a cataclysmic explosion of sound (tone clusters from the accordion predominate), which gradually morphs into a passage of warm, lyrical beauty and eventually into single, long-held high notes, rather the way a composition by Silvestrov proceeds. We move through many moods, some incorporating a degree of grotesquery in galumphing ostinatos or deep growls from the lowest reaches of the solo instrument. Then in contrast the composer will lure us into pure neoromanticism—as in the sixth movement, “Threnos,” prefaced by a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and the Turtle : “Beauty, truth and rarity / Grace in all simplicity / Here enclosed in cinders lie.” At all times in this work, as is usual with Ruders, the listener has little idea what is coming next.


The accompanying Bel Canto (also 2004) is for solo violin, commissioned by the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. As the title suggests it is primarily a cantabile , although there are moments of double-stopping in minor seconds to provide the unexpected. A folk or hymn-like tune brings the lament to a quiet close.


The music on this recording is a challenge but also a pleasure to get to know. It is performed with dedication and brilliance; I can’t praise highly enough the talents of pianist Primakov, violinist Sørensen, the iO Quartet (whose personnel are violinists Christina McGann and Sarah Crocker, violist Elizabeth Weisser, and cellist Chris Gross) and the remarkable accordion virtuoso Mikko Luoma. Want List material.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott

Tracklist 13 tracks

  1. 1 I. Fluente 09:35
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Fluente
    Duration
    09:35
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Vassily Primakov
    Ensemble
    Norwegian Radio Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Søndergård
  2. 2 II. Semplice 09:40
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Semplice
    Duration
    09:40
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Vassily Primakov
    Ensemble
    Norwegian Radio Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Søndergård
  3. 3 III. Avanti risoluto 04:38
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Avanti risoluto
    Duration
    04:38
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Vassily Primakov
    Ensemble
    Norwegian Radio Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Søndergård
  4. 4 Bel Canto 06:21
    Track
    4
    Title
    Bel Canto
    Duration
    06:21
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen
  5. 5 I. Introduction: Presto, "Wildly Pulsating" (… we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability - T.H. Huxley, 1887) 03:10
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Introduction: Presto, "Wildly Pulsating" (… we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability - T.H. Huxley, 1887)
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  6. 6 II. One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue: Adagio, "Dreaming" (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859) 06:06
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue: Adagio, "Dreaming" (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859)
    Duration
    06:06
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  7. 7 III. Floating on the Wind: Prestissimo, "Flying" (Du Fu, Traveling at Night, 765) 02:43
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Floating on the Wind: Prestissimo, "Flying" (Du Fu, Traveling at Night, 765)
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  8. 8 IV. The Backbone of the Night (Kung bushmen, Kalahari Desert, Botswana: their name for the Milky Way) 02:48
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. The Backbone of the Night (Kung bushmen, Kalahari Desert, Botswana: their name for the Milky Way)
    Duration
    02:48
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  9. 9 V. Stardust: Rubato (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995) 02:07
    Track
    9
    Title
    V. Stardust: Rubato (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995)
    Duration
    02:07
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  10. 10 VI. Threnos (William Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle, 1601) 07:22
    Track
    10
    Title
    VI. Threnos (William Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle, 1601)
    Duration
    07:22
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  11. 11 VII. Dream Catcher: Dolce sognante (A Dream Catcher traps bad dreams and lets the good dreams filter down to the sleeper.) 04:12
    Track
    11
    Title
    VII. Dream Catcher: Dolce sognante (A Dream Catcher traps bad dreams and lets the good dreams filter down to the sleeper.)
    Duration
    04:12
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  12. 12 VIII. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1902) 02:17
    Track
    12
    Title
    VIII. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1902)
    Duration
    02:17
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet
  13. 13 IX. Finale: Blinded by the Light (John Gribbon, The Secret Life of the Sun, 1991) 01:58
    Track
    13
    Title
    IX. Finale: Blinded by the Light (John Gribbon, The Secret Life of the Sun, 1991)
    Duration
    01:58
    Composer
    Poul Ruders
    Performer
    Mikko Luoma
    Ensemble
    iO String Quartet