Symphony No. 3 (1972-1975) by Per Nørgård. Per Nørgård's third symphony commissioned by The Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (conductor Herbert Blomstedt) was premiered in Copenhagen in 1976 and received wide attention. The work gives comprehensive expression to a new realm of musical experience which the composer began to explore toward the end of the 1960s. While the first period in Nørgårds production in the 1050s represents his personal interpretation of the Nordic music tradition – evidenced for example in his “Piano Sonata No. 2” (1957) and“Constellations” for chamber orchestra (1958) – and the second period in the 1960s saw him working with serial techniques musical collage and a new sound-palette - especially in the orchestral works “Iris” (196-67) and “Luna” (1967) – with “Voyage into the Golden Screen” (1968) Nørgård arrived at a new compositional technique based on the use of a special form of a so-called “infinity series” a principle of musical motion to be applied to all kinds of scales (chromatic diatonic et cetera). It is characteristic that that Nørgård in the 1970s chose to cultivate diatonic infinity series already evident in the mythological opera “Gilgamesh” (1971-72). Thus the Symphony No. 3 begun directly after the opera combines the infinity series major and minor scales the partial series of natural harmonics and “sub-harmonics” (Nørgårds terminology) with rhythmic patterns based on the Golden Section (the Golden Mean) in a nexus of synchronous yet disparate elements which serve the composers vision of musical coherence.. The works which followed the symphony – the operas “Siddharta” (1975-79) and “The Divine Circus” (1981-82) and Symphony No. 4 (1981) – usher a new
SKU: HL.14032192
ISBN 9788759858394. 12.0x16.5x0.78 inches. International (more than one language).
Symphony No. 6 for orchestra, 1997-99. Preface / Program Note:... with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day(New Testament, 2 Peter 3:8)My SYMPHONY NO. 6 was commissioned by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gteborg Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, to be premiered at the millenium 2000.The subtitle AT THE END OF THE DAY can be understood literally or it can mean when all is added up. However, in my opinion, nothing ever quite adds up, there is always something missing, any ending will be provisional ...This symphony appears to end only a few minutes into the first movement, the first passage, as the music fades away to almost-silence, after a start of flying colours. But then there is still something, a small motive (first heard in the initial sound-waves) which reappears, hesitant, but persistent, and this embryo is what leads on the musical progression. An agitated section of many instrumental voices comes next, until all the voices become obsessed with the same phrase, a see-saw motive based on thirds. This section evolves into almost martial ferocity, when broken off by a tutti descent into an extreme bass-world (a bass-world which actually permeates the whole symphony, emplyoing instruments that I have never used before: double-bass tuba, double-bass trombone, double-bass clarinet, and bass flute).The second movement, the second passage, apparently takes off where the first passage ended, but now the events are more ambiguous, and the same music may be perceived as fast-moving one moment and slow-moving the next. This section is a kind of passacaglia, the characteristic baroque bass-variation.Without a break follows the third and last passage, in a contrasting high register. The music is rhythmically knotty as well as freely flowing. As in the beginning of the symphony, a never-ending descent or fall breaks off the events, and at the very end a delta of new beginnings, of other worlds, is revealed ....The symphony is dedicated to Helle, my wife. - Per Norgard.
SKU: HL.14042888
ISBN 9788759867143. English.
Between - Cello Concerto No. 1 - 3 movements for Violoncello and Orchestra, composed by Per Norgard in 1984-85. Premiered by Frances-Marie Uitti and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Schonwandt, August 30th 1985. Programme note: 1. In Between 2. Turning point 3. Among The title of each movement suggests one aspect of the relationship between soloist and orchestra. In the first movement the solist is caught up in a conflict between the expression of inner feelings (solo) and influences from external sources (orchestra), the latter of which the soloist in a simple accompanying role, but after a turning point in the middle of the movement the soloist assumes adominating role. In the final movement a balance is finally achieved, with the soloist at last being on equal terms with the orchestra. Per Norgard.
