Future releases

'I feel each of my symphonies is a whole continent in itself,' the Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) has said. One of the greatest symphonists of our time, his music stems from an insatiable urge to explore the phenomena of the world and the possibilities of music. His eight symphonies stand as milestones over the course of six decades, and this 4 CD box set contains spellbinding performances which harvested a bumper crop of critical superlatives on their initial release. These recordings provide a fascinating insight into the symphonic thinking of Nørgård, the composer of the ‘infinity principle’.

Atrium, Danish cellist and composer Josefine Opsahl’s debut for Dacapo Records, is a strikingly original statement exploring the duality of her music. Opsahl’s distinctive set-up employs cello and live electronics, moulded together into a precisely defined box of digital loops, bodies and buildings, human and machine.

In Danish composer Martin Stauning's work, we often experience the power of what is left unsaid – in the space between the notes, in elusive rhetoric or theatrical suggestion. However, in the Harp Concerto (2020), written during the Corona pandemic, Stauning took a rather concrete starting point: 'Originally, I saw the soloist as a puppet master. Every time he pulls the strings, there is a reaction in the orchestra, so in a way, it becomes his puppet. Over time, it became apparent that the strings acted as bars under which the harpist was physically trapped and unable to escape.’

In this first of a series, the vocal ensemble Music Ficta chronicle 100 years of music at Kronborg Castle, Shakespeare's Elsinore. The Danish kings Frederik II and Christian IV lived at Kronborg during Denmark's most prosperous period, when guests from abroad enriched its musical life. This album features the music of one of these visitors, composer John Dowland, interspersing his Lachrimae with songs and lute music.