Dacapo

There is, of course, no shortage of Romantic-era violin concertos in the instrument's standard repertoire. None of them found with any regularity on the concert stage, however, hail from Denmark. This DaCapo album demonstrates that there are indeed examples that come to us from the Scandinavian country, and even that some of them are inexplicably excluded from the modern canon.

In one of my earlier reviews of recordings of Nørgård’s music, I remarked that his musical and stylistic progress is far from a straight line. This composer is used to surprising even his staunchest admirers with unexpected twists and turns. This is certainly valid when considering his string quartets - ten at the time of writing. It may be worth reminding ourselves that his first essays in the genre are available on Kontrapunkt 32015 played by the Kontra Quartet. It’s a disc still worth looking out for.

The Dacapo label enters the graphic territory of its rival ECM here, with clean black-and-white graphics and sans serif fonts and equally crisp contemporary music that makes no concessions to popular taste but nevertheless offers a kind of accessibility. It is easy enough to imagine Schnee (snow in German – not Danish, interestingly) in composer Hans Abrahamsen's work, which fills the entire album. The music begins with an almost imperceptible high violin note as if to suggest sub-sensory beginnings of a period of snow. Abrahamsen has evinced a fascination with snow in other works, but it is perhaps reduced to its essence here.

Per Nørgård - Orchestral Works
APE/CUE + LOG | 220 MB | RS
Label: Dacapo | Catalog: 8.226014 | Year: 2003

This is a splendid disc of challenging but very beautiful music by a composer with a recognizably personal idiom…The sonics are simply perfect, ideally placing the orchestra in a warmly natural perspective. This is one of the best contemporary music discs to come along in quite a while. Very highly recommended. (10/10 Classics Today)

This box set presents the complete narrative works (Historiae) of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) in the acclaimed new recordings by Ars Nova Copenhagen conducted by Paul Hillier. The engaging account of the six stories of Christmas, Passion and Resurrection in Schütz’ sublime Baroque settings is presented along with authoritative notes and the conductor’s own commentary on the works, which rank among the finest pieces of the 17th Century.

Per Nørgård - Seadrift
APE/CUE + LOG | 236 MB | RS
Label: Dacapo | Catalog: CD 8.226067 | Year: 2009

Soprano Bente Vist gives a breathtaking performance; she sings angelically, with piercing purity, and makes Nørgård's stratospheric, punishingly extended lines seem like effortless emanations. Dacapo's sound perfectly captures the luminosity of the music and the performances. Highly recommended.
(Allmusic.com - Læs hele anmeldelsen)