Per Nørgård (b. 1932)
8 Symphonies
Symphony No 1 ‘Sinfonia austera’, Op 13 (1953-1955, rev. 1956)
Symphony No 2 in one movement (1970, rev. 1971)
Symphony No 3 (1972-1975
Symphony No 4 (1981)
Symphony No 5 (1987-1990, rev. 1991)
Symphony No 6 ‘At the end of the day’, Three passages for large orchestra (1999)
Symphony No 7 (2004-2006)
Symphony No 8 (2012)
Ulla Munch (alto)
Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Danish National Concert Choir
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard
Vienna Philharmonic/Sakari Oramo
Oslo Philharmonic/John Storgårds
rec. 2007-15, Danish Radio Concert Hall; Wiener Konzerthaus; Oslo Konserthus; Oslo Opera House
DACAPO 8.204002 [4 CDs: 418]
Let me first say that most of Per Nørgård’s symphonies have been recorded earlier, but I am not in a position to write comparative reviews for most of them, and it could be a little tedious anyway. I will discuss this box set of previously issued discs, brought out to celebrate the 90th birthday of Denmark’s great elder musical statesman. The symphonies cover the period between 1955 and 2012. The composer is from the generation right after that of the incomparable Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996), whose use of musical metamorphosis can, in part, be also discovered in Nørgård’s music.
The Symphony No 1 ‘Sinfonia austera’ represents the austerity of the far-Northern landscape, which Nørgård has felt he belonged to. His creative life began by his discovery of Holmboe’s 8th Symphony ‘Sinfonia boreale’. Holmboe, his mentor, gave him the score of Sibelius’s 1st Symphony, and from there he developed an excitement and an appreciation of the great man’s symphonies. This led to a correspondence. There are moments in any movement of this symphony when one could almost be listening to Sibelius’s apocryphal 8th Symphony. There even is a quote in the first movement of a bird call found in Tapiola. I find Symphony No 1 wonderfully impressive. The booklet writer describes it as having been “neglected”, but from where I stand Nørgård’s works in general are neglected. (No Nørgård at the 2022 Proms, for example.) The harmonic language is free to roam at will but there are touches of tonality. The wildly exciting ending grows, metamorphoses one might say, into a major chord of great triumph.
With Symphony No 2 in one movement, we jump a decade but the two works have similar ground. Nørgård had by then developed his ‘infinity series’. (One of the four essays in the box set, by Jens Cornelius, describes it in some technical detail. I suggest you research for yourself.) We start with a single pitch, which grows so that – even if it is not clearly audible – it seems still to haunt the aural landscape. The texture, full of polyrhythms and colliding counterpoint, only slowly develops so that one appears to be always on the move yet standing still. As Cornelius writes, it is almost like looking into the universe where the scene never changes but there is always something to attract your attention.
Nørgård continued to develop the infinity series, which was an alternative to serial technique. It reappears in Symphony No 3. It is the longest, and the only one to include vocal writing. The texts are a setting of the ancient Latin hymn Ave Maris Stella, fragments of Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus ‘Sing, my heart of unknown gardens poured in glass’, and a line by Sir Walter Scott.
There are the two movements; the second is the longer. The work has proved to be Nørgård’s most popular and most performed. The reasons are especially found in the diverse material in the second movement. We have a chorus and a brief alto solo, and their music can often be diatonic. There is a section which utilises Latin-American rhythms, and the music is largely lyrical and luxuriously orchestrated. There is also a quote from Schubert’s famous Du bist die Ruh. Due to the composer’s use of the so-called magic square, rhythms are also more clearly articulated, especially when compared with the later symphonies. The first movement, more integrated and formulated, acts as a vast introduction to the choral finale. I first heard the symphony played in over fifty minutes, but this version is almost ten minutes shorter and therefore tighter.
The shortest symphony, No 4, may be the most intense and complex in its inspiration. Nørgård became intrigued by the Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli, who according to the booklet notes ‘gave the impression of a split personality’. Nørgård found Wölfli’s art so liberating that it inspired a new symphonic sound. In 1912, the artist laid plans for a musical work with the translated title ‘Indian Rose Garden’ and ‘Chinese Witch Lake’. Nothing came of it, so Nørgård has, as it were, filled in the blanks. The symphony’s two movements, played without a break, bear those two titles. The composer adds various quotes. He uses a melody from a setting he had made of Wölfli’s poem. We also hear the song of the African robin-chat; it largely appears towards the end of the first part but is quoted again at the end of the work. The second movement has a disguised version of the old salon waltz Fascination, and there is a ‘crazy Swiss Ländler’. There might also be a reference to Denmark’s greatest composer’s greatest symphony, Carl Nielsen’s Inextinguishable – perhaps to add layers of ambivalence and uncertainty, especially in the second part where we are brought to the edge, as Wölfli saw it, of catastrophe. This then is a symphony which needs time to be understood. I am not really willing to meet it head-on too often.
In the symphonies Nos 1-4, I am reminded that for Nørgård it is the plan and compositional process that matter, not
the notes – those can be, and often are, random in themselves. This may not
matter, and perhaps you think other composers think along the same lines.
Symphony No 5 was conceived again with the use of the infinity series but
here Nørgård is freer. He moves into a more directly emotional world. It may be significant that after the first performance he revised parts of the symphony twice. The work falls into five movements but, as the composer admits, the listener can imagine it as just one arched structure, played without a break, in various tempi.
The sections are marked Moderato - Piu allegro, then Allegro feroce which acts as a Scherzo, and a beautifully mysterious Andante with rich counterpoint. Next comes Lento - Quasi una passacaglia, which in its violence acts as the expressive heart of the symphony. Finally, we have Allegro robusto, a counterweight to the lengthy first section. Especially of note are the mad Ligeti-style sounds and noises in the second movement, a touch of the car horns and a seeming quote of Jingle Bells. And after the chaos of the finale (the composer standing at the edge of the volcano, as the booklet wants us to imagine), the music magically disappears into the ether. As Nørgård has said, he has never composed the same symphony twice; each is its own world.
I found Symphony No 6 a tough nut to crack; in fact, I feel I have not yet managed to crack it at all. Subtitled
‘At the end of the day’, it was composed for the new millennium and first performed in 2000. Perhaps the composer thought it might be his last symphony. Its layout is classical insofar as the first movement is half of the length of the whole work. It can be heard almost as in sonata form with a vast and very excitable development. Actually, the composer calls the movements passages. The second passage is very dark and has a feel of passacaglia with heavy repeated bass chords announced right from the start. It is difficult to hear if their influence continues in an obvious way. The third passage is marked Allegro energico, almost a Scherzo. It is certainly skittish; the booklet suggests “jerky riffs and rolling descending lines”. Its quiet, insectile ending does not close Nørgård’s composing world but seems to open up new vistas.
Symphony No 7 was first performed at the inauguration of Denmark Radio’s new concert hall in 2009. Its exuberance seemed to offer wide-open arms to its first audience. Bearing in mind that Nørgård wants each symphony to be noticeably different, in this he includes no fewer than fourteen tom-toms (they are heard mainly near the beginning of the Moderato first movement, and then from half way through the Allegro third). The middle movement marked Lentissimo holds the attention with its tiny solos from clarinet, oboe, harp and others pitted against great chords which almost make a convincing C major. Although often quite wild and dramatic, this is an approachable work, which I felt it rewarding to spend time with.
The booklet writer Jens Cornelius notes that “the leap from the first symphony to the Symphony No 8 seems enormous”, not surprising given Nørgård’s journey of over fifty years. And in this work, he has moved towards a classical form: three movements, mainly fast, slow and fast – and again with the real intention of writing a work quite different from any other. The mood is bright and playful. The textures transparent but also there is much complex counterpoint and busy orchestration. The middle movement even reminded me of Maxwell Davies but Nørgård’s notion of the “sensually melodic” sounds may be difficult to grasp at first. The recording is of the live 2014 premiere.
Coming to terms with Per Nørgård over these past weeks has been a fascinating and challenging experience. These works cannot be overlooked. They are complete statements by a man who, for better or worse, stands as a highly significant figure in twenty-first century musical Denmark. I go there regularly to visit my son, so I know only too well how respected Nørgård is. But the potential listener may ask how much time and effort they are prepared to give to music not always ready to meet one half way.
Because these CDs were issued separately, there are four essays. The first, “Per Nørgård and the symphony” by Jorgen I. Jensen, discusses No 3 and No 7. Jens Cornelius wrote the others. “Symphonies that cannot be repeated” talks about No 1 and No 8, “A Delta of other worlds” about No 2 and No 6, and “A liberating moment of chaos” about No 4 and No 5. Conductor John Storgårds contributes a general essay “Storgårds and Nørgård”.
The performances and recordings are exemplary, and several were recorded in the presence of the composer. It is impossible to know how they could be improved.
Gary Higginson
Published: October 3, 2022
