Dacapo

Matthias Georg Kendlinger - Kendlinger dirigiert Strauß 2013
K & K Philharmoniker / Matthias Georg Kendlinger
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 309 MB | Full Artwork: 137 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: DaCapo Austria # SACD 1458 | Country/Year: Austria 2013
Genre: Classical | Style: Waltz, Romantic

"…2002 rief er das eigene Sinfonieorchester, die K&K Philharmoniker, ins Leben. Sein Debüt als Dirigent gab er 2004 im Leipziger Gewandhaus. Als Komponist machte Kendlinger mit der sinfonischen Dichtung "Der verlorene Sohn", dem "Marsch Kaiser, Wilder Kaiser", seiner ersten Sinfonie "Manipulation" und meditativen Dichtung "Heilung" sowie dem seiner Frau Larissa gewidmeten ersten Klavierkonzert auf sich aufmerksam…"

This disc features music by cousins Horneman and Hamerik, both of who were never appreciated in their native Denmark during their lifetimes. The Arild Quartet is formed of leading musicians from the Royal Danish Orchestra and are one of the leading chamber ensembles in Denmark. This is the Arild Quartet’s first recording with Dacapo.

Denmark’s four leading composers – Poul Ruders (b. 1949), Per Nørgård (b. 1932), Bent Sørensen (b. 1958) and Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952) - have allowed the experimental trio Alpha to take their music behind the looking glass and let their works re-emerge in the trio’s very own sound world. Played and recorded entirely by heart, Alpha’s close encounter with the musical essences of seven different works seems to reveal the form and richness of each composer’s imagination in a new magical reflection.

Dietrich Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1, was the start of an intended series on the Dacapo label of Denmark begun in 1996 and this was the only volume issued. It features Emma Kirkby with John Holloway and Manfred Kraemer on violins, Jaap ter Linden on viola da gamba, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on organ. Although Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri is rightly considered one of the great choral masterworks of the Baroque era, his other vocal output – numbering more than 120 works – seems to have a problem gaining the same kind of traction in the repertoire that his organ music has long enjoyed, even though plenty of it has been recorded.

Something of Vagn Holmboe's approach to writing concertos may be discerned in his numeration: they are not grouped according to the solo instrument (e.g., Piano Concerto No. 1), but counted merely as Concertos in the sequence of their composition, regardless of the featured instruments. This suggests that the soloist's role is somewhat altered: still central as a leading part, but frequently incorporated into the orchestral mass as a coloristic instrument among many others. The Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, Op. 17 (1939), clearly demonstrates Holmboe's procedure, for the piano switches back and forth between lyrical solos and more emphatically rhythmic passages as a percussion instrument. Holmboe's Concerto No. 3 for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 21 (1940-1942), also presents interesting mixtures of the instrument's distinctive tone with other timbres, most strikingly with the brass section. The Concerto No. 7 for oboe and orchestra, Op. 37 (1944-1945), is most beguiling in the many chamber-like, concertino combinations of the oboe with other woodwinds. Pianist Noriko Ogawa, clarinetist Martin Frost, and oboist Gordon Hunt strike the right balance with conductor Owain Arwel Hughes and the Ålborg Symphony Orchestra, since all give prominence to the leading part where Holmboe indicates, but equal attention to the ever-shifting background textures.

Besides being one of the most versatile of Danish composers, Anders Koppel (b. 1947) is an outstanding musician in many genres. For this world premiere recording of his two double concertos Koppel has selected four outstanding soloists – one of them his renowned son, Benjamin Koppel – who express themselves in a wealth of well-written music with fine orchestral accompaniment. It is music that is at one and the same time entirely classical and entirely free.

Traditional Nordic folk music with roots in the Middle Ages meets three new compositions by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b. 1932), Sunleif Rasmussen (b. 1961) and Rune Glerup (b. 1981) on this CD debut of the Danish trio Gáman. The rare combination of drum songs from Greenland, chain-dances from the Faroe Islands, wedding music from the island of Fanø and new sounds by three living composers becomes an opportunity to dance, listen and immerse yourself in worlds of sound that surprisingly and enrichingly elucidate one another.

As all four of the discs in this set have been reviewed in these pages before, this notice accordingly provides only a brief summary. J. F. Weber discussed the Read more in Fanfare 33:2, the Weihnachtshistorie and Auferstehungshistorie (the Nativity and Resurrection narratives) in 33:5, and the Matthäus-Passion in 35:1, while Ronald E. Grames and I both covered Die sieben Worte and the Johannes-Passion in 34:2. In all instances the reviews were enthusiastic and offered unqualified endorsements of these performances as the recordings of choice for these works; now having the opportunity to hear them all, I heartily re-affirm that collective judgment.