What download have you bought?

[Beef Oven!]

beefy

Jayne's said it all, really. If you're feeling adventurous do try Nørgård's opera, Der göttliche Tivoli, based on the life of the Swiss artist/composer Adolf Wölfli, who spent most of his life in a lunatic asylum. It's extreme, but also funny, touching and strangely liberating. For Nørgård in a lighter mood, try A Light Hour. Both are fine Dacapo releases.

I've come across the operas before, but at the moment it's purely the symphonies that I'm interested in. It will be the concertos, if anything, next. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

[Beef Oven!]

[Richard Barrett]

Those new recordings of Nørgård are all very fine in my opinion, although listening to all his symphonies is for me a highly variable experience. 1 is undercharacterised, 2 more like a demonstration of a technique than a symphony, 3 beautiful until it turns very silly, 4 and 5 brilliant throughout. 6 to 8 I don't remember well enough to comment, must get to know those better.

[Beef Oven!]

Those new recordings of Nørgård are all very fine in my opinion, although listening to all his symphonies is for me a highly variable experience. 1 is undercharacterised, 2 more like a demonstration of a technique than a symphony, 3 beautiful until it turns very silly, 4 and 5 brilliant throughout. 6 to 8 I don't remember well enough to comment, must get to know those better.

Coincidentally, that was exactly my starting point. I still don't know 7, but following Jayne's steer, last week I bought downloads of John Storgårds #6 (comes with #2) and I have totally fallen in love with it. Similarly, I bought Sakari Oramo's VPO 8. Per Nørgård and the VPO seem like odd bedfellows, but it's fabulous! And I would urge people to follow Jayne's lead on all this.

Until later when I have listened much more to all the symphonies, I'd say 4, 5, 6 & 8 are extremely strong examples of what a symphony can be, especially in the hands of people like Storgårds and Oramo. Thats to take nothing away from Segerstam, whose performances are worthy (I wouldn't be without his 4&5).

I think this shows that until fairly recently, Per Nørgård music has been ignored. Odd that we have only two cycles, one of which is incomplete (for obvious reasons) and the other is spread over 3 conductors and several orchestras.

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

I already had this album from a while ago, but I wanted a higher res recording.

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

[Beef Oven!]

Trying not to buy CDs anymore. Going to sort out my Schnittke next

[jayne lee wilson]

I still hope to post a piece on Gubaidulina orchestral/concertante soon... with the later works, the Lyre of Orpheus on this album was the only one that truly made an impact upon me...
But then I listened to Introitus (1978) again and.....perspective, not so kind to Orpheus.

[Beef Oven!]

I still hope to post a piece on Gubaidulina orchestral/concertante soon... with the later works, the Lyre of Orpheus on this album was the only one that truly made an impact upon me...
But then I listened to Introitus (1978) again and.....perspective, not so kind to Orpheus.

Very much look forward to your posting that.

I think Orpheus is wonderful, one of her better compositions, IMV. I don't know much about Introitus, 'cept it's a piano concerto(?)