Danish vocal music has been central to Ars Nova since it was founded in 1979. In the decades that followed, not least Per Nørgård was a great collaborator, and since then new generations of composers have had several works premiered at the highest international level by Ars Nova.
Therefore, with three generations of Danish composers at the center, Ars Nova is visiting KLANG Festival. They are joined by the Copenhagen Messian Quartet, both in Nørgård's undulating Rilke retelling Singe die Gärten - which ended up finding its way to his third symphony - and in Peter Bruun's The Rain at Sea.
Bruun's work draws its text from Don Paterson's poem of the same name. Here the Scottish poet sits in a waiting train and sees sky and sea standing in one, a mighty scenery whose surfaces and waves are reflected in the music. The maritime goes again in Bruun's Merman on the Shore, written for the Messiah Quartet after the legend of Agnete and the Seaman.
Niels Rosing-Schow's Where the Willows Meet is written over the gallant love poems by James Joyce, and like the lyrics, the music has clear references to the 17th century. In Rosing-Schow's own words in an attempt to "with this hint of pastiche hit the special bittersweet charm of love poems".
Love is differently familiar in Juliana Hodkinson's GRENZLAND / GRÆNSELAND, which was written for Ars Nova in connection with the reunification anniversary in 2020. Here the music portrays the alternately harmonious and grating sibling relationship between Danes and Germans at the border, but also the music culture's ability to transcend all boundaries. Even if there are wild boar fences.
