Future releases

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the generation of Danish composers born in the 1860s started to make an impact. Among them, Fini Henriques, who had a special gift for beautiful, well-shaped melodies, and his popularity rested firmly on a generous output of single pieces, usually strung together in collections such as those presented here by Christina Bjørkøe. Billedbogen (The Picture Book) is a collection for children and proved one of his absolute bull’s eyes, whereas Erotik (Eroticism) and Melodiske profiler (Silhouettes) see the composer exploring the world of adult life. Henriques’s best works maintain a high level with their honesty and that brilliant touch which few of his contemporaries could rival.

During the last two decades of the 19th century, the generation of Danish composers born in the 1860s started to make an impact. Among them was Fini Henriques, who also had a veritable soloist career as a violin virtuoso and became one of best-known Danes of his age, appealing to virtually everyone, both high and low. Johannes Søe Hansen and Christina Bjørkøe explore here his shorter pieces for violin and piano, both individual pieces and those in the collections Kleine bunte Reihe and Novelletter (Novelettes). Short pieces with a sharp characterisation – works with charm, warm-heartedness and gravity.

Per Nørgård (b. 1932) is one of the most frequently played composers of his generation. He has written more than 400 works in all genres and inspired innumerable colleagues in Denmark and abroad. This album presents all of Nørgård’s music for the Oscarwinning Babette’s Feast film version by Gabriel Axel of Karen Blixen’s short story – not just the snatches of it one can hear in the film. One can also get to know the hypnotic Spell, the ripples and bubbles in Whirl’s World and Trio Breve, which according to the composer himself are to be regarded as three as short expressive phrases – dream-like pictures – that change between light and dark, fast and slow but with introvert melodic features in common.

Jesper Koch (b. 1967) writes profoundly traditionalist music, melodious and often tonal. It is old-time music, a fluid blend of fantasy and reality that here seeks to escape from reality in the cello concerto Dreamscapes, feels at home in oases of happiness and nostalgia in the violin concerto Arcadia Lost, and in the clarinet concerto Lonesome seeks for a way out of loneliness. The three solo concertos on the album have all been written for the soloists featured on this album with Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Justin Brown.