5 Stars: A stimulating omnibus of chamber music from Danish modernist composer.


BORUP-JØRGENSEN Intrada. Trio. Ricostruzioni. Malinconia. Distichon. Rapsodi. “mikroorganismer” • Esbjerg Ens.; Kristoffer Hyldig (pn) • OUR 8.226925 (65:58)

Axel Borup-Jørgensen (1924-2012) is a revered figure in contemporary Danish music, and yet in substantive ways he is a product of all of Scandinavia, a region that is full of cultural and political differences even as it radiates a kind of generic sameness. His family moved to Sweden when Borup-Jørgensen was a toddler, and he grew up in a bucolic landscape south of the capital, Stockholm, where his first interests in music were nurtured. One of his earliest musical obsessions was of the greatest composer of Norway, Grieg, as he developed his piano technique with the Lyric Pieces. But he did return to Denmark in 1946, where he became a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and he eventually became a fixture in the Danish new music community, amongst his contemporaries Per Nørgård, Ib Nørholm and Pelle Gudmendsen-Holmgreen, among others. This release honors the 100th anniversary of his birth.
A unifying esthetic of this group was an intellectual curiosity that nevertheless rejected the more radical visions of the serialist school of Boulez and his gang. Borup-Jørgensen was adventurous enough to have twice visited Darmstadt, the “Mecca of modern music,” as annotator Joshua Cheek so well puts it. Perhaps he was inspired by his time there to strive for ever greater individuality in his writing, while never abandoning an essentially lyrical voice, as expressed in this group of chamber works, mostly written in his maturity, in the years 1972 to 1996. The exception is “mikroorganismer,” which was premiered in 1956. The title is Danish for microorganisms, as the six minute work for string quartet consists of thirteen individual pieces. Borup-Jørgensen wrote “mikroorganismer” on the heels of a poorly received performance of another work for string quartet, which, per the composer’s notes, evoked “scattered laughter during the performance and criticism [in print] the next day.” Whether or not this experience altered the course of his creative process is not clear, although he adds that “I wrote these 13 tiny microorganisms as a kind of musical centrifuge in which all red blood cells were filtered out.”
This rather cryptic comment may suggest that his subsequent work would be less overtly emotional, although it is hard to tell without direct comparison to his earlier output. Certainly, the music on this program might be rather cool, on the surface, but there is an expressive undercurrent to all of the selections, even in such spare constructions as the Intrada for solo percussionist, and Rapsodi for solo viola. His harmonic palette is individualistic and full of dissonance, but always in the service of creating his singular sense of beauty and elegance. The Intrada, in particular, has a very distinctive and well-balanced structure (and brought off with dazzling virtuosity by Christian Martinez). Although it is not mentioned in the notes, there are elements in Borup-Jørgensen’s techniques that seem to be mirrored in American modernist schools, including sections of the scores that require improvisation by the performers (a la Cage, Riley, et. al.), and the use of very quiet dynamics and even silence, in the manner of Morton Feldman, although not with Feldman’s sense of timelessness and extreme lengths (at least as heard on this release). Borup-Jørgensen’s style, in contrast, is very concise.
The Esbjerg Ensemble, a leading Danish group with a core membership of ten players, presents this material with inspirational intensity and dedication. There is a sense, relayed even after repeated listening, that the seven selections fall together as a kind of suite, even though there is a nearly four decade span among them. This is a typically beautifully produced and extremely well-recorded release from OUR, the Danish label that was founded by the acclaimed recorder player Michala Petri and guitarist/lute player Lars Hannibal in 2006. Their productions are often challenging, but always stimulating. Peter Burwasser, November 2024

5 Stars: A stimulating omnibus of chamber music from Danish modernist composer.