Organ Music
By Axel Borup-Jørgensen
The smallest fluctuations and nuances in Axel Borup-Jørgensen's music can have the impact of an earthquake. It is a music born out of stillness. It is a quiet modernism, where the silences speak just as insistently as the few, but decisive, outbursts.
The present recording provides an overview of Borup-Jørgensen's small but highly distinctive oeuvre for organ. Borup-Jørgensen's unique – and surprisingly numerous works for the "King of Instruments" set him apart from many of his contemporaries. In addition to writing highly individual solo works, six of the pieces recorded here call for additional musicians from Strophen (1962), an expressionistic setting of a text by Rainer Maria Rilke for voice and organ, to Portal for percussion and organ Opus 181 (2009), a work composed for concert in honor of his 85th birthday.
Joining organist Jens E. Christensen on this sonic journey is percussionist Mathias Reumert, mezzo-soprano Pia Rose Hansen, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen, and Lars Sømod, second organist on organo per due Opus 133.1 (1989).
Christensen plays the historic organ at Vor Frelsers Church, Copenhagen, a glorious Baroque instrument built by the Botzen Brothers 1698-1700. Even silent, the instrument is an imposing structure, with over 4000 pipes, housed in an ornately decorated case sculpted by Christian Nerger, featuring a bust of King Christian V at the center.
This album is Recorded in the DXD audio format (Digital eXtreme Definition), 352.8 kHz/32bit by Grammy nominated producer Preben Iwan.