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Langgaard’s MESSIS: A chat with Flemming Dreisig

Collin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

After hearing this monumental piece of organ music by Langgaard I simply had to find out more, what better place than to go directly to the artist who took the project on.

Flemming, Can you give us a little background on yourself and your playing?
Coming from a home where there was an understanding and an interest in classical music, I showed an early interest in sound and timbre and in consequence was taught piano from the age of 5. This led later to studying at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music with a major in piano. Later I switched to a church music education with organ as my main instrument. This education was attractive in preparation for a continued, varied occupation in music, because of the many substitute job possibilities as an organist and the concert challenges provided by the church.

What music inspires you to do what you do?
Already as a child when my preferred composer was J. S. Bach – for instance because of his music’s sustained motor dynamics – the ground was laid for what has become a lifestyle for me: playing organ.

Are there any composers that really blow your mind?
If early on it was Bach who impressed me, then in my growing years the classical composers like Beethoven, Brahms and not least, Wagner were a considerable inspiration for my perception and way of approaching the matter of improvisation, which is an indispensable and rather essential discipline for professional church musicians.During a study period in Paris in the early 70s, I met the especially gifted improviser, Pierre Cochereau, at the Notre Dame cathedral, and that meeting became a turning point in my musical perception up to then, by leading to my listening to the cathedral organist’s exceptional, daring melodically, harmonically and rhythmically stimulating improvisations.

The fact that Messis is such an epic piece of music, can you describe for us the process behind learning and tackling Messis?
In the sound Danish musical tradition of the 60s, there were only a few pioneers who had discovered Langgaard’s stylistically outdated and therefore rather unknown works, but finally there still remained the possibility of getting to know Langgaard, as through a radio-transmitted shorter version of Messis.

This was my first encounter with Danish romantic music, that at the same time clearly deviated from the well known ”Golden Age” composers from the same period: the normally otherwise jovial, well balanced and clear forms of composition contrast here in Langgaard’s music with tension, unrest, unexpected lines of development to dramatic climaxes – to once again, in a symphonic tone picture, move towards new, fantastic states of being.

A considerably richer emotional palette than among the other romantic composers for organ. Yes, Langgaard was a romantic deep down, but at the same time he was creative in forms of expression that had a clear modernistic and expressionistic appearance.

What does this piece mean to you?
Messis is an expression of a continuous ”tale told in tones” and as such, makes no attempt to use artistic effects through prevalent classical idioms or traditional knowledge of technical disciplines.

What was your motivation for approaching it in the first place?
For a youth with a tempestuous heart, this music is spontaneously attractive and I harmonized with it in those days, and since then have appropriated Langgaard’s universe as my own.

What is your understanding of Langgaard’s inspiration for the piece?
Messis in its foundation is a search away from those chaotic times (there in the 30s) and towards an earlier epoch’s ideal of beauty, drawing a divine picture of reality.

What makes this composition important to Danish culture and to the history of Danish music in general?
A characteristic throughout this composition is that ”defiance” with which the composer delivers his message. The basic romantic character is regularly marked by reactive, grotesque effects including use of modern and apparently absurd means such as unprepared dynamic jumps, illogical harmonic relations as well as changing measure. With Langgaard, that kind of musical ”collage” technique blends into a large formal whole and makes for a symphonic concept that no other Dane – not to say no other European composer – has strived for.

Many of us here in America are just now becoming familiar with Langgaard in a very substantial way; where do you see his works fitting in not only the history of Danish music but of classical music itself?
The fact is Langgaard’s music is more actual than ever as a bitter commentary on what we contemporaries are witness to the world over; the global political discord, environmental accidents, natural catastrophes and more, but in spite of it all, also a resonance of beauty, understanding and the dream that sustains our present day. It’s true that Langgaard’s written reference is the Bible, but his whole outlook on life is more strongly influenced by the expression he encountered in his own times – and in my opinion, it would have most likely become strengthened if he had lived today.

What projects do you have planned for the future?
Gazing into the future, I would like to promote large-format organ compositions like Langgaard’s Messis that, within the formal time-horizon parallel to masses and requiems, create possibilities of pushing emotionally deeper into the topic than is the case of shorter musical forms as, for example, the sonata form.

A similar, more recent example could be the French expressionistic-ally inspired composer, Germain Desbonnet’s ”Symphony Christique” for organ with obligatto mixed final chorus. Poetry, drama and meditative music meet in one work that lifts the soul into a truly optimistic expression.

Podcast: Romantic Violin Concertos

Raymond — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:00:43 +0000

Danish music may be one of the finest under-discovered realms in all classical music. This is particularly true of music from the Romantic era, as this podcast and CD show. These violin concertos by Niels Gade, Peter Erasmus Lange-Muller and Rued Langgaard - hardly household names - deserve to be heard more widely on CD, and much more often in concert. These performances were recorded in 2009 with violin soloist Christina Astrand and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Storgards.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dacapo 6.220562

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

About Raymond Bisha

Podcast: An Interview With Per Norgard

Raymond — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:00:03 +0000

An interview with Danish composer Per Norgard. In this podcast, he discusses the influences on him as a composer, and shares how he thinks about music while composing.

The music in this podcast comes from a new CD of his Symphony No. 3, and the world premiere recording of his Symphony NO. 7

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dacapo 6.220547

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

About Raymond Bisha

Tourists of the future in Europe

Kristian — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:33:46 +0000

This is Dacapo’s first post on the Naxos Blog: A short article written by Danish music journalist Jens Cornelius, who presents Danish contemporary composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s music on the Dacapo disc “Kronos plays Holmgreen” (6.220548) featuring the world famous American Kronos Quartet.

Cover image designed for
Dacapo by Denise Burt

WE RECOGNIZE them right away – the Americans who drop in on Denmark as tourists for a day, two days or half a day. Wearing sunglasses, camera, short-sleeved shirts and with “Let’s Go Scandinavia” in their hands. And a slightly confused look – where is it that we are today?

IN THE MIDDLE of the nineteenth century the Danish national author Hans Christian Andersen predicted that the future would be just like that. “Young Americans” would come to Europe in steam-powered flying machines. They would inspect the remains of noble old Europe, the last ruins of a legendary culture. The only thing Andersen was mistaken about was the timescale – he called his prophetic tale “In a Thousand Years”.

Photo: Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen

NOT A WORD AGAINST the American Kronos Quartet, who have made a great contribution to global understanding and a better world. But they ARE true-blooded Americans! And they even play with electric amplification! Their old Danish friend, the Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b. 1932), exploits the Kronos Quartet’s unique qualities in three new works to be released on a CD from Dacapo later in the year. The big work is the “Concerto Grosso”, where the Baroque tradition is played out deep inside the jungle – the orchestra meets Kronos like a Dr. Livingstone. In the quartet work “Last Ground” Gudmundsen-Holmgreen challenges the potent Americans by asking them to play very quietly and in the end to be flooded out by the sea, which washes over the music on an electronic track. And in “Moving – Still” they are allowed to play hectic American guests in Europe, while the baritone Paul Hillier recites Andersen’s tale of the instamatic tourists of the future. Two worlds meet in a provocative and fruitful way.

Jens Cornelius

Podcast: Kronos plays Holmgreen

Raymond — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:00:10 +0000

Danish composer Pelle Holmgreen and the Kronos Quartet have been doing musical projects together for almost 20 years.

This podcast looks at a new Da Capo CD that presents three of these pieces: Concerto Grosso, Moving Still and Last Ground.

The podcast includes a full-length interview with the composer.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: CHSA 5066

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

New From Dacapo in September: Choral Works by Danish Composer Hanne Ørvad

Kelly — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:44:37 +0000

I am a singer and a writer of music, and my natural mode of expression is music and sound. I think in sounds and tones, and I produce them, partly in the form of sung sounds and partly as heard, written-down sounds. And it’s a long way from that to the spoken word. - Hanne Ørvad, 2000

As a composer creatively driven by text, it is no surprise that one-quarter of Hanne Ørvad’s compositions are full choral works or that almost all of them use the human voice somewhere in their orchestrations. On September 30, Dacapo releases Corona, a recording that celebrates Danish composer Hanne Ørvad’s most important choral works expertly and powerfully performed by the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Danish National Chamber Choir, and Danish National Girls Choir.

Ørvad, who began her career as a professional singer in the Danish National Chamber Choir/DR, didn’t start to compose until 1990.The 5 pieces represented on this recording span most of Ørvad’s compositional career, from Winter Organ (1991) to Threna (2003). Vega, composed in 1996 for the Netherlands Chamber Choir, comprises seven continuous pieces in seven strophes that illustrate the star Vega and its luminous surroundings. Using word rhythm and vocal color, Ørvad depicts a far-away galaxy as seen by an earth-dweller. Ørvad’s second choral work, Kornell, consists of three movements, Melody, Adagio and Serenade, based on the poetry by Bo Bergman. Although it refers to music, the poem’s text actually is an expression of love and nature that easily translates into song: “Just walking in the fields / You bring each wellspring alive, Each little mound sings your name.”

Threna (Easter Music I), orchestrated for girls’ choir, tubular bells, snare, low gong, and cello, is a setting of the 13th-century text of the Stabat Mater, which describes the grieving Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross. Dramatic, pleading, and dark, this piece leaves listeners with an impression of the questions raised in the Stabat Mater, using the cello and girls voices as the primary storytellers. The second Easter work on the recording, Paschal Hymn (Easter Music II), is a setting of three English hymns that Ørvad has abridged and edited. Here Ørvad paints a vivid picture of the most significant moment in Christianity: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The final piece on the recording, Winter Organ, is a striking 12-part choral work of great complexity. Based on the poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Ørvad uses the choir as a unified instrument, while also testing the limits of its expression

Dacapo releases Nielsen String Quartets, Volume Two and Langgaard’s Symphony No. 1, “Klippepastoraler”

Kelly — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:04:49 +0000

Rued LANGGAARD
Symphony No. 1 C (Mountain Pastorals), BVN 32
Danish National Symphony Orchestra; Thomas Dausgaard

Naxos releases two new recordings from the Danish label Dacapo: Rued Langgaard’s Symphony No. 1 “Klippepastoraler” (Mountain Pastorals), BVN 32, featuring conductor Thomas Dausgaard and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Dacapo 6220525); and Volume 2 of the String Quartets of Carl Nielsen, performed by The Young Danish String Quartet (Dacapo 6220522).

Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) completed his first symphony at 17. No Danish composer had written such an ambitious, demanding, lengthy symphony, and his was described as unplayable. But in 1913, the work received its first performance with great success by the Berlin Philharmonic under Max Fiedler. Langgaard’s models were Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Bruckner, but the work exhibits striking originality, illustrating a journey from the foot of a mountain where the surf breaks against the rocks to the magnificent, wide view at the summit.

Carl NIELSEN
String Quartets, Volume 2
The Young Danish String Quartet

In this prizewinning miniseries, Nielsen’s quartets are brought to new life by the gifted Young Danish String Quartet. Gramophone Magazine named Volume 1 of the Complete String Quartets of Carl Nielsen as an “Editor’s Choice,” asking “Has Nielsen been played better? These young Danes set benchmark standards.” Volume 2 features String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 5 and String Quartet in E-Flat major, Op. 14.

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) brought Danish music into the 20th century; his chamber music holds a prominent position in the international repertoire. The String Quartet in F Minor was first performed during the composer’s visit to Berlin in 1890, and it impressed the most influential musical personalities of the time. The E-flat Major Quartet was published in Copenhagen 10 years later with a dedication to Edvard Grieg.