COMPOSERS: Frandsen,Lorentzen,Nørgård,Ruders & Borup-Jørgensen,Weis
LABELS: Danacord
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Early Morn Ð Danish Music for Guitar
WORKS: Works
PERFORMER: Erling Møldrup (guitar); Morten Zeuthen (cello)
CATALOGUE NO: DACOCD 594
The title of this CD of Danish guitar music – Early Morn – is borrowed from a piece by Per Nørgård, which opens proceedings and is the most likeable work on the disc. It blows the whistle on one of the great deceptions relating to human experience, that the process of waking up is a thing of unalloyed pleasure. The fifth movement is entitled ‘Scherzo depressivo (The Old Grind)’ – a sentiment which will be widely echoed. Early Morn is not entirely a melancholic affair, and its subtle shades of feeling give scope for guitarist Erling Møldrup to probe and poke around tellingly in the many corners of Nørgård’s multifaceted score.
Flemming Weis seems to have had something of the Nørgård outlook: his three Aspects for solo guitar are entitled ‘The Gentle’, ‘The Merry’ and – you guessed it – ‘The Gloomy’. Bent Lorentzen’s approach is a little more life-positive, but his Umbra, for all its buzzing string effects, violent gestures and melodramatic outbursts, somehow fails to cohere. Poul Ruders’s Jargon is a busy, impatient, fidgety piece, while Axel Borup-Jørgensen’s Preambula is the most overtly modernist in its manners, disjointed and deranged. Møldrup is a supple and eloquent guide to this music, much of which was dedicated to him. Christopher Wood