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Recorder music

Recorder music

By Axel Borup-Jørgensen

…silence is music too…

For many listeners, the name of Axel Borup-Jørgensen may come as a new discovery, and yet during his long and productive creative life (with more than 180 opus number in his catalogue), he was a seminal figure in contemporary Danish musical life and the recipient of a number of the country’s most distinguished awards, including the Carl Nielsen Prize and the Wilhelm Hansen Prize.

Borup-Jørgensen considered himself a self-taught composer; while being thoroughly “modern” in outlook, his music is organic, expressionist, aphoristic – even “painterly,” always embracing the sheer sensual beauty of the musical tone. Perhaps more than anything else, it was this “organic” quality that attracted Borup-Jørgensen to the recorder, and to Michala Petri.

This recording presents Borup-Jørgensen’s complete works for recorder; a chronicle of a 30 year relationship that began when his daughter, Elisabet Selin became Michala Petri’s first and only private student. Over the years, Michala and Elisabet performed on a number of critically acclaimed recordings but none as special as this; as the artists for whom these works were originally composed, their interpretations are both personal and authoritative. Beginning with the Fantasia for sopranino recorder and harpsichord op. 75 from 1975 and concluding with Pergolato op. 183, composed the year before the composer’s passing, each work carefully explores the potential of the recorder as a melody instrument and as a source of new forms of acoustic expression.

Reviews

Recorder music

October 9, 2014

Gramophone (UK)

Richard Whitehouse

Recorder music

May 4, 2014

Ensemble Chamber Music Magazine (Germany)In allen schmeichelt sich in tiefer Lage der warme, in höchster auch kreischen, zirpen und piepsen den Blockflötenton ins Ohr – gebändigte und losgelassene Natur!

Diether Steppuhn

Recorder music

May 3, 2014

Fanfare Magazine (US)- A remarkable disc, stunningly performed and well recorded.

Colin Clarke

Recorder music

March 10, 2014

The Recorder Magazine (UK) The result care with which this album has been put together will certainly encourage more attention to be given to Jørgensen`s music.

Paul Bunell

Recorder music

March 3, 2014

Klassik Heute, Germany - Wertung: 10 / 10 / 10 it is a momentous milestone of recorder music of the 20th Century

Heinz Braun

Recorder music

February 2, 2014

Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review (UK)This is not just state-of-the-art modern recorder music. It is also a collection of very pleasing high-modern chamber music.
Very much recommended.

Grego Applegate Edwards

Recorder music

January 18, 2014

The Classical Reviewer (UK)- This attractive and worthwhile release is an excellent memorial to Axel Borup-Jørgensen and his exploration of the recorder.

The Classical Reviewer

Recorder music

January 4, 2014

International Record Review (UK) - their structural rigour and striking timbral contrasts giving the programme a genuinely other-worldly quality

Roger Thomas

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