Unsung alert: Ludvig Irgens-Jensen on Naxos in Sept

[jasthill]

Scouring the French website of http://www.abeillemusique.com/ I found a reference to a Naxos release of  1 CD Classique - 8572312 Label : Naxos Ludvig Irgens-Jensen Symphonie en ré mineur - Air - Passacaille / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - Bjarte Engeset, direction En vente sur ce site à partir du 15 septembre 2011 Date parution numérique : 6 septembre 2011
Youtube has a video of part of his Passacaglia with an unknown orchestra.
Arild Remmereit a guest conductor with the Seattle Symphony also talked briefly about Igens-Jensen in another Youtube video.
Any other info?  Naxos futures are always interesting.

[Alan Howe]

Here's the exact reference...
http://www.abeillemusique.com/CD/Classique/8572312/0747313231270/Naxos/Ludvig-Irgens-Jensen/Symphonie-en-re-mineur/cleart-53864.html

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome Jasthill. The Passacaglia at first acquaintance is a seriously impressive piece of music isn't it? And yet another entry into the 1928 Symphony Competition. I wonder what other unknown treasures were prompted by it? There were over 500 of entries IIRC.

[eschiss1]

Have heard (a different recording of) the Passacaglia and maybe another work (Japanischer Fruehling maybe- has been recorded, not positive I've heard it) a few times on radio stations in the past and can only agree strongly.  The symphony is wholly new to me.  As to the competition, I need to ask a friend who I think once showed me a list of many of the entries someone compiled as part of a doctoral dissertation, or something- have mentioned but can't exactly remember now (back in 1999 this was.)

Now that I look I see that the symphony is not a premiere- Fjeldstad and the Oslo Philharmonic released an LP of it in 1971.

[Alan Howe]

Some critics think that Irgens-Jensen is a very important composer - one, IIRC, is Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics, so this CD may well be a significant release...

[M. Henriksen]

Passacaglia received it's last recording by the Bergen Philharmonic and Eivind Aadland on a Simax record released in 2002. Great work, and a very good recording. As for the symphony, the 1971 Fjeldstad reading is quite good, both when it comes to sound and interpretation. The Symphony was composed in 1942, and is a dark and pessimistic work ( but not without glimpses of hope!) due to WWII. The Symphony is divided in two parts and runs for approximately 30 minutes. It was first performed in 1945. I think it's a strong and powerful work, not quite as striking as Passacaglia, but still well worth the investment. I'm looking forward to it!

As mentioned before on this forum, cpo have recorded 4 orchestral works (I don't know more details) by Irgens-Jensen with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Eivind Aadland back in August 2009, but then we all know how long we have waited for that company to commercially release some of their recordings.


Morten

[M. Henriksen]

By the way; The third work on this forthcoming record, Air, is a work for small orchestra composed in 1959.


Morten

[M. Henriksen]

Details are now available at Naxos' webpage. What's interesting with this recording of the D minor Symphony, as the back cover explains, is that this is the original 3 movement version of 1942. So here we have an additional 15 minutes long finale to look forward to! Irgens-Jensen withdrew this movement shortly after WWII of unknown reasons.

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572312


Morten

[Mark Thomas]

Looks as if the Naxos CD is about to be issued. Details and samples at jpc here.