Three Danish works; H&N, Saturday, 8/7/17; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Recorded at Café Oto, ensemble Apartment House perform Anton Lukoszevieze's realization for Live performers of the Requiem of Art from 1970 by the Fluxus composer Henning Christiansen (1932 - 2008), originally based on field recordings made on location by the composer on the heath at Jutland

http://www.hvidesande.com/ln-int/hvide-sande/danish-heath

Jakob Kirkegaard introduces the half-hour tape composition Faust by Else Marie Pade (1924 - 20116), a pioneer of New Music in Denmark - and one of the few composers whose work Stockhausen would include in his lectures on electronic Music (well, other than his own, of course).


The only living composer featured in the programme is the more "conservative" Per Norgard (b 1932) who celebrates his 85th birthday next Thursday. The event is commemorated by a performance of Between, his first 'cello concerto from 1985, in a performance by Jacob Kullberg with the BBCPO conducted by Michael Francis.


I would imagine (and hope) that the death last week of Pierre Henry's (1927 - 2017) will also be at least mentioned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xcnwm

[Richard Barrett]

That Faust is a beautiful piece indeed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That Faust is a beautiful piece indeed.

- Forumistas who cannot wait until tomorrow night should know that it is available via youTube.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wasn't greatly moved/impressed by the other works on the programme: the Art Requiem had many moments that I hoped were going to be explored/expanded/developed, but instead they were just passing events in a piece I found exitaining - I didn't connect with it at all. The Norgard was ... a late Twentieth Century Concerto for soloist and orchestra. Some beguiling touches of harmony and instrumentation, but I felt merely went through a series of motions of "How do we not do what previous composers have done in their concertos?" I've enjoyed other works by Norgard much more.

But perhaps it was just me - even Faust, I thought, had its longeurs: maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.

[Richard Barrett]

a late Twentieth Century Concerto for soloist and orchestra

That was my impression too, but I have this with quite a lot of Nørgård's music, although some other pieces are alive with originality. A bit like Birtwistle maybe. As for Faust and its longueurs, I think here it's a case of discovering the potential of electronic music to embody slow rates of change in a way that's less idiomatic to instrumental/vocal music. That was something quite new at the time when Faust was composed.

[Neil]

If one wanted to reproduce (almost ready made!) some of the kinds of sounds there are in Pade's 'Faust' I wonder what would be the best synths to use these days. Maybe Madrona Labs' 'Kaivo' would be a possibility? Or try Reaktor? Or make them with e.g. Supercollider if one knew the language well enough?