Knudåge Riisager: Qarrtsiluni; Månerenen

Knudage Riisager (Composer), Bo Holten (Conductor), Århus Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Århus Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Bo Holten
• Composer: Knudage Riisager
• Audio CD (July 19, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Marco Polo
• ASIN: B0009SQC78
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,246 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb 20th Century Danish Orchestral Music, September 16, 2005

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knudåge Riisager: Qarrtsiluni; Månerenen (Audio CD)

Knudage Riisager (1897-1974) was a real renaissance man of Danish cultural life. He spent most of his working life as a civil servant, rising to a high position in the Ministry of Finance, all the while composing music that was frequently heard throughout Denmark and surrounding countries. He was primarily known for his ballet scores. Later he became Director of the Danish Royal Academy of Music, as well as serving on various cultural boards, committees and councils. He had studied in Denmark with Peder Gram and Otto Malling and then in France with Albert Roussel and Paul Le Flem. His style has a definite French flavor to it. He had a fondness for bitonality, Gallic clarity, and inventive and expert orchestration. His music often develops from small, marked rhythmic and melodic themes on a polytonal basis. The two works presented here demonstrate those qualities.

'Qarrtsiluni' (1938) was originally a freestanding orchestral piece but was modified somewhat for a ballet of the same name and became well-known in Denmark when choreographed by Harald Lander. The title is taken from an Inuit word for the intense quiet of the polar night which in Inuit mythology is the precursor of all song. The work, about 8 1/2 minutes long, is heavily influenced rhythmically by Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' and its harmony is somewhat reminiscent of the brutalist works of Bartók and the early Prokofiev. It is an invigorating piece that rises to a frantic climax, leaving the listener exhilarated.

'Maanerenen'* ('Moon Reindeer') is an almost fifty-minute ballet that tells the story of a woman, Aili, who is enchanted by a sorcerer, Naaiden, and turned into a white reindeer who nightly lures young men to the edge of an abyss into which they fall to their deaths. During the daytime she again becomes a young woman who is in love with a handsome young man, Nilas, who eventually falls in love with her. Nilas is determined to kill the murderous Moon Reindeer without realizing she is his beloved. He has a fierce struggle with the Reindeer and slays her. She returns to her human form and dies in his arms. The ballet score is extraordinarily inventive, particularly in its orchestration and use of Stravinskyan rhythms. Among the highlights are the 'Ski Dance' in which Riisager imitates the gliding motion of skiers and the solo dances of Aili and the Moon Reindeer. The finale is another of Riisager's climaxes of mounting tension that lead to an ecstatic ending. This ballet, choreographed brilliantly by Birgit Cullberg, has held the stage in Denmark and other Nordic countries since its première in 1956, and has also established itself as an orchestral score as well.

The Aarhus (Denmark) Symphony Orchestra plays beautifully and with palpable commitment under Bo Holten, a conductor primarily known outside Denmark as a choral composer and conductor until his 1990s series of recordings of the music of Vagn Holmboe that have garnered praise far and wide .

For those of us who strongly admire Riisager's music, this is an important release. 'Qarrtsiluni' had been recorded by Gennady Rozhdestvensky with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra but it sounds downright sluggish when compared to this wonderful performance. As far as I know this is the only modern recording of 'Maanerenen.'

Enthusiastically recommended.

Scott Morrison

* The double -aa- in 'Maanerenen' stands for the Danish character not available here, an -a- with a tiny circle over it, usually pronounced as a semi-long -o-.