Peter Asmussen Bent Sørensen: Cavatina Fra 'Under Himlen': Chamber Ensemble:

Intermezzi from the opera Under Himlen was composed by Bent Sørensen in 2003. Scored for 2 Mezzosoparanos and Orchestra. Text by Peter Asmussen. Programme Note: In March 2003 when the Royal Theatre premiered the composer Bent Sørensen’s and the dramatist Peter Asmussen’s opera Under the Sky it was not only Bent Sørensen’s first opera on the large scale but also his first work as a music dramatist at all. The challenge of composing an opera came from the general manager of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR Per Erik Veng who had asked Asmussen in 1996 whether he would write the librettofor an opera and pick out a composer to work with on it. Asmussen was willing and he pointed to Bent Sørensen as the composer. Bent Sørensen reacted positively to Per Erik Veng’s suggestion of an opera collaboration with Asmussen and with the opera agreement settled the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR was then offered an independent work. It is related to the opera but sheds light on it from a different angle Bent Sørensen himself compares it to a film ‘trailer’. The result is Intermezzi a suite in five movements. Intermezzi is expressly not just a garland of selected episodes from the opera but an independent work built up in one long symmetrical sequence with instrumental passages in the middle of the first third and fifth movements as well as the purely instrumental second and fourth movements as the bearing pillars of the work. Fragments of the story of Ida and Molte (both mezzo-sopranos) are told but they do not happen in the same order or with the same conclusion as in the opera. In this way Intermezzi becomes a comment on how not everything in the past is necessarily what it seems or what one at first makes of it. In the first movement Ida sings to Magius that she is carrying Molte’s child while from afar Molte observes the idyllic world from the outside. The second movement is

Piano Solo-Lullabies / Vuggeviser for Piano solo was composed by Bent Sørensen in 2000. Preface / Programme Note: Some melodies keep haunting me; they will stick in my mind and I will walk about humming them and they will find their way into my music. Two such melodies are the basis for the present piano piece which I call LULLABIES. The first little tune began its life as a ballad in an operatic draft ofmine. Later on – with text by English poet Selima Hill – it became part of my songcycle ROSES ARE FALLING for mezzo soprano and piano. In the latter context it is a love song but I have always had a lullaby-feelingabout this tune and indeed as a lullaby it appears in my opera UNDER THE SKY to text by Peter Asmussen; inthe opera the loved one sings and hums to her beloved and make him come to rest. During LULLABIES the tune will appear a half tone lower with each entry and make its way downwards through the musical texture from upper voice to bassline. The other little melody is a true lullaby which I hummed for my youngest daughter to try and make her go to sleep. Later on it became the backdrop for the last movement of my trombone concerto BIRDS AND BELLS. The two melodies in their original form are reproduced at the beginning of LULLABIES.Bent Sørensen 2000

Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) by the Danish composer Bent Sørensen scored for Soprano and Tenor solo Girl's Choir and Orchestra. The work was commissioned jointly by BBC and Danish Radio to mark the 200th Anniversary of the birth of H. C. Andersen in 2005. Text by Peter Asmussen after H. C. Andersen.

Livet Og Døden for SATB Choir was composed by Bent Sørensen in 2009. Text by Peter Asmussen.

This is the Chours score for Sounds Like You by Bent Sørensen - scored for 2 actors Choir SATB and Orchestra (2007-08). Text by Peter Asmussen. Commissioned by Bergen International Festival 2009 and DR - Danish Broadcasting Corporation.