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Nordic Mythology Alive And Bursting With Energy, 25 May 2008
A Choreographic Drama In Two Acts. To me, that is almost as cryptic as RVW's description of Job as, A Masque For Dancing. One must imagine a blend of acting, dance and mime, together with what we have here which is music for tenor, chorus and orchestra.
Over 80 minutes so it spills ono a second disc, but if you've already wet your feet with Leifs' smaller tone poems, now is the time to jump into one of his large scale and most imaginative musical visions. Baldr is a mythological tale of the first man - a kind of Prometheus - together with his first love (Nanna), his nemesis (Loki), death and eventual return. Along the way, Leifs skilfully depicts an hurricane and volcanic eruption, to set beside the other nature portraits you may already have encountered.
Baldr's Death music is gloriously sombre (an oxymoron?), the Oathtaking - in which all things swear not to harm Baldr, with one fatal exception - breathtakingly combattive. Leifs' music broods more darkly than any other, his battle scenes are more dissonant and joyously unhinged than anything by Shostakovich, Strauss or whoever you prefer. The tenor and high choral singing, sparingly used, is like nothing else on Earth. For all that this is a long work, there is something remarkably sparing, clipped and incisive about Leifs' musical phrases. He's not one to waste notes extravagantly.
I can't recommend this highly enough. For those intrepid listeners, it will be a godsend; for those Brits who can't handle anthing heavier or more dissonant than Mendelssohn, it will be a raucous cacophony that no amount of tender solos for cello or flute can redeem.
Decide for yourself.
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