Concert Program: December 2025 B
with some more cold-weather Scandinavian music
Photo by Santi De Luca on Unsplash
We got started on some Scandinavian stuff last month with Nørgård’s first symphony, which I really love, and he was suitably alongside Sibelius on November’s first concert program. We’re now seeing a symphony from Sibelius alongside two other Danish composers (as in ‘not Nørgård,’ not ‘not Sibelius.’ He wasn’t Danish). And neither of them are Carl Nielsen or Niels Gade.
And one of them is still alive.
Rued Langgaard’s name is one of those that has come across my desk, so to speak, and who I know something about, but I couldn’t speak with much of any insight or authority about his output. There’s his Music of the Spheres and some general quirkiness, but none of that is really relevant for his piece that opens our program. It needs no qualifiers or background or context. It’s just a captivating little thing that hopefully serves as a kind of calling card for the largely neglected composer.
But here’s what we have:
Hans Abrahamsen: let me tell you (I’ve seen it stylized as all lowercase and tend to prefer that; other places just capitalize the L)
The Sibelius is obviously the crowd pleaser on the program, but I can’t say enough about how fascinating and charismatic and spellbinding and talented Barbara Hannigan is. I’ve not had the privilege to see her in person, but watching or hearing her conduct, sing, perform, or even just talk on Instagram about a piece she loves or an insight she has about a piece or a programming decision is magical, and Abrahamsen’s song cycle is basically her piece. I think she has like, performance rights to it or something like that, and while it may take some warming up to, it’s one of the most beautiful things I can remember discovering in my musical explorations.
It also happened to be sort of the first time I sort of was around for the release of new classical music. I knew nothing about Hans Abrahamsen, but this piece was all over Instagram (okay, maybe just my feed) for Hannigan’s performance and the recording and winning awards, and it was like seeing classical music happen in real time. I tacked this piece on to the end of my Danish Symphony Series over on the original FfT.
I have some other experiences like that, having discovered an artist, falling in love with their work, catching up on their catalogue, and then waiting anxiously for their next release. For Tori Amos, this happened with Strange Little Girls. For TOOL, it was 10,000 Days. And most recently, for still-technically-alive author Thomas Pynchon, it was Shadow Ticket, which I’m currently reading. It’s cool to be a part of that in real time and see it happen.
Anyway, lastly is Sibelius’ grand, heroic, Great Finnish Symphony, his second. I really do enjoy the first, but we’ll get to all of his eventually. (I am reminded of a recent Instagram clip in Finnish of Jorma Panula claiming his absolute favorite of the Sibelius symphonies is his sixth, which also happens to be the one I am by a long shot the least familiar with, so… homework.)
That’s all for December’s second program. Two Danes and a Finn. Let’s get started.
Links
Next: Rued Langgaard’s Sfinx