Riisager's name is
not easily forgotten. Even the look
of it sticks in the memory. Some will
recall it from his Trumpet Concertino
which was recorded by CBS (later
Sony, Later BMG-Sony) as part of a Philadelphia
Principals series. Chandos have also
produced an exemplary orchestral collection.
Dacapo have done him proud with various
CDs: His solo piano music played by
Christina Bjørkøe is on
8.226004 review.
The chamber music on 8.224081 and the
two Slaraffenland suites, Darduse
and Tolv med Posten are on
8.224082.
Riisager was born in
Estonia of Danish parents and earned
his living as a Mandarin in the Danish
Civil Service. His musical grounding
came from Otto Malling and Peder Gram
but his music took on a distinctive
flavour from his Parisian years as a
pupil of Paul le Flem and Albert Roussel.
His orchestral music includes a Violin
Concerto (still unrecorded) written
for Wandy Tworek.
If his name is not
easily forgotten then neither is his
music. Qarrtsiluni is the Inuit
word for expectant stillness - a sense
of being on the edge of something bursting
into action. In fairness the music seems
to reflect both the imminence and the
action itself. It is fascinating concoction
which connects diffusely with Bridge's
Enter Spring, Stravinsky's Rite
and the celebratory energy de Falla
and Janáček.
This work began life as a purely orchestral
piece but has been used for a ballet
premičred during the Nazi
Occupation of Denmark.
Moon Reindeer is
in the form of a Prelude and five scenes
the last of which is by far the longest
at approaching twenty minutes. In the
Prelude one can hear the development
from Qarrtsiluni.
There is still the same Janáčekian
canvas of constantly mobile detail -
tonal and singing. Riisager wrote that
in this piece he wanted to convey the
gliding yet softly elastic sensation
of skiing ... of gravity cancelled.
Again a sort Nordic de Falla feeling
arises with echoes of Copland's western
exuberance. Brightly dancing music occasionally
recalls the Tippett of the Concerto
for Double String Orchestra (as
in scene 2 tr. 6) or the Midsummer
Dances and sometimes of Bliss in
Checkmate (recently recorded complete
on Naxos). The Qarrtsiluni parallels
return in the Reindeer Dance at
the end of scenes 2 and 3 evoking the
rustling freshness of spring in Bridge's
Enter Spring or Foulds’ April-England.
There are some delightfully grace-filled
Sibelian ideas as in the recurrent and
delicately pointed music in trs. 10
and 13. While ideas from the music of
Greenland appear in Qarrtsiluni,
material from Lapland has been incorporated
in Moon Reindeer. This is
brilliantly orchestrated and balanced
music - moving forward in a disciplined
blizzard of detail; the very antithesis
of drab.
The Lapp-based story
of Moon Reindeer has the girl Aili in
love with the boy Nilas who prefers
Kaisa. Aili goes to the sorcerer Naiden
who draws her into a magic ritual where
she is surrounded by women transformed
into reindeer by Naiden who casts her
into a gorge. There by night she lures
men into the abyss and by day takes
on the form of an erotically attractive
young woman. Nilas falls for her but
in a fight with Aili in the form of
the Moon Reindeer he kills her.
It's a shame that Dacapo
did not feel able to add the fascinating
orchestral fantasy Archaeopteryx.
There's certainly space.
Even so this is the
best sort of disc. It is one that when
encountered makes you suddenly aware
of another composer well worth exploring
- add Riisager to your 'to be investigated’
list.
Rob Barnett
see also
review by Hubert Culot
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra/Bo Holten 
