At 71, Nørgård
is as active as ever; and the remarkable
thing about it is that his music remains
as questing and inventive as ever. I
recently reviewed
a recording of two of his recent orchestral
works, Symphony No.6 and
Terrains vagues (Chandos
CHAN 9904), as uncompromising as many
of his earlier works. His Violin
Concerto No.2 "Borderlines"
for strings and percussion, completed
as recently as 2002, is no exception.
Although scored for smaller forces than
either of the aforementioned works or
his First Violin Concerto Helle Nacht
(Chandos CHAN
9830), this is in no way diminutive,
be it in size or musical substance.
Neither is there any trace of a mellower
style, as is often observed in some
recent works by former avant-garde composers
who put their radical style aside. The
second Violin Concerto is in three movements:
a Moderato that the composer
describes as "restlessly questing";
a slow Lento, quieto e quasi semplice,
"inwardly listening" and a
final Andante semplice, "expansively
forward-looking". The semplice
indication does not mean that the music
is simple, far from that, in most cases
(just think of Nielsen’s Sixth Symphony
or of Tubin’s Ninth Symphony, both similarly
titled and both probably amongst their
respective composers’ most enigmatic
or emotionally complex works). As already
mentioned, the music is as uncompromising
and inventive as ever, for the composer
draws remarkably rich textures from
his orchestral forces. Rebecca Hirsch
manages the terribly demanding solo
part with apparent ease and obviously
with masterly assurance. No mean feat.
I do not know whether Nørgård’s
Second Violin Concerto will be as popular
as some earlier 20th Century
violin concertos; but when you realise
that, say, Berg’s Violin Concerto or
even Ligeti’s Violin Concerto have become
parts of the repertoire, you may think
that many adventurous and gifted violinists
will be quick to put it in their repertoire.
A splendid example of this composer’s
late flowering.
I must admit that Dream
Play, completed in 1975 and
revised five years later, rather puzzles
me, for it sounds as anything else in
this composer’s output. "At the
formal level, the succeeding passages
can be regarded as a series of variations"
(Ivan Hansen in his excellent insert
notes). In fact, this short orchestral
piece opens in a deceptively simple
way, as if written by Nielsen. Later
in the piece, however, many unexpected
twists transform the tune beyond recognition.
All in all, this is a curious, but quite
enjoyable piece, and rather untypical
of Nørgård’s output.
On the other hand,
Voyage into the Golden Screen
is pure early Nørgård.
It is part of the orchestral trilogy
composed between 1967 and 1969 consisting
of Iris (1966/7, rev.
1968), Luna (1967) and
Voyage into the Golden Screen
(1968). These are works that put the
composer firmly on the modern musical
map. (These novel pieces had been preceded
by a number of early works in which
the composer progressed from the Nordic
tradition to Modernism under the influence
of Holmboe and Bartók.) The composer
described the piece’s two movements
as "a fjord where a score of sailing
ships are moving in the same direction,
but at slightly different speeds".
The first movement muses on a limited
interval and unfolds much in the same
way as the first movement of Scelsi’s
Quattro pezzi per orchestra (ciascuna
su una nota sola), or so it
seems to me. The music, however, is
not without contrasts in spite of its
deliberately limited material, thanks
to the composer’s extraordinary aural
imagination. The second movement is
very similar, although it is more contrapuntal,
along almost minimalist lines. This
early major work (the title is inspired
by a song by Donovan) is a fascinating
essay in orchestral colours and textures;
and certainly one of Nørgård’s
early masterpieces.
In short, this magnificently
produced disc is a must for all Nørgård
fans; but others – I am sure – will
also find much thought-provoking, uncompromising
stuff that vastly repays repeated hearings.
A most welcome release although I find
that the total playing time is rather
on the short side. This is a small reservation
but the addition of Luna
and Iris was possible
and would have made the disc still more
valuable. Anyway, warmly recommended.
Hubert Culot
Rebecca Hirsch (violin)a