DANISH MUSIC FOR BRASS

Is a series of recordings with brass players from the Royal Danish Orchestra

as chamber music players or soloists

 

 

FLOOD OF PARADISE

MUSIC FOR TRUMPET AND ORGAN

PLAYED BY KETIL CHRISTENSEN – TRUMPET

JENS E. CHRISTENSEN – ORGAN

 

 

 

SVEN ERIK WERNER

 

LIVING MEMORY

HOMMAGE A  VILLY SØRENSEN 

Dedicated to Ketil Christensen and Jens E. Christensen

 

BENT LORENTZEN

FLOOD OF PARADISE

 

 

VAGN HOLMBOE

TRIADE op.123

for TRUMPET and ORGAN

I – Tempo Giusto

II – Andante

III – Allegro

THOMAS DANIEL SCHLEE

CANTUS

 

 

PETR EBEN

OKNA  ( WINDOWS)

Petr Eben was inspired by Marc Chagall’s majestic stained glass paintings in the Hadassah Medicine Centre of Jerusalem.

Of the twelve windows, which represent the twelve tribes of Israel, he chose four:

 

7. REUBEN – BLUE WINDOW (4:53) The tribe of the shepards is represented by lambs, fishes, birds and stars on a background of blue ocean and sky.

 

8. ISSACHAR – GREEN WINDOW (6:05) The farmer’s tribe is symbolised by wings, with the head of a donkey in the foreground.

 

9. ZEBULON – RED WINDOW (6:06)  The tribe of Zebulon lived by the sea, and is pictured with a ship and two fish.

 

10. LEVI – GOLDEN WINDOW (6:06)  Levi served in the temple and taught the Law. His tribe was symbolised by the tables of Law and an altar lamp, from which a golden light shines over the whole window.

 

THE ROYAL DANISH ORCHESTRA

 

The Royal Danish Orchestra’s emblem, the Royal Trumpeter Corps. Engraving from 1583. The Royal Danish Orchestra is the the world’s oldest orchestral institution. It started out 1448 as a trumpeter corps, and today it is an opera and symphony orchestra based at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen.

 

KETIL CHRISTENSEN studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Music with Kurt Petersen and became only 19 years old principal trumpet in The Royal Danish Orchestra. Co-founder of The Royal danish Orchestra Brass Ensemble and member of the chamber orchestra Collegium Musicum, Copenhagen. Has made many recordings and engagements as soloist. in 1980 he won a prize at the international competition for soloists in Munich and has later been a member of the jury at the same competition in 2018. Has been teaching trumpet at The royal Danish Academy of Music. The recipient of the Gade Scholarship and Gladsaxe Music Award.

JENS E. CHRISTENSEN (1946-) Organist at The Church of Our Saviour in Copenhagen. His concert career has taken him all over the world and many composers has written works dedicated to him. He has been teaching at The Royal Danish Academy of Music for more than 25 years. He received  in 1980 The Music Critics’ Prize. 

 

SVEN ERIK WERNER (1937 – )

– educated at the University of Copenhagen, employed by the Danish Radio (1964 – 1970) and director of the Funen Academy of music in Odense (1972 – 1989). Self-taught as a composer, he is inspired by Lutoslawsky and Messian. Since his debut in Palermo in 1968, he has been composing  television operas, orchestral and chamber music as well as organ works and a number of danish songs.

 

BENT LORENTZEN (1935 – 2018)

First musical studies with Knud Jeppesen at the Århus University in 1954. Diploma Exam from The Royal Danish Academy of Music 1960. Teacher of music theory at The Royal Academy of Music in Århus 1962 – 1971. President of the Danish section of ISCM 1973 – 1977. He has been full-time composer since 1971. Took over Per Nørgård’s composition class in Århus 1995. Has received a lifetime state grant since 1982 and in 1995 he was awarded the Carl Nielsen Prize.

 

VAGN HOLMBOE (1909-1996)

At the age of 16 Vagn Holmboe (1909-96) was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen as a violinist. In the entrance examination he was heard by the national composer Carl Nielsen who also looked through some of his compositions. The earliest works by Holmboe known today were written the next year, and these include a string quartet. This was the first of ten quartets that Holmboe wrote before he  gave a work the title String Quartet no. 1 at the age of 40. In the beginning of the 1930s, during a study trip to Paris, Holmboe met the Romanian pianist Meta Graf. They eventually married, and she introduced him to the folk music of the Balkans. “There was something elemental in this music,” Holmboe said. By the beginning of the 1930s Vagn Holmboe had already composed a large number of works, but had given very few of them the seal of an opus number. His breakthrough came in 1939, when he won the Royal Danish Orchestra’s composition competition with his Symphony No 2. With the money prize he bought a country property by the lake Arresø in northern Zealand, where he built his home and lived until his death in 1996. Until 1950 Vagn Holmboe taught at the Danish Institute for the Blind, and then he was engaged by the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He was professor of composition and theory until 1965, when he retired to devote all his time to composing. Vagn Holmboe wrote almost 400 works, especially instrumental music.His QUINTET op. 79 for brass quintet was written for one of the pioneer ensembles for brass chamber music, The New York Brass Quintet, in 1965.

 

 

THOMAS DANIEL SCHLEE (1957 – )

Studied organ with Friederich Lessky, Michael Radulescu and Jean Langlais, composition with Erich Romanovsky, Olivier Messian and Francis Burt and musical science and art at The Vienna University. Schlee has won many prizes published books and given lectures. He has given concerts, as organist over the whole of Europe and has participated in radio broadcasts and festival concerts. In the period 1986 – 1989 Schlee was responsible for music and drame at The Salzburg Landstheater. In 1988 – 1990 he taught at The Vienna Conservatory and The Salzburg University. Since 1990 he has been artistic director of the Brucknerhaus in Bonn.

PETR EBEN (1929 -2007 )

– Begun his musical studies after the war 1948, when he was admitted into Prague Conservatoire with piano and composition as his main subjects. He completed his studies in 1954. He entered The Prague University shortly after and wrote, in that period, his first compositions. He divided his time between teaching, composing and giving solo concerts. Eben is a highly respected improviser on the organ, as well as on the piano. In this improvisations he often uses biblical texts as the starting point. The most important  sources of inspiration for his compositions are folk songs from Bohemia and Gregorian chants in free tonality. Petr Eben has worked in just about every genre: Liturgical music, songs, cantatas, symphonic, chamber music and music for children.