Customer Reviews

The New Danes

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This is an interesting collection of compositions by comparatively young Danish composers (all born since World War II). While these works may be somewhat of an acquired taste, they are worth the effort to do so, and they will reward the investment. They have a somewhat airy quality that adds to the pleasure of listening to them.

For the lover of contemporary music, these are wonderful pieces. The Abrahamsen is very charming, reminiscent somewhat of Bolcom or Rorem. The Rasmussen is somewhat like Tower, though at times like Torke. The Soerensen is the most "European" of the pieces, and the Ruders is very much like Ruders, and Lucy Shelton is almost as good as Bryn-Julson.
For those that don't know, Speculum Musicae was founded by Donald Palma, who is its conductor; Donald Palma was one of the original musicians of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and most of the Speculum players are also Orpheus players, including Susan Palma (also an Orpheus founder), Curtis Macomber, Eric Bartlett, William Purvis, Steven Taylor, and Marji Danilow (the bassist that "took Palma's place" in Orpheus). I think of Speculum as Orpheus-playing-contemporary-music. They are every bit up to Orpheus's standards.