Search - Langgaard, Dausgaard, Danish National Symphony Orchestra :: Langgaard: Symphonies 15 & 16

The Langgaard Revival in Full Spate

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 02/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is, by my count, the fourth issue in cpo's investigation of the symphonic music of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952), Denmark's odd but powerful symphonist. I've reviewed the earlier CDs and you can find biographical and musical information there: Rued Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 [Hybrid SACD], Rued Langgaard: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 [Hybrid SACD], & Rued Langgaard: Symphonies 12-14 [Hybrid SACD]. He was an unreconstructed Romantic whose music has much in common with, say, Gustav Mahler, but whose musical language is perhaps less sardonic and more overtly philosophical. I honestly think that anyone who loves Mahler will fall in love with Langgaard.



This disc contains Langgaard's last two symphonies, Nos. 15 & 16, and five shorter works, two of which also use a chorus and soloist. The first of the short works, the five-minute-long 'Drapa (On the Death of Edvard Grieg)' (1907, rev. 1913) is, as the word 'drapa' ('homage') suggests, a somber tribute to the composer on Langgaard's hearing of his death in September 1907. Langgaard considered Grieg his first musical model. He composed the first version of the piece in the fall of 1907 when he was only thirteen, revising it six years later. 'Sfinx' ('Sphinx') (1909, rev. 1913), a seven-minute 'tone painting', is reportedly his most-performed orchestral work. It begins sotto voce in the depths of the orchestra and builds from this misterioso beginning to a magisterial climax and continues on up into the furthest reaches of the heavens.



'Hvidberg-Drapa' (1948) recounts a famous Danish event from 1260 when the Bishop of Børglum was murdered before the altar by his nephew in a 'dispute over property, honor and religion.' It includes a major part for organ and includes a chorus singing words from a dramatic retelling of the story by Danish poet Tyge Becker. It is said that the Bishop's words, 'If there is justice on this earth, then I shall know how to obtain it myself', reflect Langgaard's response to his lifelong status as an outsider in Denmark's musical life. This is followed by 'Danmarks Radio' ('Radio Denmark') (1948), a short and powerful fanfare, which quotes the identifying musical motto used for many years by Radio Denmark. Ironically it did not have its first performance on Radio Denmark until 1976.



'Res Absùrda!?' (1948) is a peculiar piece that consists of many repetitions of thirty measures that include chorus singing only the words 'Res absùrda' ('Absurdity'). Each repeat is taken faster and the composer's instructions are that the piece continue until 'the tempo cannot become any faster.' This performance lasts five-and-a-half minutes. Certainly this piece illustrates Langgaard's idiosyncratic turn of mind, the sort of thing that earned him the frequently cited description as an 'odd duck.'



Symphony No. 15, 'Søstormen' ('The Sea Storm') (1937/1949) is for baritone soloist, male chorus and orchestra. Its literary sources are Rodenbach's novel 'Bruges-la-morte' (the source also for Korngold's 'Die tote Stadt') and a Thøger Larsen's and Langgaard's poem 'Nattestormen' ('Stormy Night'). After a stormy first movement there is a brief -- one-minute! -- second movement that is an airy waltz. This is followed by a funeral march with muted strings and brass. The fourth movement brings in the chorus and soloist singing 'The storm tears and scatters across the earth and takes its strength from the night.' In some respects it reminds me of a battle chorus in Prokofiev's 'Alexander Nevsky'. Johan Reuter is the effective bass-baritone soloist. A powerful and strange work given a stirring performance.



Symphony No. 16, 'Syndflod af Sol' ('Sun Deluge') (1950-51) was Langgaard's last major orchestral work. It begins with a sunburst of orchestral sound and during its five movements -- including as in the 15th Symphony a one-minute scherzo! -- it tours the various styles Langgaard had used over his long career: Straussian polyphony and orchestration, Mahlerian juxtaposition of cynical and melodramatic passages, massed sounds of the new Russian school, astringent harmonies of his own devising, quotations of some of his earliest works, sweetly naive harmonies -- indicating that Langgaard knew this was his valedictory summing up. It is both a touching and stirring effort.



I have come to feel more and more that Thomas Dausgaard is a conductor whose work is treasurable. His efforts on behalf of Langgaard are among his greatest contributions. His partners, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, are exceptional. Let's hope in these parlous economic times this series of Langgaard recordings can continue.



Scott Morrison"

Music of fine orchestration but such obstinancy in form and

Christopher Culver | 12/09/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For listeners whose first exposure to Rued Langgaard was his sublime "Music of the Spheres", which beyond simply innovating new scorings and instrumental techniques seems to point to some higher reality, it can come as a disappointment that the bulk of his output was in a bombastic Romantic vein. And this is not even visionary late Romantic like the last works of Sibelius, but music that's even pre-Mahlerian. Langgaard stuck with this style all the way to the end, as one can hear on his last two symphonies here.



The Symphony No. 15 "Sea-storm" (1937/1949) is scored for large orchestra, baritone solo and men's choir. The first three movements are purely instrumental, with the opening a long, turbulent introduction and the following two movements shorter and more tranquil. The final movement brings in the choir, who sings of a savage storm. The Symphony No. 16 "Deluge of Sun" (1950-51) is a grim piece in five movements whose climax is a "Punishment Dance" and "Elegy".



The disc is filled out with several short works for large forces. "Drapa (on the death of Edvard Grieg)" (1909) is one of Langgaard's earliest works. "Sphinx" (1913) is a tone poem and the most substantial of these short pieces. "Res absurda!?" is five minutes of a great Romantic swell that, just as it seems like it will resolve, keeps looping back on itself but becoming progressively louder -- It's a fine joke, but is likely to get old after a couple of listens. "Danmarks Radio" (1948) is a brief fanfare.



I vacillated between 2 and 3 stars for this disc, but settled on a larger rating because the music is competently written and lushly orchestrated, and fans of Romanticism who want ever more will probably get a lot of enjoyment from these symphonies. For me personally, however, I wish Langgaard had continued to write music that is forward-thinking and a bit more transcendentally beautiful."