Search - Jan Latham Koenig, Tom Nybye, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus :: Per Norgard: Symphony No. 3 / Twilight, for Orchestra - Tamas Veto / Jan Latham Koenig / Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Lesser performance of the Third, but you'll want this eventu

Christopher Culver | 07/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This now rather old Da Capo disc contains two of Per Norgard's dazzling compositions from the 1970s, performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with Tamas Veto conducting the symphony and Jan Latham Koenig the second piece.



In this era, Norgard's great invention of musical structure was the "infinity series", a striking method of serializing melody that creates self-similarity among orchestral parts, an unsuspecting application of fractal mathematics to music. This principle was first overtly displayed in the second movement of "Voyage into the Golden Screen" (1968), available on a fine recent Da Capo disc, and listening to this is the best way to grasping the concept at its simplest. A given melody is played by the flutes in what can be called "normal time", while the oboes play every fourth note, the trumpets every 64th note, and tubular bells, trombones, and piano every 256th note, and so on for 1024 notes. Norgard's second symphony, written in 1970, was simply an application of this same technique with a longer running time and expanded instrumentation.



In the years immediately following, Norgard began developing harmonic and rhythmic techniques that would augment his melodic serialisation. For harmony, he chose to use the natural overtone series, since this is itself infinite: any harmonic series also has a new harmonic series on each of its partials. For rhythm he chose to use the golden section, the ratio that the Fibonacci sequence approaches, praised since ancient times as the "divine proportion" and also used widely by Sofia Gubaidulina.



Sounds organized in such a fashion are pretty much guaranteed to be aesthetically pleasing, and that's why "Symphony No. 3" (1972-1975) is a veritable triumph. Since the entire work is ingenious sculpted out of these perfect shapes, then I would even dare to say that if someone doesn't enjoy this, they lack a certain humanity. The first movement is powerful but somewhat restrained, and consists of an introduction in two parts followed by two main sections. After an introduction of simple harmonic and melodic material over regular rhythms, the three infinity series are revealed in what is surely one of the most awesome moments in musical history. All things here are so audibly united, and one can even say that this music, with its natural inspirations (for overtones and the Fibonacci sequence were discovered, not invented) represents the glory of creation. It is in this spiritual ecstasy that we enter the second movement, where Norgard has the chorus sing "Alleluia" in ecstasy and then sets three Marian hymns and a Rilke poem. The composer had already set Rilke's "Singe die Gaerten, mein Hertz, die du nicht kennst" for chamber choir and eight instrumentalists earlier in 1975, but decided that it would make a perfect end for the symphony. And so, personal experience is united with the grandure of the universe in this amazing, epic piece.



Unfortunately, this recording suffers in comparison with that on Chandos, where Leif Segerstam leads the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Tamas Veto's pace seems idiosyncratic and jerky in comparison and the recording quality is nowhere near as good as on Chandos. Since the Chandos recording is part of a series of Norgard's symphonies in world-class performance, you'll want to get them anyway, so discover the Third there.



Still, if you are a dedicated Norgard fan, you'll want to get the disc eventually for the remarkable other piece present. "Twilight" for orchestra (1977) contains extensive percussion, including a conga, and a female dancer who provides "visual rhythm". The experiments in rhythm here are inspired by the "Sun and Moon" music style he was exploring with amateur ensemble, and from this perspective the piece shows great progress beyond the symphony. Its title was inspired by a saying from a Castaneda book, "The world is a mysterious place, Don Juan said, -- especially at twilight". The piece demonstrates the the infinity series can be put to use in defining a shifting, shadowy landscape, not just the even and bright texture of earlier uses of the method. Already there are hints of the shift between "idyll" and "catastrophe" that was to mark Norgard's early 1980s writing, when he put aside the infinity series for a schizoid style inspired by Adolf Wolfli. On the whole, however, the work is highly coherent and pleasant, using the "Flos ut rosa floruit" melody found here and there throughout his work. Great listening, and highly recommended."