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Site review by Geohominid June 28, 2009
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Like many other Scandinavian composers, Per Nørgård has so far contributed music for choirs at all stages of his career. Given the popularity and richness of choral singing traditions in the Baltic region, not to mention elsewhere, such new music is always in demand from choir-masters. To some extent the emphasis and value of this music is really in live performance rather than repeated hearing from disc.
This second volume in Dacapo's series of Nørgård's choral music includes a crucial work in his stylistic development from the 1980's, together with more recent works from 2000 and 2003, most of which are in some way connected with re-developments of previous works or their elements. This habit of re-composition is a characteristic of Nørgård's creative development. Apart from the last two tracks, the works are all a capella.
Morgenmyte (Morning Myth) from 2000 is a fairly simple strophic song based on a Danish poem by Pia Tafdrup. She eloquently describes scenes from nature, each of which eventually is blemished by oblique references to intimations of death and disaster. The texture is outwardly luminously beautiful, but the pangs of sorrow are expressed in various forms of sprechstimme (speaking at different pitches), a very unsettling effect, superbly conveyed by the indefatigable Ars Nova Copenhagen, a dozen mixed voices who specialise in Renaissance polyphony and contemporary.
The following 'Ut Rosa' (2000) is based on a C15th Marian hymn in Latin, the verses set as four separate choral pieces. The work is a development from Nørgård's earlier setting of the hymn in 1975. Textures are innovatively varied and present enormous difficulties for the singers. A basically open-textured dissonant polyphony is punctuated and fractured by upward and downward swoops or glissandi (very accurately placed), some whistling and confrontational hocketing syncopations.
The most avant garde piece, Wie ein Kind (Like a Child) was the first piece written after Nørgård's discovery of the poetry and paintings of Adolf Wölfli in 1979, and represents the start of an entirely new set of explorations in Nørgård's creative life. Wölfli suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child, and in turn became a paedophile, being committed in 1895 to an asylum for the rest of his life. Although untaught, he produced a large number of drawings, impelled by his anguished desire to express himself. His poetry, used by Nørgård in the first setting, is largely made of invented nonsense words, which have a rhythmic vivacity and patterns which no doubt attracted the composer. Rilke and Siddartha texts are also used, and Wie ein Kind concludes with a 'Funeral March with Attendant minor Accident', again to a Wölfli nonsense poem. The work makes no concession to listeners, with extravagant scooping solos for stratospheric sopranos, strange exclamations and shouts or barks, distorted humming and aleatory-type passages. Magnificently accomplished by the Ars Nova singers, and a compelling, if uncomfortable, portrait of madness.
Bass clarinettist Jens Schou joins the choir for the last two works. The extensive Mythic Morning (2000) for bass clarinet and 12 part choir. The work is again strongly avant garde, particularly in its latter part, containing a variety of near extra-musical sounds from both voices and bass clarinet. 'Morning Meditation' is a recording of a preparatory extemporisation which the musicians used to preface 'Mythic Morning' in concert. A continuous quiet deep ostinato by the male voices is both enjoined and fractured by the clarinettist, using chordal harmonics and overtones.
Musically, this recording is something of a mixture. There are several important way-points in the composers development, very impressive pieces, while others are intriguing rather than significant. However, the performances could hardly be bettered, being both superbly skilful and committed, with conductor Tamás Vetö holding everything together with great aplomb. The sound, captured in the Mariendal Kirke, Copenhagen, is very well focussed, and the resonance of the church, particularly in multichannel, gives a warm and spacious feel to the voices, sharp transients of shouts and other odd vocal effects also being aided by the acoustic. Some might think that the choir were a little too far back and want more immediacy, but an excellent sound nonetheless.
Recommended to lovers of contemporary choral music, and to die-hard lovers of Nørgård's work, but really not for newcomers to his music, as the listening is quite demanding, and some of the pieces probably won't bear frequent hearings for many.
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Copyright © 2009 John Miller and SA-CD.net
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