Opus 2016

The title of the new album says it all: Opus, the new release of Danish music project Afenginn, has indeed become a major work, consisting of four movements - just like a classical symphony. Within those pieces, an unusual world of sounds unfolds, largely unspoilt by traditional patterns and structures. Influenced by folk, world music and classical music, Afenginn have created their own individual style, acoustic, innovative, dynamic and doleful, which has brought them a wealth of awards and grants in their home country as well as worldwide appreciation and success. Afenginn was founded in 2002 in Copenhagen by musicology student Kim Rafael Nyberg from Finland and Rune Kofoed from Denmark.

I first heard the late string quartets of Beethoven in my teens, on a budget price LP on the French Musidisc label. I don’t remember much about the performances; one movement that sticks in my mind is the slow movement of Op. 127, which was played at an expansive tempo, and took around twenty minutes. However I do remember the liner-notes, which were obviously translated by someone for whom English was not their first language.

Following the successful release of the Grieg Violin Sonatas, Franziska Pietsch and her piano partner Detlev Eisinger now present music by Sergei Prokofiev on the audite label. His works reflect facets of her own biography to a significant degree. As an emerging talent in the GDR, Franziska Pietsch enjoyed special state support; her musical training was thus initially shaped by the Eastern European school, bringing Prokofiev's music close to her heart. His two Violin Sonatas appear as two contrasting poles within his oeuvre - her life has also moved between extremes. The state support led to early success in the GDR. However, her father's escape to the West in 1984 was followed by two years of reprisals by the regime, intensively shaping Franziska Pietsch's understanding of music: deprived of any possibility of playing concerts or taking lessons, her chosen path towards hope - against desperation, refusal, fear and despotism - led inwards.