In the accompanying booklet Danish-German composer Søren Nils
Eichberg says that his generation "just want[s] to make good music
that doesn't make listeners hold their hands to their ears." A noble
sentiment, and his first two symphonies certainly qualify as good
music, but likely listener reaction is harder to gauge. Though Eichberg
steers well clear of hardcore modernism, these works will likely strike
anyone whose tastes extend no further than Nielsen or Brahms as noisy
in the extreme. The First Symphony in particular is often a maelstrom
of pounding rhythms and fortissimo tutti. Even the notes describe
it as "a violent work, one where brutal boisterous expressions have
taken over."
However, though Eichberg may be overly optimistic when it comes to
audience reach, he certainly knows how to write exciting orchestral
music. The single-movement First Symphony could be used as a soundtrack
to any extended cinematic battle scene, such is its thrusting immediacy
and churning power. Its title is a quotation from a contemporary Portuguese
author's doomsday vision, and the whole work is Eichberg's appeal
to humanity not to throw itself again, as it so often has, into the
fires of hell.
The aural 'battering' actually begins with the very first bar of
the opening Second Symphony. Subtitled Before Heaven, Before Earth
after a passage from Laozi's 'Tao Te Ching', the music seems more
primeval than transcendental in character, though the slow central
section is mystical and contemplative. On the whole though, the Second
is an easier introduction to Eichberg's masterfully scored, thrilling
symphonies, even sounding, in the final mind-blowing crescendo, not
unlike a Bruckner/Wagner hybrid. Another recently recorded work of
Eichberg's, Endorphin (for string quartet and strings, PhilHarmonie
PHIL06022, 2012), has a similar driven urgency.
Under experienced German conductor Christoph Poppen the Danish National
Symphony Orchestra give a terrifically disciplined yet adrenalised
account of these highly demanding scores. In the past Dacapo's orchestral
recordings have sometimes disappointed with regard to audio quality,
but Eichberg benefits here from engineering at its best. A compelling
disc, all told, for every bold-leaning lover of big-sounding symphonies.
Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
