Nachtmusik (2017-2019) for violin, piano and orchestra
Nachtmusik - concerto for violin, piano and orchestra
World premiere recording with Duo Åstrand / Salo, Ryan Bancroft (conductor) and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra
info:
- Commissioned by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Duo Åstrand / Salo.
- First performance: Duo Åstrand / Salo, Ryan Bancroft (conductor) and Danish National Symphony Orchestra @ the DR Concert Hall, Copenhagen, 05.09.19.
- Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 4.3.3.0 / timp / perc (3) / hrp / strings (12.10.8.6.4)
- Duration: ca. 24:00
- Received a Special Recognition from the Danish Arts Foundation December 2019.
- Release on CD and digital download by Dacapo Records December 13th 2019.
about Nachtmusik:
Michael Schell, Radio Eclectus, June 12th 2020:
“[…] gripping new double concerto by Allan Gravgaard Madsen.”
nieuwenoten.nl, April 7th 2020:
“It is fascinating to hear how Madsen interweaves the sounds of both instruments into a harmonious whole.”
Henrik Friis, Politiken, February 6th 2020:
“Allan Gravgaard Madsen’s work ‘Nachtmusik’ finds its poetry through very few ideas that are very boldly allowed to unfold. The three movements become shorter and shorter in the way that the more pitch and impulses that come, the shorter the duration of the music. Or, to put it another way: The less one’s ability to concentrate becomes over time, the more action the musicians serve. Well thought out, Allan!”
Jeppe Rønnow, Seismograf.org, January 22nd 2020:
“This excitement about what is to come, as well as a sparkling relationship between passivity and activity, is incredibly well excecuted by Allan Gravgaard Madsen.”
Records International, January 2020:
“Madsen’s double concerto is original and powerful.”
Andrew McGregor, Record Review, BBC Radio 3, January 11th 2020:
“Allan Gravgaard Madsen takes a single note for a nocturnal walk in a world full of noises to pretty compelling effect.”
G:
“You sink into a fluffy-light, quiet repetition of a single note, an E, so quiet that at first you barely recognize it, [..] and slowly towards the end it grows into the gentle embracing caress of a whole symphony orchestra. Trance-like listening experience.”
Music Committee, Danish Arts Foundation, November 2019:
“[…] Hypnotic. […] Allan Gravgaard Madsen has created a deeply fascinating work, which embodies compositional control and uninhibited sound beauty that can only awake enthusiasm.”
Søren Schauser, culture journalist, September 20th 2019
“… [Gravgaard Madsen’s] pieces satisfy the concert halls’ growing urge for new poetic pieces.” […] “Nachtmusik went straight to the hearts of the 1600 audience members.”
Eva Dupont, Concertanten Music Blog, September 9th 2019
“Bravo, Allan Gravgaard Madsen! Nachtmusik is a beautiful piece that deserves a large audience.”
Henrik Friis, Politiken, September 7th 2019
“Allan Gravgaard Madsen is a fully developed poet with a fascinating sense of making captivating and beautiful orchestral colours.”
Andrew Mellor, September 6th 2019
“Minimal, delicate, highly concentrated.”
Jeppe Rönnow, Klassisk Magazine, September 6th 2019
“The music is very simple at first, almost completely uneventful – yet it seems surprising and also unconventional that the two soloists actually only play this one pitch for the first ten minutes. But it works! […] The piece ends very abruptly, and the first thing I thought about afterwards was to hear it again.”
interviews
After the premiere of Nachtmusik, I talked to my local news paper growing up: Viborg Stifts Folkeblad. We talked about how important the local music scene has been to me growing up and my musical development: The music lessons at Hald Ege School and Viborg Katedralskole, MGK at Viborg Music School and singing in Viborg Cathedral with the choirs there. Something that was not included in the article was also the concerts with classical music in Viborg Musikforening, the collaboration with now closed Det Jyske Ensemble and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra’s annual concerts in the Viborg Cathedral School Gym hall. Especially the concerts with live symphonic music in the local community have left traces to this day. Thank you!
One night in the end of August 2019 I went for a 4-hour walk with journalist Mie Haugaard from Politiken / iByen around Copenhagen. We did the walk in occasion of the first performance of my double concerto Nachtmusik. Click on the picture above to read the interview.
Frederik Bjerre Andersen from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and I talked about the premiere of Nachtmusik and many other things. The interview is in Danish.
10 days before the premiere of Nachtmusik Seismograf.org published an interview with me made by Jens Cornelius. The interview is in Danish.
podcast
Radiojournalist Mikkel Bøgeskov Andersson followed my work with Nachtmusik for 1,5 year – from the first meeting with the two soloists Christina Åstrand (violin) and Per Salo (piano) to the first rehearsal with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra three days before the premiere September 5th with Ryan Bancroft conducting.
The 65-minutes long podcast is in Danish, but if you want to give it a listen anyway you can do it on the link below.
