RUED LANGGAARD (1897-1968): The Music of the Spheres for Soprano, Chorus, Orchestra and Distant Orchestra, BVN 128, The Time of the End for Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra, BVN 243, From the Abyss for Chorus and Orchestra, BVN 414.

Description: Music of the Spheres, written between 1916-18 (once available on a 1980 live recording on Danacord LP and, later, CD), is Langgaard's most avant-garde composition. Lasting 40 minutes in this (also live) performance from last year, it is about space, timbre, foreground and background, using huge orchestral and choral forces which only reach a tutti 30 minutes into the piece. Visionary, dream-like, with elements of ritual, this is an apocalyptic work like its disc-mates but it is also plainly allied to the then-current Symbolist movement in art. The Time of the End (first recorded by Chandos in 2000) is a 24-minute suite of unused music from the opera Antikrist and dates originally from 1921-23; there is a lot of loud sound here, though, and "apocalyptic" truly describes it. From the Abyss (1950 and revised right before his death in 1952) is an 8-minute nightmare which dwells upon a mere three lines from the Dies irae. Danish-English texts. Inger Dam Jensen (soprano), Hetna Regitze Bruun (mezzo), Peter Lodahl (tenor), Johan Reuter (baritone), Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Thomas Dausgaard. SACD hybrid