Nørgård: Sceneries for Percussion & Ensemble Esbjerg Ensemble & Peter Sundkvist; Christian Martinez

• 1 Prelude to Breaking 07:51
• 2 No. 1. Deep into the Winter 03:15
• 3 No. 2. A Guest of Grace 01:57
• 4 No. 3. The Wheel of the Year 04:30
• 5 No. 4. Dawn of the New Year 02:03
• 6 No. 1. — 02:59
• 7 No. 2. — 03:21
• 8 No. 3. — 06:37
• 9 No. 1. Allegro 09:58
• 10 No. 2. Tempo giusto Espressione e rubato largamente 08:28
• 11 Piu mosso 07:20
• Total Runtime 58:19

Info for Nørgård: Sceneries for Percussion & Ensemble

The Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) finds inspiration for his outstanding percussion music in the forces of nature, eastern mysticism and exotic rhythms. In the four works on this album we encounter a melodic side to percussion, when for instance the soloist uses a violin bow to play the vibraphone and the musical saw. Two of the works were written especially for the Colombian-born percussionist Christian Martínez, who plays here with the Esbjerg Ensemble conducted by Petter Sundkvist.

Per Norgard’s… new album Sceneries for Percussion and Ensemble…gives the listener four substantial works in the chamber mode. The first two, “Prelude to Breaking” for eight instruments (1986) and “Four Meditations” for seven instruments (2010) get a full and detailed sound in a mini-chamber orchestra zone. These are very charactered works, tonal and extra-tonal, narrative in flow and yet filled with abstractions at times, different enough that after five listens I find an appreciation growing in me and the need to hear them more.

“Arabesques” for solo percussion (2011) is in part based on a motif from the concluding work. It has texture and ornament, moments of great rhythmic drama, and also more quiescent interludes.

I much liked the composer’s handling of the other instruments, and found the entire matrix of varied, ornate, sometimes powerful percussion versus contrapuntally charged chamber instruments quite original and earworthy.

And that is my general reaction to the album. Martinez and the Esbjerg Ensemble under Petter Sundkvist does justice to the sophisticated, unusual music. (Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review)

Christian Martínez, percussion
Esbjerg Ensemble:
Niels Christian Øllgaard, violin (Tracks 1 , 9 - 11)
Sakari Tepponen, violin (Tracks 1)
Michel Camille, viola (Tracks 1 , 9 - 11)
Franz Ortner, cello (Tracks 1 , 2 - 5 , 9 - 11)
Kerstin Thiele, flute (Tracks 1 , 2 - 5)
Rachel Bullen, oboe (Tracks 2 - 5)
Ron Chen-Zion, clarinet (Tracks 1 , 9 - 11)
Etienne Boudreault, bassoon (Tracks 2 - 5 , 9 - 11)
Johanna Wijma, horn (Tracks 2 - 5 , 9 - 11)
Roglit Ishay, piano (Tracks 1 and organ 2 - 5)
Petter Sundkvist, conductor
Per Nørgård, composer

Recorded at Musikhuset Esbjerg on 20-23 June 2011
Recording producer: Preben Iwan
Sound engineer: Preben Iwan

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Booklet for Nørgård: Sceneries for Percussion & Ensemble