Harmonious Families Vol. 4 - Siegfried & Rued Langgaard (Oleg Marshev)

Information

Composer: Siegfried Langgaard; Rued Langgaard

• (01) Siegfried Langgaard - Piano Concerto No. 1
• (04) Rued Langgaard - 'Fra Arild' Piano Concerto, BVN B29

Oleg Marshev, piano
Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, South Jutland
Matthias Aeschbacher, conductor

Date: 2000
Label: Danacord
https://www.danacord.dk/frmsets/records/535-r.html

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Review

The recent revival of interest in the music of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) here extends to the first performance and recording of a piano concerto by his father Siegfried (1852-1914), together with an exhumation of the curious From Arild Concerto in which the son adapts fragments of his father's work to evoke the lost world of a fin de siecle childhood. Although Liszt heard the solo part of Siegfried's concerto and wrote approvingly from Budapest, it does not seem to have been performed in its full orchestral version. Its big-boned, rather empty-headed virtuoso style needs a pianist like Oleg Marshev, best known for his notably extrovert Prokofiev sonata series, also on Danacord. His firm technique is not quite matched by that of the orchestra, here conducted not by their current chief, Iona Brown, but by the Zurich-born Matthias Aeschbacher. The first exposed entry of the woodwinds at 2'14'' does not inspire confidence. The main problem, however, is the slightly cramped acoustic. This does not make for the easiest of listens.

Much more intriguing, if no more convincing to these ears, is Rued's quirky concerto, a free adaptation of his father's thematic material that takes in allusions to Wagner, palm court frolics, cheap melodrama and Scriabinesque Apocalypse. Langgaard, an archetypal musical outsider not unlike Charles Ives or Havergal Brian, may have produced one near masterpiece in The Music of the Spheres (Chandos, 9/97) but the present disc is strictly for the converted.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

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Siegfried Langgaard (July 13, 1852 – January 5, 1914) was a pianist and composer and the father of Rued Langgaard. He got his musical eduacation from the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen where he studied from 1874 to 1876. After a short career as a pianist, he became a teacher at the Academy from 1881 until his death. His work list includes songs and piano works, and his son reworked and completed a fair share of his father's works.
http://www.edition-s.dk/composer/siegfried-langgaard

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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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Oleg Marshev (born 1961) is a Soviet and Russian pianist. He was born in the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, studied at the Moscow Conservatory (with Mikhail Voskresensky), and now a resident of Italy. In 1990, Marshev took the gold medal at the AMSA Piano Competition in Cincinnati. He has recorded over 30 CDs for Danacord label, featuring works by Prokofiev (complete), Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, and others. Marshev has recorded the world premier recording of Emil von Sauer’s piano music in 6 volumes, as well as 4 CDs of Danish little-known romantic piano concertos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Marshev
http://olegmarshev.com/

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