“To entertain, to enrich, and to disturb, not necessarily in that order.”

With his characteristic wit and quirkiness, Grammy-nominated Danish composer Poul Ruders has summed up his mission as a composer as being “To entertain, to enrich, and to disturb, not necessarily in that order.” Born in Ringsted, Denmark in 1949, Ruders achieved international fame with his opera The Handmaid‘s Tale (1996-98),
a work whose aching tenderness, grotesque irony, despair and timeliness has established a permanent place in the repertoire. 
Ruders’ own intuitive development as a composer has enabled him to create works which manage to be strikingly modern, yet avoiding any the clichés of European modernism, but above all, imbued with the
power to speak to the emotions of an audience. The current program features works spanning 30 years, beginning with the elliptical Throne (1989) for clarinet and piano and two major chamber works, the Clarinet Quintet and Piano Quartet, dating from 2014 and 2016 respectively.

The Rudersdal Chamber Players, founded in 2017 by violinist Christine Pryn, are the ideal interpreters for Ruders
stylistically fluid scores, finding the classical “roots” in works like the Clarinet Quintet (beautifully performed by Jonas Frølund, one of the most talented clarinet players of his generation in the world today) as well as the surprising intimacy of the Piano Quartet. www.rudersdalchamberplayers.com

Music: Excerpts from:
Clarinet Quintet (2014)
Avanti all Breve 
Adagio Sognante 

Throne (1988)

Piano Quartet (2016)
Awakening
Innocent
Sprightly

Live video of Piano Quartet from opening concert of Sound Ways Festival in Skt. Petersborg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPeKS3MfbA

POUL RUDERS - RUDERSDAL CHAMBER PLAYERS

6.220680 - Poul Ruders: Chamber Works

Disco Pimp is proud to release their newest single, a wild ride through the wonderful music of Krzysztof Penderecki's 'Cappricio' for solo Tuba, except this time, we've spiced it up with a little disco and a shit load of pimp

Performing for you is the illustrious Jens Peterson, the truest of disco pimps, on Tuba, for whom the work was written.  Backing him up are members of The DiscoCactus, Matheus Garcia Souza on his sweet sweet 7-string electric violin, Brendon Randall-Myers swinging those hips on the guitar, Sam Suggs on bass wearing the most suave of white smoking jackets, Doug Perry dancing and pulling double duty behind the  glock and the bongos, Jonny Allen hitting those drums with the most fervent of passions for disco, and yours truly on the Wurlitzer with sunglasses not giving a fuck.

Disco Cappricio

for sopranino recorder. Performed by Elisabet Selin

Op. 82 Chant d'oiseau

For viola, marimba and piano. Performed by Hans Steengaard, Einar Nielsen and Erik kaltoft.
My intension in "Mobiles after Alexander Calder" was to give an impression of the multiple constellations of motion and form in a large, complex Calder-mobile. The music is written in "open form" and consists of motives taking 4 characters. In order to describe the motives are written so that they are perceptiple in their retograde to. The musicians have to obey certain "rulesof the game", even though the spontaneous play is also quite important. 

Op. 38 Mobiles after Alexander Calder

for piano/electric organ, electric guitar and percussion. Performed by Erik Kaltoft, Erling Møldrup and Einar Nielsen.
In "Carambolage"(i.e. a term from billiards) chord and sound complexes are often spread like chain reactions between the instruments. It was written from 1976 to 1977 as a trio for piano, el-guitar and vibraphone/drums. Still for only three musicians, the piece was later on revised with a considerable enlargement of the collection of instruments.

Op. 79 Carambolage for 3

Op. 83 Architraves

Op. 118:1 Nachtstuck

Op. 91:9 Birds Concert

Op. 75 Fantasia

Op. 183 Pergolato

Op. 82 Notenbuchlein

After 30 years, and more than 70 international releases with recording companies like Philips/Polygram, RCA/BMG, and EMI, the Danish classical artists, recorder player Michala Petri and guitarist/lute player Lars Hannibal launched their own recording label, OUR Recordings on the first of November, 2006!

As the name suggests, their releases were intended to be mostly recordings featuring Michala Petri and/or Lars Hannibal. The idea was to have the full artistic and creative freedom and responsibility to record what they felt was necessary and consistent with their desire to explore new challenges.

In 2022 the Petri/Hannibal Duo celebrate their 30th Anniversary.

Future plans will also include collaborations with gifted young Danish artists, ensembles and even composers to help them release their “Dream Projects” to an international audience. 

To date, OUR Recordings has released 48 critically acclaimed recordings,and has earned international recognition, including the ECHO KLASSIK Award, and OPUS KLASSIK Award (Germany), four Grammy nominations (US) a Gramophone Award nomination (UK), Diapason d´Or de l´année 2015 (France) ICMA 2016 Award and ICMA 2017 and 2019 nomination (International Classic Music Award) Danish Music Award (P2 Prize) 2016 and 2019 for Best Danish Release, 2021 “Listeners Prize” as Best Release,  and 3 Danish Music Award nominations, FMA Award 2016, Gold and 2 Silver Global Music Awards, and several Editor Choice in Gramophone and CD of the Month in BBC Music Magazine.

Several ambitious cycles have already captivated collectors and critics alike, including the East Meets West series and Michala Petri's ongoing campaign to expand her instrument's modern concerto literature with Recorder Concertos from various countries as well as works for recorder and choir. Also the series with music by late Danish composer Axel Borup-Jørgensen and the releases with Danish National Vocal Ensemble has been receiving overwhelming response.

Upcoming releases include:

Poul Ruders: Harpsichord Concerto with Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord, and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam.

Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du Temp, with the four solo players from Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Christina Åstrand, violin. Johnny Teyssier, clarinet, Henrik Dam Thomsen, cello and Per Salo, piano). 

Olivier Messiaen Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus with Kristoffer Hyldig, piano.

Lars Hannibal: Tang Dynasty Poems, with Stephen Yeseta, countertenor, Lars Hannibal, guitar, Gert Mortensen, percussion, Xu Ziling, erhu and Michala Petri, recorder.  

Baroque Masterworks for Recorder, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, featuring the Petri/Perl/Efsahani Trio Michala Petri, (Michala on recorder, Hille Perl, viola da gamba, and Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord).

J.S.Bach: The 6 Cello Suites in new arrangements by Michala Petri. The sheet music will also be published and available for purchase!

ALL albums will be available on all major streaming platforms and in Dolby Atmos!

The “OUR Recordings Sound” has been developed in close collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Preben Iwan, (www.timbremusic.dk)  and are available in nearly every resolution, including  DXD audio format (Digital eXtreme Definition), 352.8 kHz/32bit.

OUR Recordings cover art and graphics are made by CEZBP. Lise Mierca, webmaster (lm@pixelpost.dk).

OUR Recordings is distributed globally by NAXOS (www.naxos.com).

6.220680 - Poul Ruders: Chamber Works

OUR Recordings

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