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Erik JØRGENSEN (b. 1912)
Confrontations. Variazioni for Piano. Improvisations for Wind Quintet. Piece for String Quartet. Introduction and Presto for Saxophone Quartet.
Odense Symphony Orchestra/Tamás Vetö; Ulrich Stark (piano); Danish Wind Quintet; Kontra String Quartet; Danish Saxophone Quartet.
Dacapo 8.224217 [DDD] [59'34]
 Amazon UK 

Jørgensen was one of the first Danish composers to take up Schoenbergian dodecaphony. He has been at the forefront of the Danish avant-garde, having attended the ISCM World Music Days in 1960 and the summer course at Darmstadt in 1962.

This Dacapo disc offers the ideal introduction to his music. It balances examples of solo, chamber and orchestral genres to make a satisfying hour's listening. Confrontations is a major orchestral work from the late Sixties. It is a solemn processional, laden with tensions and dominated by inevitable, persistent rhythms.

Variazioni for piano (1966) offers the starkest of contrasts. The sensitive Ulrich Stark projects its crystalline quality well, the experience heightened by the clear piano sound. The rather robust Improvisations (1971) presents a series of contrasting episodes, but it is in the fragmentary, otherworldly Piece for String Quartet (1964/5) that Jørgensen seems most at home.

Jazzy allusions break into the Introduction and Presto of 1995: there even seems to be a reference to Cole Porter's Anything goes at one point in the Presto!. The Danish Saxophone Quartet seems to have a whale of a time. The cheeky ending rounds off the disc perfectly.

Stimulating, involving and never less than fascinating performances throughout offer the highest dedication to Jørgensen's cause. Strongly recommended.

Reviewer

Colin Clarke

Performance

Recording




Reviewer

Colin Clarke

Performance

Recording


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