Concerts

About the Concert

Program:
Peter Navarro-Alonso (b. 1973): CRIES for string trio 
Victor Bendix (1851-1926): Piano Trio (1877)

Join us on a journey through the entire emotional spectrum – from the raw and painful to the seductive and decadent.
The program features two major Danish works – but that’s where the similarities end.

THE SCREAM
Peter Navarro-Alonso’s new string trio CRIES was written for the Rudersdal Chamber Players and takes us deep into the darkest chambers of the human soul – where we confront illness, violence, betrayal, abuse, evil, and death.
When the world hits hardest, scream and cry stand side by side. The English word cry contains both meanings – and the full emotional range between the deafening and the mute, the explosive and the silent.

CRIES is Navarro-Alonso’s personal response to human suffering. It is his second world premiere in just a few months: in September, the Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Philip Faber presented his large-scale A Symphony of Man. Much of his music revolves around religious and existential themes, expressed in a sound world marked by grave, weighty beauty.

DECADENCE
The scene then shifts dramatically. Victor Bendix’s piano trio from 1877 is full-blooded Romanticism, bursting with grand melodies and temperament – yet it has not been heard in concert since the composer’s death in 1926.
Bendix was not only a brilliant composer but also a scandalous figure. His life was marked by erotic escapades and sensational affairs – among them with the young wife of his cousin Edvard Brandes, who later took her own life. When another mistress threatened him with a pistol, he struck back with his walking stick. The scandals made him an outcast in Copenhagen’s musical life – yet he maintained his friendship with Carl Nielsen.

THE FORGOTTEN ROMANTIC
At the concert, DR journalist Jens Cornelius will speak about Bendix, the subject of his recent book. According to Cornelius, Bendix represents a “missing link” between the elder Niels W. Gade and Carl Nielsen – an overlooked figure in Danish musical history.

About the Concert

Program:
Peter Navarro-Alonso (b. 1973): CRIES for string trio (premiere)
Victor Bendix (1851-1926): Piano Trio (1877)

Join us on a journey through the entire emotional spectrum – from the raw and painful to the seductive and decadent.
The program features two major Danish works – but that’s where the similarities end.

THE SCREAM
Peter Navarro-Alonso’s new string trio CRIES was written for the Rudersdal Chamber Players and takes us deep into the darkest chambers of the human soul – where we confront illness, violence, betrayal, abuse, evil, and death.
When the world hits hardest, scream and cry stand side by side. The English word cry contains both meanings – and the full emotional range between the deafening and the mute, the explosive and the silent.

CRIES is Navarro-Alonso’s personal response to human suffering. It is his second world premiere in just a few months: in September, the Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Philip Faber presented his large-scale A Symphony of Man. Much of his music revolves around religious and existential themes, expressed in a sound world marked by grave, weighty beauty.

DECADENCE
The scene then shifts dramatically. Victor Bendix’s piano trio from 1877 is full-blooded Romanticism, bursting with grand melodies and temperament – yet it has not been heard in concert since the composer’s death in 1926.
Bendix was not only a brilliant composer but also a scandalous figure. His life was marked by erotic escapades and sensational affairs – among them with the young wife of his cousin Edvard Brandes, who later took her own life. When another mistress threatened him with a pistol, he struck back with his walking stick. The scandals made him an outcast in Copenhagen’s musical life – yet he maintained his friendship with Carl Nielsen.

THE FORGOTTEN ROMANTIC
At the concert, DR journalist Jens Cornelius will speak about Bendix, the subject of his recent book. According to Cornelius, Bendix represents a “missing link” between the elder Niels W. Gade and Carl Nielsen – an overlooked figure in Danish musical history.

About the Concert

The concert marks the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death.

The composer—whose hairstyle and glasses give him an unmistakable resemblance to Harry Potter—is considered a classic on par with Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Some of the more modernist Western composers found him old-fashioned. Pierre Boulez once said: “Shostakovich plays with clichés most of the time, I find. It’s like olive oil, when you have a second and even third pressing, and I think of Shostakovich as the second, or even third, pressing of Mahler.”

Benjamin Britten, on the other hand, was a great admirer of Shostakovich. Despite the Iron Curtain, the two developed a friendship, and after Shostakovich’s death Britten said: “Shostakovich was the greatest composer that I shall ever have the honour to know.”

Rudersdal Chamber Players perform Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet from 1940—a work that originally began as a string quartet. By adding a piano part, which he played himself, Shostakovich created more opportunities to travel. For about eighteen months, he was so busy touring and performing the quintet that he scarcely had time to compose new music. The piece was a huge success, earning him the Stalin Prize—even though his music was at other times condemned by the regime.

Shostakovich also had a profound influence on the next generations of composers, including his own student Boris Tishchenko. Like his teacher, Tishchenko had to fight to live and work under Soviet censorship and frequently found himself at odds with the authorities. His Piano Quintet is a nuclear blast of energy—clearing the table and leaving an indelible mark.

Elena Firsova is one of the last living composers of the Soviet musical tradition, and here she presents the world premiere of a new piano quintet. Since her husband’s death, several of her works have revolved around the musical letters of their initials: EF and DS (Dmitri Smirnov).

Frederik Zeuthen has also composed a new quintet for the occasion, drawing inspiration from nature and vivid natural imagery in the writings of three authors from three different centuries: H.D. Thoreau (19th), J.A. Baker (20th), and Rasmus Nikolajsen (21st).

About the Concert

The Mediterranean light over the Aegean and the Greek sun god inspired Danish composer Carl Nielsen to write his Helios Overture, which traces the course of the sun across the sea.
The Rudersdal Chamber Players from Denmark then perform the no less colorful second piano quartet by composer Mel Bonis. This music, full of vitality and inventiveness, of fire and sensuality, is one of the great works of French chamber music of the early 20th century.
Finally, in his Piano Quartet Op. 23, Dvořák reveals both his masterful sense of sonority and his deep bond with the folk music of his homeland.

Program
Carl Nielsen: Helios Overture, Op. 17 (arr. for piano quartet by Karl Aage Rasmussen)
Mel Bonis: Piano Quartet in D major, Op. 124
Antonín Dvořák: Piano Quartet in D major, Op. 23

About the Concert

The concert, which will be recorded by DR P2, marks the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death.

The composer—whose hairstyle and glasses give him an unmistakable resemblance to Harry Potter—is considered a classic on par with Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Some of the more modernist Western composers found him old-fashioned. Pierre Boulez once said: “Shostakovich plays with clichés most of the time, I find. It’s like olive oil, when you have a second and even third pressing, and I think of Shostakovich as the second, or even third, pressing of Mahler.”

Benjamin Britten, on the other hand, was a great admirer of Shostakovich. Despite the Iron Curtain, the two developed a friendship, and after Shostakovich’s death Britten said: “Shostakovich was the greatest composer that I shall ever have the honour to know.”

Rudersdal Chamber Players perform Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet from 1940—a work that originally began as a string quartet. By adding a piano part, which he played himself, Shostakovich created more opportunities to travel. For about eighteen months, he was so busy touring and performing the quintet that he scarcely had time to compose new music. The piece was a huge success, earning him the Stalin Prize—even though his music was at other times condemned by the regime.

Shostakovich also had a profound influence on the next generations of composers, including his own student Boris Tishchenko. Like his teacher, Tishchenko had to fight to live and work under Soviet censorship and frequently found himself at odds with the authorities. His Piano Quintet is a nuclear blast of energy—clearing the table and leaving an indelible mark.

Elena Firsova is one of the last living composers of the Soviet musical tradition, and here she presents the world premiere of a new piano quintet. Since her husband’s death, several of her works have revolved around the musical letters of their initials: EF and DS (Dmitri Smirnov).

Frederik Zeuthen has also composed a new quintet for the occasion, drawing inspiration from nature and vivid natural imagery in the writings of three authors from three different centuries: H.D. Thoreau (19th), J.A. Baker (20th), and Rasmus Nikolajsen (21st).

About the Concert

After tours in both the USA and Canada, Rudersdal Chamber Players are now ready to open Rudersdal Chamber Music Festival with the ultimate festival programme: a presentation of both this year’s featured composers framed by beloved classics!

Andante Malincolico is the third movement from Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments, here performed in a new chamber version. Nielsen saw himself as a counterpoint to Romanticism and was in many ways an innovative composer. But he wasn’t completely untouched by the late-Romantic sound of his time, and the movement’s harmony and tone colour may bring to mind his contemporary Gustav Mahler.

Both of this year’s featured composers work within a poetic universe. Frederik Zeuthen’s quartet is titled Pareidolia—the psychological phenomenon where the brain interprets random patterns as recognizable images, such as faces or animals. If you have a bathroom with a terrazzo floor, you’ll know exactly what we mean!

Elena Firsova has drawn inspiration from the English weather in Four Seasons: the mild winter, the beautiful spring, the short summer, and the long and somewhat gloomy autumn. The quartet premiered at Rudersdal Chamber Music Festival in 2019 and has since become a staple in the ensemble’s repertoire. They’ve performed it in both St. Petersburg (before the war) and New York, and at the opening concert they will also present their new CD featuring music by Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov, in which this work is included.

What do Mozart’s piano quartets and Harry Potter have in common? Both were rejected by publishers and went on to become massive successes! Mozart is believed to be the first composer ever to write a piano quartet—and here, we will hear No. 2 in E-flat major.

Before the concert, Vivi Lena Andersen from Rudersdal Museums will give a talk on the medieval frescoes in Birkerød Church, which date back to the 14th century. Afterwards, we will serve a sandwich.

About the Concert

Musicians from Rudersdal Chamber Players and the Penderecki String Quartet perform Schubert’s String Quintet and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet.

About the Concert

Under the heading Music of Denmark, Rudersdal Chamber Players present an introduction to Danish music.
Hear works by Frederik Zeuthen, Carl Nielsen, and more.

About the Concert

Candlelight concert at the Festival of Sound