Rued Langgaard

[DracoM]

Sunday Morning has just aired a piece by this Danish composer - a name completely new to me. Looked him up and was surprised: 16 symphonies, 6 string quartets and much else besides. Am listening to one of his string quartets as I wrote this. Eminently worth exploring. Maybe in Composer of the Week?

Seems very odd that his work is so little known, so praise be for R3 Sunday Morning - not sure I've ever written that before!

[Beef Oven!]

Sunday Morning has just aired a piece by this Danish composer - a name completely new to me. Looked him up and was surprised: 16 symphonies, 6 string quartets and much else besides. Am listening to one of his string quartets as I wrote this. Eminently worth exploring. Maybe in Composer of the Week?

Seems very odd that his work is so little known, so praise be for R3 Sunday Morning - not sure I've ever written that before!

Check out 'Antikrist' and ‘Music of The Spheres’ too. Excellent music

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He had a couple of works performed at the Proms in recent(-ish: 2010 & 2012) years. And there was a 12 minute featurette on Music Matters only last week:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hmpyw

... if you wish to skip the features on Lipatti, Simone Young, and/or the choreographed Gorecki, skip to 32mins 40".

[Bryn]

He had a couple of works performed at the Proms in recent(-ish: 2010 & 2012) years. And there was a 12 minute featurette on Music Matters only last week:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hmpyw

... if you wish to skip the features on Lipatti, Simone Young, and/or the choreographed Gorecki, skip to 32mins 40".

Langgaard had a real bee in his bonnet regarding the adulation heaped on Nielsen, whom he regarded as an inferior composer. Thus wrote this decidedly barbed tribute:

[Beef Oven!]

[DracoM]

Thanks - the real diversity of his material available on iPlayer is bewildering and thought-provoking.

[Beef Oven!]

[Bryn]

Thanks - the real diversity of his material available on iPlayer is bewildering and thought-provoking.

You might like to give his Antichrist a try. I got the DVD some years ago and was surprised to see the production is also on YouTube:

[HighlandDougie]

He is a fascinating if rather odd character. A good introduction to him is "Music of the Spheres", which is one of the works, if I recall, which was "Prommed" and to which Ferney refers in his post. There are a few recordings of it but a particularly excellent performance (and equally good recording) is the one conducted by Thomas Dausgaard:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/langgaard-rued-music-of-the-spheres-lars-cleveman-dacapo-sacd.html

I have the boxed set of the symphonies which I enjoy dipping into from time to time. I tend to think of him in the same way that I think of Szymanowski or Florent Schmitt - really quite sui generis.

[doversoul1]

Isn’t he the composer of Music of the Spheres which was performed at the Proms a couple of years ago? Google only tells me something about Doctor Who.

[ed.] Thank you H. Dougie.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Isn’t he the composer of Music of the Spheres which was performed at the Proms a couple of years ago? Google only tells me something about Doctor Who.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_Spheres_(Langgaard)

(Dausgaard, by the way, is the principal contributer to the Music Matters feature I mentioned before.)

[LeMartinPecheur]

Isn’t he the composer of Music of the Spheres which was performed at the Proms a couple of years ago? Google only tells me something about Doctor Who.

He is indeed and from my limited knowledge and the views of critics I trust, it's a very good place to start.
Try this, particularly if you enjoy lots of well-recorded loud timpani!

[french frank]

Seems very odd that his work is so little known, so praise be for R3 Sunday Morning - not sure I've ever written that before!

Quite a playlist …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08jfbg1

[Serial_Apologist]

Langgaard had a real bee in his bonnet regarding the adulation heaped on Nielsen, whom he regarded as an inferior composer. Thus wrote this decidedly barbed tribute:

So, that's where Walton got the harmonies for his Crown Imperial March from!