Louise McClelland Jacobsen (soprano), Kristian Riisager (piano)
Dacapo 8224754 59:35 mins
A poignancy haunts these songs by Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) quite beyond their affecting content. Composed between the ages of 13 and 24, they show his astonishing facility and expressive range from a very young age – and his stylistic eclecticism. What they don’t show is his looming antipathy towards, and struggle with, the Danish establishment that – despite a fecundity that produced 16 symphonies and more – would see Langgaard tragically shunned. He died largely forgotten and unheard, aged just 58.
The vast majority of the songs here are world-premiere recordings and represent a fifth of the total Langgaard composed. Performed with sensitivity and intelligence by soprano Louise McClelland Jacobsen and pianist Kristian Riisager, the settings feature adaptations from Russia and Ukraine alongside Danish texts, including by Langgaard himself.
Firmly late-Romantic, Wagner and Richard Strauss are clear influences alongside Grieg and others. Yet what arises is wholly distinctive and extends to a kind of impressionism that’s sparked by the bells Langgaard returns to again and again alongside vivid descriptions of birds, weather and landscapes – and that prefigures minimalism at points, for example, in the twin 1914 settings of Jenny Blicher-Clausen’s ‘Alle de små klokker’.
There’s even a hint of Weill-to-be about ‘Sigøjnervise’ (1916), Langgaard’s playful characterisation of Thor Lange’s south Russian gypsy girl. Indeed, it’s the set of eight songs from which this comes that contains arguably his most intriguing stylistic turns, with unusual harmonies and a paring-down of piano textures. But no song is merely outwardly descriptive. Each has a strong emotional resonance or narrative that speaks of the composer’s profound yearning for love. Optimism, desire, tenderness; transience, grief, loss. It’s all – heartbreakingly – here.