Nørgård - String Quartets Nos 7 - 10 [CD]

Per Noergaard has a lot of interesting ideas about music, and one of the most interesting I found on the web site www.pernoergaard.dk is that of music that your proverbial auntie can understand. In the composer's own words: "There is nothing wrong about music being complex, but there should also be a layer that is immediately accessible - the auntie layer. There are of course days when one is just an aunt and has no desire to be anything else. A piece of music should possess this generosity, that it opens itself up to all and sundry. The music should not just stand there saying: 'Now you listen properly to me, or else you can just leave!' ". He's not saying music must be simple - just that there has to be a way in for the non-expert. As a non-expert myself, I very much appreciate this sentiment, and it's one that is wholly borne out by this new disc. Having said that, auntie must bring something to the table too: I'm not sure if I could convince any of my own aunties of the ethereal microtonal beauty of the middle movement of the seventh quartet, or the fascination of the scales of the third movement. In the dark eighth quartet, based on Noergaard's World War I chamber opera Nuit des Hommes, I could probably get them to agree that the fourth movement really, genuinely does sound like the quartet's title, Night Descending like Smoke, and whatever they think of the ninth, surely they would accept that the rapid figurations towards the end, rising up into nothing, are indeed what Noergaard promises, the music disappearing back into its source, like backwards film of the creation of the universe. Unfortunately my aunties know nothing about Mahler and so won't be in a position to discuss the idea that, in its opening at least, the lyrical tenth quartet is not unlike something he might have composed. In the end, sad to say, it's unlikely that my particular aunties will share my belief that these four quartets are utterly absorbing, dramatic, complex yet accessible, sometimes beautiful, sometimes thrilling, sometimes unsettling, and always rewarding. The young Kroger Quartet, dedicatees of the seventh and tenth quartets, sound like they are at one with this music, and as a bonus the booklet notes by Jorgen I. Jensen are highly informative and enlightening. This is one of those rare occasions when I hear the music of a composer for the first time and want to hear everything else he's written.

Per Nørgård is a name that floats around in the new music universe but doesn't seem to show up in concerts or on discs very often. Perhaps it's because his music is a bit hard to label or categorize. It uses quarter-tones and note-rows, but isn't really dissonant, I'm not even sure it's really "atonal". It's rhythmic, but not percussive. It's not melodic but still in it's own way lyrical. It's probably frustrating to the type of listener who wants to divide things into this or that because it will be both or neither of them at the same time.
I even keep thinking the picture on the cover is upside-down.

At the start of String Quartet No. 7, notes appear out of the mist as if looking for a purpose. They try on different rhythmic guises for size, never quite settling in. A sort of interlocking of parts commences, part of this against part of that, before returning to the mysterious calm, which really has similar rhythmic activity only much, much slower. This leads us into the second movement, which largely based around a chord which uses the note a quarter-tone between the minor and major third, sounding not so much dissonant but just sort of strange, making your ear want to pull it one way or the other, but never quite giving it the chance before it moves on.

Quartet No. 8 is based on Nørgård's opera "Night of Man" which itself is based on Apollinaire's writings on World War I.(Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913-1916)) In reflecting ill-advised triumphalism, the writing is more strident and dissonant (the first movement has an ending Tchaikovsky could have written if he'd ever made the unlikely choice to use these particular combinations of notes) and in its reflective and mournful times more anguished, but never becomes hysterical in either direction. Scales battle intervals. Rhythms align and then reproach. These all turn themselves into marches and hymns which never quite congeal. A really masterful work.

Quartet No. 9 has motific development out of Schubert or Brahms (again with different notes and rhythms) but turns them into textures recalling Lutoslawski.(The Essential Lutoslawski) I'd say it's the most abstract piece on the disc, but in the way Haydn is abstract, there's no programmatic narrative, but your interest is maintained in observing how the lines change and move forward. (By the way, to be clear, these comparisons to other composers reflect their inner workings, how they get from point A to point B, not really how they sound.)

Quartet No. 10 is perhaps the easiest entry point (and it's on one track if you like to download previews). Swirling lines, albeit with a jagged edge sometimes proliferate, often sounding reminiscent of Nielsen and Sibelius, to name two obvious predecessors (and here I am talking about sound) , or even closer contemporaries like Pärt (though with more rough textures) or Schnittke (without the zaniness). Another standout work.

The Kroger Quartet is obviously devoted to Nørgård's music. The notes quote the astounding length of time they devoted to rehearsals for one of his other quartets. Nørgård returns the favor with at least two of the quartets here having been written for the Krogers. The recording is excellent, providing the requisite atmosphere without overdoing it (ECM engineers take note). Hopefully this release will help nudge Nørgård a bit closer to the mainstream.

I've always felt that a string quartet is somewhat akin to a small jazz group, in that the musicians in both must not only be fully attuned to their own performances, but also that of the other members. Jazz musicians arguably have a more highly developed sense of musical ESP due to the improvisational nature of the medium. But even working within more tightly plotted compositional parameters, string quartet players still have quite a bit of interpretive leeway, especially with modern classical composers, and more especially with composers like Per Norgard. The Denmark native has consistently refused to repeat himself over a decades-long career, pioneering many innovative techniques and approaches, and always pushing his music in new and often startling directions. His string quartets are no exception. The four examples on this disc, composed between 1993 and 2005, all sound quite different from one another, while remaining recognizably Norgardian. Each of these works is marked by a sense of freedom and unpredictability, as one is never quite sure in which direction the next notes are going. It takes musicians of rare empathy and talent to make this music fully come alive, and the Norgard Quartet proves itself firmly locked into Norgard's sound world in these stunning performances. While the quartets manifest significant compositional differences, they betray a consistent tension in the way Norgard's musical shapes and patterns alternately intertwine and clash. Simply put, he alternates dissonant and melodic phrases in a way uniquely his own. Preventing the music from ever sounding academic is a pervasive sense of drama and misterioso. Make no mistake, this is challenging music that demands an open mind and open ears, but it is anything but impenetrable, and it rewards the attentive listener with its deeply meditative, if chillingly abstract, beauty.