Simon Haram - Fitkin: Loosening - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Rune Most - Flute Sonatas [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/28/2008

The last stop on a long journey, here is the third and final installment of a warmly received Langgaard cycle undertaken by violinist Gunvor Sihm and pianist Berit Johansen Tange. The present volume includes the violin sonatas Nos. 2 and 3 - highly accomplished works with strong individual features - and two single-movement pieces composed by Langgaard the precocious teenager the charming Aubade written on a summer holiday with his parents, and the dark-colored Night Watchman's Song. Gunvor Sihm trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, from where she graduated in 2014 under Professor Serguei Azizian. Before that Gunvor studied 2 years at San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Ian Swensen. Gunvor Sihm has won several prizes, among others the prestigious Van Hauen's Music Prize 2011, the Eigil Harby Foundation's scholarship in 2015 and Gladsaxe Music Prize 2018. From 2011-15 Gunvor played in the 1st violins of Copenhagen Phil, until she won the position as 2nd Concertmaster for the 2nd violins of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Gunvor was a soloist with among others Odense Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Tivoli Copenhagen Phil, Danish National Chamber Orchestra and, on several occasions, Copenhagen Phil. With Nightingale String Quartet Gunvor Sihm has recorded the complete string quartets by Rued Langgaard for Dacapo.

De-formation Piano Variations, a work for solo piano. Composed and performed by Galás in September 2019, the 21 19 minute piece is based on the expressionist poem Das Fieberspital (The Fever Hospital). Written by German poet Georg Heym in 1912, Das Fieberspital's depiction of warehoused patients of yellow fever presaged the treatment and hiding of infected and damaged soldiers later in WWI. De-formation depicts a march and delivery of maimed and infected soldiers to hospitals and industrial warehouses throughout Germany during and after the First World War. In the hospitals the maimed would receive experimental operations and the infected would be confined to protect the mental vitality, enthusiasm, and health of citizens of the State. The Piano Variations were inspired by Galás' work on the score for Das Fieberspital. In organizing the work, she realized that the piano skeleton had become it's own work, and she decided to record that in advance of the vocal work.