News
The second edition of the newly established Rued Langgaard Festival was held in Ribe in the beginning of September with focus on the works of Langgaard and Liszt. Next year's festival will concentrate on works by Debussy - and Rued Langgaard of course.
Please check the website of the festival. Symphony no 1 published
In the spring the prestitious first edition of Langgaard's first symphony was published under the auspices of the Rued Langgaard Edition. The score is available from Edition-S (previously Edition Samfundet). July 2010 The Music of the Spheres - UK premiere, new recording
On 11 August 2010 Thomas Dausgaard conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at this year's Proms in Royal Albert Hall giving the UK premiere of Music of the Spheres (1916-18). A new recording of the work with the same forces is to be released by the national Danish label Dacapo on the same date. Read more about the event at
Naxos Classical News (31st July 2010) and the BBC Proms homepage. Antichrist on blu-ray disc
The much acclaimed dvd production of Antichrist has been re-released on blu-ray by Dacapo. More information on the label's homepage. July 2009 Antichrist in print
In June the first printed edition of Langgaard's opera saw light. The two large volumes - Score and Commentary - are edited and written by Bendt Viinholt Nielsen. The prestigeous publication has been sponsered by the Lundbeck Foundation. The edition is available from the publisher Edition Samfundet New recordings
Within the last half a year Dacapo has released a number of Langgaard CDs. Dausgaard's symphony cycle was finally concluded with symphony no. 1 and a CD including no. 15 and 16 and some minor orchestral works of which three are first recordings. In January all 7 CDs were released as SACD versions in a nice box. Read the interview with Thomas Dausgaard after finishing the 10-year long project.
Flemming Dreisig recently made his second interpretation of the complete Messis on the grand organ in the Copenhagen Cathedral. The two SACDs also include In tenebras exteriores, a sister work to part 3 of Messis.
Concert master of the National Symphony Orchestra DR Christina Åstrand has in Tampere, Finland recorded three romantic Danish violin concertos by Gade, Lange-Müller, and Langgaard. Conductor is John Storgårds.
Finally it should be mentioned that the CD Rose Garden Songs with Ars Nova/Támas Vetö recently has bee re-released as SACD.
See more at the Dacapo homepage and check the discograpy under langgaard.dk, which has now been updated with all these new recordings. June 2009 The Rued Langgaard Society - new website
The society was founded in 2007 and has during the past two years been very active organizing concerts, etc. Read about the society (in Danish) at the homepage. The society plan a Langgaard Festival in Ribe 2010 among other things. Langgaard på YouTube
Check two interesting videos: John Damgaard plays Free Piano Sonata, and see what the Antichrist Prologue and part of First Scene was like when it was premiered in Innsbruck in 1999. Maj 2008 Messis i Russia for the first time
The Russian organist Mikhail Mishchenko has recently performed the complete Messis for the fist time in Russia. The performances took place in Sanct Petersburg, and 1st Evening was premiered on 8 Dec. 2007, 2nd Evening on 19 Jan. 2008 and 3rd Evening on 26 April. See the homepage of the organist. The Music of the Spheres - USA premiere
On 1 June the American Symphony Orchestra performs The Music of the Spheres for the first time in USA, conducted by Leon Botstein. The concert is in Lincoln Center, New York, and also comprises Ligeti's Atmosphères.
Listen to a Langgaard concert programme on the Internet
A
concert presented by the Langgaard Society on 31 March 2008 in Copenhagen can be
downloaded and played on Danmarks Radio's homepage
DR
P2 (in Danish).
Symphony No. 5 in Iceland
A Langgaard work will be presented for
the first time in Iceland when Iceland Symphony Orchestra performs Symphony No.
5 (1st version) on the 13 September 2007 in Reykjavik, conducted by Petri
Sakari.
Symphony 12-14: Disc of the month in Classics Today
Read more on
ClassicsToday.com.
On the 28th of March the "Langgaard-Selskabet i Danmark" (The Danish Langgaard Society) was founded in Copenhagen. You can read more about the bylaws, board, etc. on this website (in Danish only). It is now possible to hear Symphony No. 2 in its original version of 1912-14.
Thomas Dausgaard's recording of Symphony Nos. 2 and 3 have just been relased on CD/SACD on the Dacapo label. Symphony No. 2 is recorded here for the first time in its long original version (38 minutes). Inger Dam-Jensen is singing the vocal part. The recording of Symphony No. 3 (with Per Salo as the piano soloist) has a new feature too as a short choral part in the end of the work has been included for the first time since the world premiere in 1918. November 2006 Symphony Nos. 12-14 in Dausgaard's interpretation
This summer the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard produced Langgaard's Symphony 2, 3, 13, 14 and 15, and the first set of these works is now relased on a super-audio-CD including No. 12 (which was previously produced) combined with Nos. 13 and 14. Read more on the Dacapo homepage. Antichrist News
The very succesful DVD-production has now been published also on super-audio-CD (same forces). Read more on the Dacapo homepage (use the search field). The CD may be ordered from the company's web-shop.
The opera was included in Denmark's Cultural Canon, please check the special website published by the Ministry of Culture Denmark's Cultural Canon.
Thanks to a large donation from the Lundbeckfonden (Lundbeck Foundation) the opera is now being published for the first time. It will be a critical edition in the series called the Rued Langgaard Edition published by Edition Samfundet. The published full score is expected in 2008.
May 2005
Antichrist on DVD
The DVD production witnesses the spectacular
Danish co-production by the Royal Danish Opera and the Danish Broadcasting
Corporation from 2002 conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. The opera is sung in Danish
with subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish (and Danish). Bonus material
include Commentary Track, the story of the creation of the opera and "Langgaard
live".
Read more about the DVD and about availability on
Dacapo's website.
The male choral work Frederiksborg Slotsklokker (The Bells of Frederiksborg Castle Church) was performed in Aalborg in 1919. Langgaard thought the manuscript to be 'lost' and later investigations were done with no success. However, in 2004 the autograph manuscript comprising 40 pages was found in the archives of Aalborg Sangforening (Aalborg Choral Society) of 1843. The work is scored for mixed or male chorus and symphonic brass and the duration is about 9 minutes.
The 'modern' premiere of the piece took place 14th May 2005 on the occasion of the re-inauguration of the Frederiksborg Castle carillon. Actually the text of Langgaard's piece is embedded into the main bells of the carillon.
November 2004
New CDsTwo major piano works recorded for the first time
Pianist Berit Johansen Tange has recorded a Langgaard CD including a complete first recording of Gitanjali Hymns (efter Tagore), 10 piano pieces composed in 1918. The CD also comprises the first recording of Fantasy Sonata in the original version of 1916, a work with strong references to Schumann. Langgaard re-used some of the piece 30 years later in the first movement of his Insanity Fantasy which is also found on the CD together with a couple of small piano pieces. (Langgaard: Piano Works. Dacapo 8.226025). Read the review on Classical Music Web. Violin and piano works complete
Seguei Azizian and Anne Øland have completed their two CD-recording of Langgaard's complete violin/piano-music on Dacapo. Vol. 2 (Dacapo 8.226006) including the late works was released in October. Vol. 1 comprising the sonatas nos. 1 and 2 were well received - please read the review of Violin Sonatas Vol. 1.
Langgaard cycle with Dausgaard
Dacapo has so far released three
volumes in the new cycle of Langgaard symphonies with DRNSO and Thomas
Dausgaard. The three CDs include symphonies nos. 6-11. The CDs were very well
received internationally - read for instance the reviews on Classical Music Web:
Symphony
nos. 4-5 -
Symphony
nos. 6-8 -
Symphony
nos. 9-11. For detailed bibliographical information information see
discography
.
Critical edition of Langgaard's works
A grant from the Carlsberg
Foundation and support from the Langgaard Foundation and other Danish
foundations have made it possible to establish a Rued Langgaard Edition, a
series of critical first editions of Langgaard's works. The editions are
available from
Samfundet (The Society for the
Publication of Danish Music). A number of chamber works, organ works and
orchestral works have been edited and can be delivered on demand for performance
or study use (none of the editions is yet in print in the traditional sense). A
list of the new editions is available in
Danish. Critical commentaries and prefaces may also be found here (in Danish).
After several years of editorial work the organ player Flemming Friis now has published Messis, Organ Drama in Three Evenings, on Edition Wilhelm Hansen (3 volumes: WH 30493-5; ISBN 87 598 1056 4 + 1058 4 + 1060 4). New features on langgaard.dk
The following documentary material have recentlig been published on this website (PDF-files):
The orrespondance bethween Langgaard and conductor Launy Grøndahl(in Danish!).
Live performances of Langgaard's orchestra works (in Danish).
Please also keep an eye on the regularly updated list of corrections and additions to the Langgaard catalogue of works.
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