Rued Langgaard - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6 (Sakari Oramo)

Information

Composer: Rued Langgaard; Jacob Gade

• (01) Symphony No. 2 'Vaarbrud' (Awakening of Spring), BVN 53
• (04) Symphony No. 6 'Det Himmelrivende' (The Heaven-Rending), BVN 165
• (11) Upaaagtede Morgenstjerner (Unnoticed Morning Stars), BVN 336–2
• (12) Jacob Gade - Tango Jalousie 'Tango Tzigane'

Anu Komsi, soprano (3)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Date: 2018
Label: Dacapo
https://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recordings/langgaard-symphonies-2-6

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Review

The follow-up to their impressive showing in Per Nørgård’s First and Eighth Symphonies (8/14) finds Sakari Oramo and the Vienna Philharmonic taking on two contrasted works by Rued Langgaard that illuminate this composer in all his stylistic diversity and recklessness.

Coming soon after his ambitious debut in this genre, Langgaard’s Second Symphony (1914) is the most directly appealing of the cycle: an expansive though never unfocused study in a Romanticism centred on Schumann and Strauss. Such an idiom should be in this orchestra’s blood and the VPO do not disappoint – whether in the lyrically effulgent initial movement, with its discreetly modified sonata form, or the lithe finale whose setting of Emil Rittershaus duly crystallises the music’s essence and is eloquently rendered by Anu Komsi. Yet it is the central Lento that leaves the strongest impression – its paraphrases (rather than variations) on a Danish Christmastide hymn unfolding with rapt inwardness, before being thrown into relief by the unworldly quality of an interlude (6'42") which anticipates disquieting visions ahead.

Not least those to be found in the Sixth Symphony (1920), its apocalyptic imagery conveyed via Langgaard’s most resourceful (rather than merely eccentric) design: a ‘quasi una fantasia’ whose five variations on the opening theme, presented in ‘light’ then ‘dark’ variants, cohere as a single-movement structure precisely because of the emotional tension generated. Oramo again gives expressive rhetoric its head more readily than the overt incisiveness favoured by Thomas Dausgaard, the monumental heft of Neeme Järvi or the tensile and rough-edged account from John Frandsen (currently in a two-disc set of pioneering performances that remains an excellent introduction to Langgaard). Nor does momentum falter going into the coda, where the forces of good and evil collide in a peroration more thrilling for its theatrical immediacy.

A mandatory purchase for its interpretative insights, committed playing and tangibly realistic sound. Dacapo adds the rapturous second movement from Langgaard’s 14th Symphony and a suave tango as is also the most played Danish piece. Oramo tackles its solo part with aplomb.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rued-langgaard-symphonies-2-6-including-jacob-gades-tango-jalousie-mw0003200615
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Langgaard-Symphonies-Vienna-Philharmonic-6-220653/dp/B07FS7PSQP

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Rued Langgaard (28 July 1893 – 10 July 1952) was a late-Romantic Danish composer and organist. Langgaard composed in a late Romantic style which was at odds with that of his Danish contemporaries and was recognized only 16 years after his death. Influenced by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, he was a master of orchestration and a prolific composer for the large orchestra, writing 16 symphonies as well as other orchestral works. His total production of over 400 works included more than 150 songs, works for piano, organ, and an opera entitled Antikrist (The Antichrist).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rued_Langgaard

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Sakari Oramo (born October 26, 1965 in Helsinki) is a Finnish conductor. He started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO), and studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy. From 1998 to 2008, Oramo was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which he championed the music of John Foulds in concerts and recordings. He was Principal Conductor of the FRSO (2003-2012), and is currently Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2008) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (since 2013).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakari_Oramo

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