Ten CDs bring together the works of one of the most prominent Danish composers, as performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and a variety of vocal and instrumental soloists. Includes the entirety of six symphonies, plus concertos for clarinet, violin, and flute; a wind quintet; piano works; and more.
Even though the revival of Carl Nielsen's music in the late '60s proved to be nearly as revelatory as the slightly earlier promotion of Gustav Mahler's symphonies, the pace of recordings at the time was quite sluggish. Indeed, by the early '70s, the discography of Nielsen's symphonies included a smattering of releases by Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Ormandy for Columbia, Jascha Horenstein on Nonesuch, and Ole Schmidt on Unicorn, along with these utterly superior recordings by Herbert Blomstedt and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for EMI. The six symphonies were recorded between 1973 and 1975, and for their time were the best available recordings of Nielsen's music.
The Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces is one of the Norwegian armed forces’ five professional music ensembles, and since its formation in 1818 has been the country’s largest professional wind band. Based in Oslo, it is the armed forces’ most important band for providing musical support at ceremonial functions, and it plays regularly on royal and official government occasions and on behalf of the armed forces – as well as at a host of other ceremonial and representative functions at home and abroad. The band also has an extensive concert schedule in and around Oslo. Most of its concerts are given in its own concert hall, “Ridehuset”, in Akershus Fortress, but it also gives numerous outdoor concerts and regularly plays on tours around Norway.
Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of "Living On The Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974", a 3CD clamshell boxed set celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music scene that emerged from Denmark at the tail end of the 1960s. It was an era that saw huge changes, both musical and social and was a pivotal period for creativity in rock music throughout Europe.
The influence of ground-breaking artists from Britain and the USA such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane et al spread far and wide. In Denmark, as in many other European countries, the cries of change were made by students, radicals and hippies to a backdrop of emerging “underground” bands who were fusing the musical influences of psychedelia, jazz, blues, folk…