090404955327.Pdf

POUL RUDERS (b. 1949)

SOUND AND SIMPLICITY (Seven Pillars of Music for Accordion and Symphony Orchestra) (2018) (29:22) 1) I. Rain (3:39) 2) II. Trance (3:58) 3) III. Haiku (:22) 4) IV. Smoke (6:55) 5) V. Song Link (6:06) 6) VI. Twilight (4:06) 7) VII. Wolf Moon (4:16)

Bjarke Mogensen, accordion Odense Symfoniorkester Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor

2 8) DREAM CATCHER (2004) (arr. Bjarke Mogensen) (4:30) Bjarke Mogensen, accordion

SYMPHONY NO. 3 “Dream Catcher” (2005-2006, rev. 2009) (26:31) 9) I. Alla breve con brio - Adagio sognante (15:32) 10) II. Scherzo prestissimo (10:59)

Odense Symfoniorkester Scott Yoo, conductor

Note by the composer

All music is sound, but not all music is simple. Simplicity is a virtue, espe- cially in the arts, a fact which becomes increasingly and inescapably obvi- ous to me the older I get. In Sound and Simplicity four out of the seven movements are very simple (as in the absence of any structural and metric complexity). Indeed, the second movement, Trance, a sustained chord, em- ploys only four notes, but they are gradually presented over three octaves.

Two of the seven titles are related to literary texts. Rain is a musical re- flection on a couple of lines by Danish writer Arthur Krasilnikoff, from his novel The Eye of the Whale (the chapter entitled Rain) – here in my translation from the Danish: “But best of all were the sounds from the drops. All the myriad sounds with which a drop could touch a leaf, a twig, a stone, gravel, the cement on the stairs, the clothesline, the roof, as if the rain was playing a single, incredible instrument…”

4 I composed the fourth Pillar of Music upon having read these mesmerizing lines by Doris Lessing: “The air was full of dust and of smoke. The sky was a yellowish swirl with dark smoke full of black bits pouring across it, and the sun was only a lighter place in the smoke.” (from Mara and Dann, 1999). Oth- erwise the listener is completely free to contemplate what could possibly be hiding behind the titles Trance, Haiku, Song-link, Twilight and Wolf Moon…

The full title of my composition is lifted and slightly twisted from two literary classics. Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility and T.E.Lawrence (of Ara- bia): Seven Pillars of Wisdom. But only that – a nod and a bow from me…

Sound and Simplicity marks the third panel in what could be called my ‘Accordion Trilogy’, joining Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean (accordion and string quartet, recorded on BRIDGE 9336) and Songs and Rhapsodies (accordion and wind quintet, recorded on BRIDGE 9375).

— Poul Ruders, July 2018

5 DREAM CATCHER (2004) (SOLO ACCORDION, ARRANGED BY BJARKE MOGENSEN)

Dream Catcher is an arrangement drawn from Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, originally composed for accordion and string quartet. The late Malcolm MacDonald wrote of the original: “Movement VII, Dream Catcher, alludes to the Native American device for trapping bad dreams and allowing good dreams to reach the sleeper. Instead of the dissonance of the previous movement this music, marked dolce sognante (sweetly dreaming), is consonant and diatonic, even tuneful, like a lullaby, but it thins out progres- sively in texture, etching its last sounds against the stars.”

SYMPHONY NO. 3 ‘DREAM CATCHER’ (2005-2006, REVISED 2009)

Symphony No. 3 ‘Dream Catcher’ was composed to a commission from the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress; it is dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky. The premiere was given by The Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by Michael Schønwandt, at Danish Radio’s Koncerthuset on 29 May, 2009. Ruders has explained that the work’s

6 subtitle is the same as that of one of the movements of his Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, and indeed the symphony is partly based on the theme of that movement in the Serenade. The title ‘Dream Catcher’ refers to the native American (originally Ojibwan, but later more widespread) sha- manic device: a small handmade loop, usually of willow, woven with a loose net of threads and with a feather attached, intended for trapping bad dreams and allowing only good dreams to filter into the sleeper’s consciousness. ‘In my symphony, however,’ says Ruders in his programme-note, ‘things evolve in a far less benign way...what really happens “behind the scenes” in the symphony is the tale of Beauty being devoured by the Beast, a symphonic journey with a less-than-happy ending, open to all sorts of individual, meta- phorical interpretations’.

The symphony is in an unusual two-movement form, the movements being almost emotional opposites of each other: slow-fast, light-dark. It begins Alla breve con brio with a harsh, strident introduction, a dissonant reveille for full orchestra, all rough flourishes and fragments. But out of this acridity flows sweetness: the music dissolves into the main movement, a long-breathed and initially gentle Adagio sognante (slow, dreaming) that inhabits a noc- turnal stillness. The hypnotically circular ‘dream catcher’ theme emerges on multi-divided strings, and indeed it is developed mainly on on the strings 7 throughout this luminous adagio with for the most part only a few contribu- tions (bell-like wind chords, for example) from the rest of the orchestra. As it is transformed it grows sometimes more agitated, and the tonal web more dissonant, but the basic dream-like character is impressively sustained. In the last quarter of the movement the dissonance is further ratcheted up, with glissandi and biting clusters in the strings, while the rest of the orchestra comes more into prominence with urgent muted brass, plangent woodwind cries, and saurian bellows from the deepest wind instruments. But the strings remain the expressive focus as the movement evanesces on a high sustained F sharp, sul ponticello, that links directly into the second movement.

Ruders calls this Scherzo prestissimo, and its materials, here exhaustively worked out, were already adumbrated in fragmentary form in the first movement’s brief introduction. Here the power of the full orchestra comes into its own, notably the percussion, which includes three tam-tams. Ruders directs that these should be ‘savagely scraped with a large metal stick’ to produce a ‘sword out of the sheath sound’. The movement is a tour-de-force of virtuoso orchestral writing, a teeming, yelping, squealing, buzzing, chittering, whooping riot of sound, as if the hosts of hell are harrying the ‘dream catcher’ theme: which can be discerned early on, high in the violas and indeed persists

8 -- sometimes audibly, sometimes not -- somewhere in the orchestral fabric almost throughout the piece as a kind of cantus firmus. The basic unit of pace, though, is a manic, gigue-like 9/8 that spawns the busy chains of ris- ing triplets that imparts the motive power to this extraordinary construction. There are apparent momentary respites, when the dynamic level drops to pianissimo and the sense of motion seems to relax -- but as often as not these breathing-spaces soon turn hallucinatory, nightmarish; and soon the raucous scherzo music hurtles on.

A bass ostinato brings to mind the Dies Irae, and it seems there is to be no let up of tension -- but at last, when we have almost given up hope, the texture thins, the pace abates, and something like the dreaming music of the first movement returns as an epilogue. An elegiac echo of the ‘dream catcher’ theme winds down to a slow pulsation of brass. A bell tolls. We have per- haps reached a conclusion in stillness...except that the final quiet sonority, conjured out of a Lion’s Roar, a Chinese cymbal played with a bow, sul ponticello double basses, immensely low brass and bass clarinet, is as weird and unsettling a sound as any we have heard in the entire work.

— Note by Malcolm MacDonald

9 Born on the island of Bornholm (Denmark), Bjarke Mogensen quickly made a name for himself as an internationally acclaimed accordion virtuoso and versatile musician with a keen ear for different styles. At a very early age he made his debut as a soloist with the Munich Symphony Orchestra in a German TV broadcast. Bjarke Mogensen has received a long list of international awards including the P2 Radio Chamber Music Competition and The Almere International Chamber Music Competition. He took 1st prize in the European Broadcast Unions “New Talent” competition in Bratislava and a few years later received the Danish Music Critics Artist Prize – all firsts for an accordionist. 10 During his student years Bjarke Mogensen had his solo debut-recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and performed in European venues including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Barbican Hall, London. He has performed chamber music in duo with violinist Gidon Kremer, violist Tatjana Masurenko and cellist Andreas Brantelid. As a soloist he has worked with orchestras including the Moscow Virtuosi, Kremerata Baltica, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, The Tiroler Symphony Orchestra, the Danish Na- tional Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Orchestra and The Copenhagen Philharmonic. Bjarke Mogensen’s collaborations have resulted in more than 60 new works – concertos, chamber music and solo works – composed for him. Prominent composers including Per Nørgård, Poul Ruders, Anders Kop- pel and Martin Lohse have dedicated concertos to him.

Mr. Mogensen has recorded for Orchid Classics as well as the national Dan- ish record label, Dacapo Records. Bjarke Mogensen plays the Mythos Ac- cordion No. 5 often described as the Stradivarius of the accordion. He is also among the very few accordionists in the world who plays the quarter tone accordion, an instrument custom made in Italy. Bjarke Mogensen graduated from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he now is an associate professor of accordion and chamber music.

11 The Odense Symfoniorkester – one of Denmarks five regional orchestras – was established in 1946, but its roots go back to the early nineteenth cen- tury. The orchestra today is a continuously developing and expanding mod- ern symphony orchestra with 73 permanent musicians and a busy schedule including symphony concerts, light classical and opera to chamber music, children/youth concerts and crossovers. Leader: Eugen Tichindeleanu

German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing has been Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra since 2010, and in 2019 became the orchestra’s Music Direc- tor Emeritus. Mr. Lang-Lessing was Chief Conductor of the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy and Artistic Director of the Nancy Opera, and was Music Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared regularly with leading orchestras including those of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Vancouver, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Copenhagen, Gran Canaria, Malaga, and Palermo. Maestro Lang-Lessing, received the Ferenc Fricsay Award when he was twenty-four years old, and began his career at the Ham-

12 burg State Opera. Today, Sebastian Lang-Lessing regularly appears with the leading opera companies of the world, including those in Paris, Hamburg, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. In 2021 he was named Music Director of the Korean National Opera (Seoul).

After beginning his musical studies at age three, Scott Yoo performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Sympho- ny at age twelve. He received first prize in the 1988 Josef Gingold International Violin Competition, the 1989 Young Concert Art- ists International Auditions, and the 1994 Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1993, Mr. Yoo founded the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, conducting the ensemble in its series at Jordan Hall in Boston, and more than ninety performances on tour. Scott Yoo has collaborated with eminent artists Sarah Chang, Edgar Meyer, Benita Valente, and Dawn Upshaw. He is currently Music Director and Principal Conductor of Festival Mozaic, and Artistic Director of the Medellín Festicámara, a chamber music program for underprivileged young musicians. As a guest-conductor, Mr. Yoo has led the Colorado, Dallas, India- napolis, New World, San Francisco and Utah Symphonies. He conducted the 13 St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for their Elliott Carter Festival, and at Carnegie Hall with pianist Brad Mehlday. Abroad, he has conducted the City of Lon- don Sinfonia, the Britten Sinfonia, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Odense Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra.

Poul Ruders (b. 1949) is one of the era’s most highly regarded composers for both the opera stage and the symphonic concert hall. His operas have been staged in Copenhagen, New York City, London, Toronto, Santa Fe, Boston and Munich, and his orchestral music commissioned by the Ber- lin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Ruders lives a spartan life in the countryside of Denmark. The isolation has afforded him the opportunity to produce a deep and highly varied catalog which includes five operas, 45 symphonic works and concertos, and dozens of chamber and solo pieces. The music of Poul Ruders has been well-docu- mented by the record labels DaCapo (Denmark) and Bridge (USA), and is published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen.

14 Producers: John Frandsen: (Sound and Simplicity); Viggo Mangor: (Dream Catcher) David Starobin (Symphony No. 3) Engineer, Editor and Mastering Engineer: Viggo Mangor Sound and Simplicity recorded August 24 and 25, 2020; Dream Catcher recorded August 24, 2020; Symphony No. 3 recorded January 18, 19 & 20, 2012. All works recorded in Carl Nielsen Hall, Odense, Denmark Graphic Designer: Casey Siu Photographs: Nikolag Lung (Cover, Label); Martin Mydtskov (Bjarke Mogensen); Becky Starobin (Scott Yoo) Natalia Sun (Sebastian Lang-Lessing); Kirsten Bille (Poul Ruders Traycard) Annotators: Poul Ruders and Malcolm MacDonald Executive Producers: Becky and David Starobin CEO Odense Symfoniorkester: Finn Schumacker

The quotation from the chapter “Rain” (from Arthur Krasilnikoff’s The Eye of the Whale, is printed with the permission of Gyldendal Publishing. The quotation from Doris Lessing’s Mara and Dann is printed with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The music of Poul Ruders is published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen (BMI) This recording was made possible with support from Koda’s Cultural Funds.

For Bridge Records: Barbara Bersito, Ian Striedter, Casey Siu, and Robert Starobin

Robert Starobin, webmaster | Email: [email protected] Bridge Records, Inc. • 200 Clinton Ave • New Rochelle, NY • 10801 www.BridgeRecords.com 15 POUL RUDERS EDITION

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