Thanks to the nice people chatting here I've started exploring Danish music through the out-of-print CDs of the dacapo label. This post presents a few works of six main composers, missing only the living Per Nørgård (1932).
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
Chamber Concertos Vol. IV (1945-1956)
No. 10, Op. 40, for wood, brass & gut
No. 11, Op. 44, for trumpet & orchestra
No. 12, Op. 52, for trombone & orchestra
No. 13, Op. 67, for oboe, viola & orchestra
Jacques Mauger trombone, Ole Edvard Antonsen trumpet, Tim Frederiksen viola, Max Artved oboe
The Danish Radio Sinfonietta (aka Danish National Chamber Orchestra), Hannu Koivula
dacapo 8.224087 (1998)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
The present recording of Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet (1922) by the members of the DNRSO has been BBC-Radio 3 first choice. (Mind that 15 years have passed since then!) The disc contains also three wind quintets of a much younger generation, composed in the 40s and 60s.
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Otto Mortensen (1907-1986)
Jørgen Jersild (1913-2004)
Henning Wellejus (1919-2002)
Wind Quintets
Wind Quintet of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
dacapo 8.224151 (2000)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
Rued Langgaard was an outsider, no less talented than eccentric. Hear in this video how Ligeti discovered to be "a Langgaard epigone": interview to Per Nørgård.
For a brief period around 1920, Langgaard was creatively provoked by Nielsen, especially his radical Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’. (dacapo)
For a brief period around 1920, Langgaard was creatively provoked by Nielsen, especially his radical Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’. (dacapo)
Apart from this circumstance in his country Rued Langgaard was alone in striving for a visionary musical idiom as a continuation of the Romantic tradition with a Symbolist basis of the kind one finds in the works of Scriabin.
Rued Langgaard (1893-1952)
Symphony No. 4 "Løvfald" ("Leaf Fall")
Symphony No. 5, Version I
Symphony No. 5 "Steppenatur" ("Nature of the Steppe")
all composed 1916-18 and revised 1920-1931
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard
dacapo 8.224215 (2002)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
The Late Romantic symphony in Danmark had already reached its culmination with Ludolf Nielsen's last, composed in 1911-13, just before Langgaard embarked on his mission.
Odeon shared it: Ludolf Nielsen, Symphony No. 3.
With The Tower of Babel Ludolf Nielsen too enlisted among the devotees of the mystical schools of thought. [...] The outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which came during the very days when Ludolf Nielsen was fair-coping the score, was a brutal denial of hopes of all these elevated spirits.
Ludolf Nielsen's interest in Greek mythology was in keeping with a contemporary Symbolist tendency beginning as far as music was concerned in 1893 with Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. [...] Forest Walk belongs chronogically to this family of works.
Ludolf Nielsen (1876-1939)
Babelstårnet (The Tower of Babel) (1912-14)
Skovvandring (Forest Walk) (1914-22)
Iréne Theorin soprano, Johnny van Hal tenor, Per Høyer baritone
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir
Owain Arwel Hughes
dacapo 8.224157 (2000)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
Asger Hamerik went to America in 1871, at 28, where he lived until he was 57 producing all of his works except for his four early operas.
Symphony No. 5 shows that he has been a pupil of Berlioz. Symphony No. 6 for string orchestra was composed for Hamerik's 25th year of directorship of the Peaboy Institute in Baltimore.
Symphony No. 5 shows that he has been a pupil of Berlioz. Symphony No. 6 for string orchestra was composed for Hamerik's 25th year of directorship of the Peaboy Institute in Baltimore.
Asger Hamerik (1843-1923)
Symphony No. 5 "Symphonie sérieuse" (1889-91)
Symphony No. 6 "Symphonie spirituelle" (1897)
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard
dacapo 8.224161 (2001)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
We have reached the beginning of Danish Romantic music. To sample Gade's best symphonies I had selected the 4th/6th coupling, but knowing that his more personal – more Danish – compositions are the first symphony and "Echoes of Ossian".
The Collegium Musicum Copenhagen which is playing here consisted of 42 musicians with everyday jobs in other orchestras mostly in the Royal Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. The complete set of symphonies by Hogwood might be preferable: see Odeon.
(Odeon has also the boxsets with all the symphonies of Langgaard and Hamerik conducted by Dausgaard and the symphonies of Carl Nielsen with Schønwandt and DNRSO.)
Niels W. Gade (1817-1890)Symphony No. 4 (1849-50)
Symphony No. 6 (1856-57)
Collegium Musicum Copenhagen
Michael Schønwandt
dacapo DCCD 9202 (1993). Recorded 1985-86
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
Back to the 20th Century: Vagn Holmboe was very prolific and one of his notable achievements is the corpus of string quartets. They can be listened at this website, which seems useful for further explorations: www.earsense.org.
The following discs include the string quartets composed between 1949 and 1973.
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
String Quartets Vol. I
No. 1 (1949)
No. 3 (1949)
No. 4 (1954)
The Kontra Quartet
No. 1 (1949)
No. 3 (1949)
No. 4 (1954)
The Kontra Quartet
dacapo DCCD 9203 (1993)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
I've dared to correct the spelling of two tracks in the back cover (not in the booklet).
I've dared to correct the spelling of two tracks in the back cover (not in the booklet).
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)String Quartets Vol. II
No. 2 (1949)
No. 5 (1955)
No. 6 (1961)
The Kontra Quartet
No. 2 (1949)
No. 5 (1955)
No. 6 (1961)
The Kontra Quartet
dacapo 8.224026 (1995)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)String Quartets Vol. III
No. 7 (1964-65)
No. 8 (1965)
No. 9 (1965-66, rev. 1969)
The Kontra Quartet
dacapo 8.224073 (1997)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)String Quartets Vol. IV
No. 10 (1969)
No. 11 (1972)
No. 12 (1973)
The Kontra Quartet
No. 10 (1969)
No. 11 (1972)
No. 12 (1973)
The Kontra Quartet
dacapo 8.224101 (1998)
[flac, cue, log, scans] DOWNLOAD