This is Volume 3 in Danacord's original and auspicious series of Harmonious
families, this time the focus is on the Hamerik team. Ebbe Hamerik is more
famous as a conductor and his early death robbed Denmark out of one of its
finest and most sensitive masters of the rostrum. Apparently he was also
a gifted creative artist as the short Oboe Concerto shows. Employing modernist
and traditionalist tendencies Nielsen's more famously controversial work
is occasionally recalled but is very much its own master. It receives a spirited
performance from Jorgen Frederiksen and the Danish Orchestra with Moshe Atzmon
a believable accompanist. The cantus Firmus is even more enterprising although
it is conspicuously harder to understand especially in the frenetic concluding
Presto that makes up the final part of the work which, in its savagery, reminds
one of a Northern landscape
Asger Hamerik's music is altogether more accessible. I was particularly taken
with the expansive breadth and beauty of the Jewish Trilogy with a substantial
Overture and a rhetorically bombastic 'Sinfonia Trionfale'. The short
Concert Romance is a mere exercise in virtuosity but is charming just the
same. As I mooted earlier, all works receive committed and freshly invigorating
performances by the South Jutland Orchestra under the wistful hand of Moshe
Atzmon. For those who have bought the previous volumes, this will be an essential
addition but others new to the delights of neglected Danish music should
do well to investigate forthwith! Danacord's sound and presentation are,
as usual, first-rate throughout!
Reviewer
Gerald Fenech
Performance:
Sound:
Henrik
Steensgard: Cello, Jorgen Frederiksen: Oboe, The Danish Philharmonic Orchestra,
South Jutland Moshe Atzmon.
