Hudobný život (Slovakia)

Ole Schmidt: Forgotten Legacy
Jesper Sivebæk, Bjarke Mogensen, Christina Åstrand, Rasmus Kjøller, The Royal Danish Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra, Max Artved - OUR Recordings, 2026
Composer Ole Schmidt (1928–2010) was one of the important representatives of the Danish school of composition and an internationally sought-after conductor. His output encompassed symphonic, concertante and chamber music as well as ballet and film scores. He also wrote concertante works for less conventional solo instruments such as tuba, guitar, French horn and accordion. The Danish educational and research project KUV, In Collaboration with Ole Schmidt, which focuses primarily on Schmidt’s lesser-known compositions, now presents the album Forgotten Legacy in collaboration with OUR Recordings.
The principal protagonists of the project are two renowned Danish instrumentalists: guitarist Jesper Sivebæk and accordionist Bjarke Mogensen. Ole Schmidt’s compositional language is remarkably distinctive: his music is sophisticated, yet transparent in sound and immediately appealing to the listener. Its traditional formal structures and precise rhythmic contours often have an almost neoclassical character. The music moves between expanded tonality and modality and contains elements of dance, rhythmic playfulness and a strong inspiration from jazz.
One such work is Schmidt’s almost forgotten Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra from 1976. Sivebæk revised the work only after the composer’s death, in 2024–25. The first movement presents a colourful succession of soundscapes. The solo part is filled with fresh, witty and playful motifs, while the orchestra responds with delicate percussion entries and solos from the woodwinds.
The following Cadence, influenced by the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, is a duet for guitar and harp, interrupted midway by a solo guitar cadenza. Above repeated arpeggios, a melancholy melody unfolds, and this sorrowful nocturne for the singing guitar, with its magical harmonies and delicate broken chords, gradually fades into silence.
In the third movement, the mood changes radically. The performer plays standing up on a Gibson electric guitar, operating with his foot a pedal offering various effects more commonly associated with jazz and rock music. The soloist forcefully launches sequences of rhythmically charged chords with a swinging drive, complementing them with dark guitar effects. The musical flow gradually intensifies, yet the overall impression remains fragile, filled with delicate and mysterious motifs that dissolve into the final notes. Sivebæk is convincing in both the dramatic and lyrical episodes, and in his hands Schmidt’s concerto sounds truly magical.
The next work, the brief, three-minute Echoes for two accordions, strings and percussion, is highly unusual. Bjarke Mogensen is joined here by fellow accordionist Rasmus Kjøller. Although the composition has the character of a study in sound, Schmidt creates, within a very short span and from limited musical material, an evocative tapestry woven from sustained string tones, subtle percussion entries and intertwining high-register accordion lines. Oscillating intervals of a second create the illusion of distant, wailing sirens within a mysterious atmosphere.
Mogensen next presents Toccata No. 1, Op. 24, from 1960, for solo accordion. This virtuoso work has formed part of the instrument’s standard repertoire for decades. It is written in three-part form, with a lyrical central section framed by brilliant outer sections; the final section is further expanded by a bravura cadenza. Mogensen plays with great brilliance, yet also with softness and clarity, placing the emphasis less on virtuosity for its own sake than on playful moments, syncopated rhythmic elements and constantly changing textures.
In the Double Concerto for Violin and Accordion from 2005, Mogensen is joined by violinist Christina Åstrand. In both the first and third movements, violin and accordion engage in a kind of cheerful polyphonic dialogue, a dense texture of animated dance elements, neoclassical allusions and witty rhythmic moments. The orchestra enters the “conversation” only gently, with quirky motifs from the trumpet and percussion or pizzicato strings.
The slow central movement unfolds as a continuous flow of legato textures, in which the accordion’s delicate upper-register sound comes particularly to the fore. Throughout the work, violin and accordion blend remarkably well, complementing one another through colourful contrary motion and a rich interplay of timbres.
The Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, conducted by Max Artved, plays with vividness and colour and clearly relishes Schmidt’s jazz-inspired elements.
Interestingly, Forgotten Legacy has not been released on CD; it is available only on vinyl and in digital formats. The sound of the LP is excellent, beautifully defined, and the warm character of vinyl is particularly well suited to the sonorities of the guitar and accordion.
OUR Recordings also continues to explore the music of other Danish composers, including Poul Ruders, Ole Buck and Carl Nielsen, and the care with which the label has cultivated Denmark’s musical heritage over the past two decades is highly deserving of attention. Peter Katina, 23 October 2026
https://hudobnyzivot.sk/clanok/ole-schmidt-forgotten-legacy