Hakon Borresen

[Alan Howe]

Exactly.

[tuatara442442]

A new radio broadcast of Symphony No. 3 can be streamed here: https://www.ndr.de/kultur/sendungen/das_konzert/die-stars-von-morgen-elias-ackerley-und-trio-ariadne,sendung-65666.html

[Ilja]

It's interesting how both this symphony (1925) and Myaskovsky's 6th (1923) use the French revolutionary song Ah! ça ira in their finale. Perhaps that's understandable shortly after a revolution in Russian that mirrored itself so closely after the French, but from a Russian that might be more expected than from a Dane.

[eschiss1]

I don't understand your question. Many people in 1925 outside of the Soviet Union were hopeful of the USSR's prospects, as is, afaik, clear from any amount of writing by people from that time (and not all of it, as I recall, from Communists either- though I'm not sure we know Børresen's politics?) Anyway, good catch.

[Ilja]

Of course you're right, but Børresen is a somewhat unlikely suspect to have much sympathy for the communist cause, being a staunchly bourgeois part of the royal orchestra and royal theatre mileu in the Danish capital. Musically, he stayed well away from the contemporary avant-garde as well.

[Justin]

Musically, he stayed well away from the contemporary avant-garde as well.

Regardless of one's political inclinations, this is a wise move in my book!

[eschiss1]

Still amazes me that we can call anything written one hundred years ago "avant-garde", fgs... and if we mean "compared to the rest of the stuff written at that time", ok, interesting.

[Ilja]

Solid point. Let's not forget that anything within a mile of Wagner was once regarded as dangerously subversive.

[Justin]

Perhaps atonal is a better word than avant-garde.

[eschiss1]

Already have gone way offtopic, and very few composers have ever written atonal music. (That you don't care for the composers of certain music, or the music, which has been described that way- generally by journalists with journalists' usual tremendous accuracy!- is certainly your right!)