Celebrating his 80th birthday in 2012, Per Nørgård is undoubtedly one of the most important Danish composers since Nielsen. This disc brings together his two violin concertos as well as the orchestral work Spaces of Time.
The music of Helle Nacht (‘bright night’) has several transparent layers, and at each hearing the listener will be able to experience the work differently. The transparency of the music is even more pronounced in the version for chamber orchestra, created especially for Peter Herresthal.
Borderlines, the title of the closing work, alludes to the position of the soloist, who must take into account two different tonalities in the orchestral accompaniment.
Supported here by the fine Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and conductor Rolf Gupta, the Norwegian violinist Peter Herresthal has previously appeared on two BIS releases, each documenting his close collaboration with a living composer: Olav Anton Thommessen and Arne Nordheim.
“Herresthal plays compellingly...The 'filler' is scarcely less substantial than the concertos...The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra deliver sensitive accompaniments in the concertos and relish taking centre stage in Spaces of Time. Gupta, a former composition student of Horgard, is wholly comfortable inside the idiom and communicates this security of response to his orchestra...this issue is self-recommending.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012
Gramophone Awards 2012
