Nørgård, Per (b. 1932)

[Beef Oven!]

[jayne lee wilson]

From 20thC Listening thread....

…. all of the Storgårds/Da Capo Nørgård recordings are topnotch, sonically and musically.
But it's a little complicated: 1 & 8 are with the VPO/Oramo; 3 & 7 Danish NSO/Dausgaard; then the Oslo PO/Storgårds came out with 2 & 6, 4 & 5 to complete the Da Capo cycle last year - which releases I recall listing in my 2016 best-of roundup.

Earlier, Dausgaard recorded No.6 c/w Terrains Vagues for Chandos, in 2002. All their other recordings were with Segerstam but they've never done the much later-composed 7 or 8. Again, very recommendable.

With that timing contrast in No.4, it is as you may imagine: IIRC, tighter more focussed enmeshing lines in Storgards, a softer-grained teasing out of colour, detail and atmosphere in Segerstam (broadly true of their other tapings too). I just tended toward the latter for a more atmospheric evocative realisation of the images implied by those vivid titles.
From my listening notes:
Segerstam more atmospheric, evocative, slower tempi emphasising coloristic and lyrical qualities, especially in those lovely, quasi-Webernian string lines... a more episodic feel than those sharply-focussed, swifter more flowing continuities of the Storgårds..
Segerstam's Norgård 5th often sounds as an alternating current of string-led lyricism with explosive brass & percussion disorderings; Storgårds seems to find greater unity in continuity...

Personal favourites? That otherworldly Vienna Phil 8th (the finale really does sound like the air from another planet), ( No.1 is a kind-of "moving on from Holmboe" apprentice piece, really). Segerstam's 4th, either of No.6 and the brilliant, phantasmagorical 7th**.
When I tried with it again last year, I still found No.3 a bit of a long haul... but, as the composer said he intends, every piece is utterly distinctive. Only 7 and 8 seem to have any affinity with each other.

(** When I bought the 24-bit download direct from Da Capo a few years ago, I disliked it so much I actually deleted it!
Suffice to say I now have both CD and download... I guess my feelings have changed just a little... ... but Norgård can really baffle you at first, and sometimes when you return after a long gap, it can feel like starting over! Which I'm sure the composer would be delighted to hear...)

[Richard Barrett]

Hmm... this thread seems to have run aground rather quickly. Well, today I was listening to Nørgård's 4th and 5th symphonies, the Oslo PO/Storgårds recording of which the recorded sound is pretty amazing, especially in the 5th with its sometimes explosively complex textures. This would be a disc I'd recommend to anyone coming to Nørgård's music for the first time and wanting to get an idea of what's great about it (to be more precise, what's great about his orchestral music, since I've never heard a chamber or instrumental piece of his that hasn't struck me as a bit insipid). The 5th takes an extremely simple idea, that of textures which "scan" the orchestra from bottom to top and back, and transforms it through gradual evolutions and sharp turnings sometimes to an extreme degree, but never quite losing sight of the starting point. The first half or so contains some of the most exciting and original orchestration I've ever heard, but I feel the piece runs out of new places to go after twenty minutes or so, and the last quarter of an hour struck me as not adding to what had happened before. As for the 4th, my listening was occasioned by a visit yesterday to the Musée de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, where one can see a number of the visual works of Adolf Wölfli, the outsider artist who influenced much of Nørgård's work for some years. This has always been my favourite of Nørgard's works (and, er, one of my favourite symphonies ), I'm always sorry when it comes to an end. What a fantastic performance on this disc too.

[Beef Oven!]

Thank you for reminding us of Per Nørgård, Richard.

I have been prompted to spin the fifth symphony, as I type. I find that one or two Nørgård symphonies fail to keep me fixed until the end, but I can't explain why. It's by no means a problem for me, just a curiosity. I shall also give #2 (dedicated to Celibidache) a while at some point soon. Interesting that the 5th is one of your favourite symphonies. When you've worked out what your favourite sandwich is, you can give us the rest of your symphony list


Update: There you go - just finished listening to #5 and I remained gripped to the very end!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Didn't RB refer to the 4th as the "one of the favourites"?

[Richard Barrett]

Didn't RB refer to the 4th as the "one of the favourites"?

I did but no.5 is too, except I do think it goes off the boil somewhat. I'm going to be listening to all of them over the next week or so; my impressions from past listens are that 1, 2 and 6 don't do a lot for me; 3 begins brilliantly but gets very silly as it goes on; and I've only heard 7 and 8 once each so I don't have much of an idea of them yet. (Although 4 and 5 grabbed me immediately and haven't really let go.)

[Beef Oven!]

Didn't RB refer to the 4th as the "one of the favourites"?

Ah, yes - I got that wrong. I've mixed 4 & 5 up. I wondered why I had no problem with listening to the end - I was thinking about the 4th but was listening to the 5th!