Sørensen, Abrahamsen
TRACKS
1. Sirenengesang – Bent Sørensen
2.-11. Schnee – Hans Abrahamsen
Total duration: 68:51
PERFORMERS
Aventa Ensemble
Bill Linwood, conductor
CREDITS
Produced by Aventa Ensemble
Recorded live in concert:
Sirenengesang, May 24, 2009, Victoria BC (Canadian premiere); Schnee, Nov. 30, 2014, Victoria BC (Canadian premiere)
Recording Engineer:
Digital Editing and Mastering: Bill Linwood
CD design and Cover Artwork: Denise Burt, Elevator Graphics
Special Thanks: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Kirk McNally
TK509 © 2021 Redshift Music
“It reminds me of something I’ve never heard!”
Such was the spontaneous reaction of the Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim upon hearing a work by Bent Sørensen. It is not easy to imagine a more strangely to-the-point description of the ambiguous, almost paradoxical expressive idiom of this unique composer, who is without doubt the leading Danish composer of his generation. Of Sirenengesang the composer writes: “The music is not a romantic reflection on presumed siren songs. The title expresses an impalpable conception which manifests itself in dense quartertone-distorted melodies and manic, almost frozen tone-repetitions. Sometimes the music becomes static screams, sometimes there is room for small naive fragments of melody.”
In a creative life of almost half a century, Hans Abrahamsen has long discovered his own terrain – quite often a snowscape, as in his early masterpiece Winternacht or the work in which he found his fully mature style, Schnee (2006-8), generally acknowledged one of the rare classics of the twenty-first century.
With a reputation for superb performance and ambitious programming, Aventa has established itself as one of Canada’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Comprised of musicians who are passionate about new music and its place in our culture, Aventa pushes musical boundaries through diverse projects, collaboration, and cultural exchange. https://aventa.ca/
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