Search - Rued Langgaard, Thomas Dausgaard, Danish National Symphony Orchestra :: Rued Langaard: Antikrist [Hybrid SACD]

So much for politics and popular tastes. Langgaard's extraor

David A. Hollingsworth | Washington, DC USA | 09/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The history behind Rued Langgaard's "Antikrist" (alternatively spelled "Antichrist") is as complicated as it gets. A musical daring equivalent to America's Charles Ives and Britain's Harvergal Brian (as often noted, though Latvia's Adolfs Skulte props up in my mind), Langgaard, according to Bendt Viinholt Nielsen's booklet essay (among the best and absorbing essays I've ever read), became convinced of music's capability to convey a message in an era where the discovery of new music were being made (that message of course being against functionalism, materialism, and superficiality). This was in 1921, and in years following the First World War, the War that was `supposed' to end all wars, apocalyptic and existential questions pervaded throughout much of the world particularly in Denmark. Langgaard, always enterprising in molding music in conceivable and at times surprising and unconventional ways, found the questions of life and death, good and evil, a topical one, and the one which he could express musical conflicts in apocalyptic dimensions. Carl Nielsen touch on that in his Fifth Symphony (1920-1922) in his appeal for humanity.



At 27, Langgaard wrote the libretto for the first version of the opera in 1921, using the outline of the plot and some dialogues from P.E. Benzon's "Antichrist" and inspired by works of Robert Hugh Benson & Ernesto Dalgas (the former being `Lord of the World'). Called an orgiastic music drama, an opera mystery, and an allegorical opera, the first version of "Antichrist" was completed in February of 1923 and submitted to the Royal Danish Theatre. The music was praised but the libretto was deemed very inaccessible and obscure (despite that the libretto, quite metaphoric as well as symbolic, looks towards Wagner's Ring, the Bible, & Tagore's poetry collection "Gitanjali"). The opera was rejected and when the composer presented and defended the work, he was promised a reply. That reply came two years later in 1925, with the same outcome as before.



Langgaard felt an injustice, and began a total reworking of the opera in 1926, practically writing a new libretto to make it more schematic in structure and more biblical. In its final form, it remains poetic-symbolic in nature, with Antichrist's physical appearance on stage replaced by a series of allegorical figures representing aspects of his nature. The aim is to make the opera in its second version more clearer in its religious message (but also with an universal appeal). The opera in its new version was submitted, but again rejected by the Theatre. Further pressings and correspondences back & forth between him and the Theatre went on for the next twelve years, with no acceptance and no reasonable explanations given to Langgaard for the rejections. Only excepts from the work courtesy of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation were given in 1940 & 1944. But the work in its entirety had to wait until 1980, when it was given a DR studio production with the Danish National Symphony under Michael Schonwandt's direction. The first stage performance of "Antikrist" commenced in 1999, seventy-six years after its first completion.



How can one justify and explain all this? After all, it was Bo Wallner, a Swedish musicologist, who determined in 1968 that "Antikrist" is one of the most ingeniously wrought scores in late Nordic Romanticism. Moreover, as Jorgen Jensen argues in his exceptional essay, the opera, its style, and even its title were not really out of place at the time of its conception, which suggests, at least implicitly that the Theatre's rejections of the opera was political and perhaps even personal. Indeed the orchestral palette, contrasting colorisms and vivid details evokes Strauss quite strongly, yet he knew his Nielsen and his Wagner, and dare I say he may well have known his Janacek, (try Act II, scene IV for instance). And he borrowed quite a bit of himself (for example "The Music of the Spheres" used in Prelude to scene V of Act II). But is this opera any derivation of any kind? I would argue no, at least not really. Somehow this composition, strikingly untraditional in style, design, & structure, speaks in its own voice through the uniqueness and the dariness of its language Langgaard devised. The stylistic variety & wealth of details are of abundance here. More importantly though, for me at least, is how forward looking this theatrical score happens to be, without abandoning per se the past virtues of Romantic and late Romantic art. In that respect the work evokes Bax, Rachmaninoff, Atterberg,Vaughn-Williams & to some extent Myaskovsky (to name only a few). Could it be, for a case in point, that Atterberg learned a thing of two from Langgaard when he composed his "Sinfornia Visionaria" in 1956? Probably, for the question of existentialism in the Sinfornia have some striking similarities with the opera itself.



It goes without saying that an opera as unconventional as this needs that special advocacy to convince (or at least try to convince) the purists of operatic form and traditions that the unconventionality can indeed work. Thomas Dausgaard, an emerging star among conductors, does that, and with awe inspiring results. To say that his approach is never short of visionary is clearly an understatement, for he shows how powerful and moving the message behind the opera can be felt, and not just via the orchestral details. Of course, he's not without help. He has the Danish National Symphony & Choir as his disposal (superb & imaginative all round) while the cast is among the strongest I've heard,...ever. Sten Byriel as Lucifer is spectacular while Camilla Nylund as The Great Whore is just simply phenomenon. But also take notice of the radiance and beauty of Helene Gjerris' portrayal of Echo of Spirit of Mystery/Mystical Voice. It has that purity and innocence that proves inescapable.



This is frankly a winning, extremely well recorded, well documented album in every sense of the word. Dare I hope that opera companies outside Denmark will take this work on, like, say, the MET or the Lyric Opera of Chicago? I'll be the first to attend.

"

Totally bizarre. Totally amazing.

Kyle E. Lockhart | Texas USA | 04/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this after I read the April 2007 Opera News review. The mention of the glittering orchestrations and comparisons to Salome made me buy it. I can't say that it reminds me of anything really.. Maybe a little early Strauss mixed with Korngold. The orchestra sounds great and though this is meant to be pretty serious, it comes across as fun (not in a parody or mocking way though). If you like things off the beaten path, try it. I was hooked after five minutes BUT after 2 or 3 listens I really was captivated."