Allan Gravgaard Madsen: Nachtmusik - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: For Violin & Orchestra Christina Astrand, Per Salo, Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Ryan Bancroft, Nicholas Collon

• Allan Gravgaard Madsen (b. 1984): Nachtmusik:
• 1Nachtmusik: I. Nachtstück (Live)16:44
• 2Nachtmusik: II. Intermezzo (Live)06:26
• 3Nachtmusik: III. Ständchen (Live)03:06
• Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (1932 - 2016): For Violin & Orchestra:
• 4For Violin & Orchestra: I. Tempo 9605:05
• 5For Violin & Orchestra: II. Tempo 6307:26
• 6For Violin & Orchestra: III. Tempo 7607:47
• 7For Violin & Orchestra: IV. Tempo 8806:00
• 8For Violin & Orchestra: V. Tempo 5807:36
• Total Runtime01:00:10

Info for Allan Gravgaard Madsen: Nachtmusik - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: For Violin & Orchestra

Concertante works from one of Denmark’s most iconic composers and one of its freshest new voices. Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was the great maverick of contemporary Nordic music until his death in 2016. For Violin and Orchestra ventures into the jungle in classic Gudmundsen-Holmgreen style, leading us to consider our place in a world full of noises. Allan Gravgaard Madsen’s double concerto Nachtmusik takes the opposite route, blossoming outwards from the microscopic examination of a single note. Danish National Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Christina A°strand brings both works to life, joined by her duo partner Per Salo in Nachtmusik written for them.

Christina Astrand, violin
Per Salo, piano
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Ryan Bancroft, conductor
Nicholas Collon, conductor

Christina Astrand
is having the most remarkable career as a violinist in Scandinavia. She started her education at Royal Jutland Music Conservatory at the age of 13 and won the position as a concertmaster of DR Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22. A position she still holds. Since her soloist debut in 1990 things have moved rapidly for her and she is a frequent soloist with the leading Scandinavian orchestras. She has recorded and premiered several violin concertos, and is one of the few violinists in the world to master György Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

Her CD recording of Ligeti’s and Per Nørgård’s violin concertos with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard won her the distinguished French Diapason d’Or award in 2001.

She has also performed the classical violin concertos by Beethoven, Mendelsohn, Tjaikowsky, Prokofiev, Mozart and many others. Especially in the Nordic countries she is a frequent violin soloist, and her CD recording of violin concertos by N.W. Gade, Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard, in particular, has enjoyed great international acclaim – bringing her, amongst other things, an invitation to play Gade’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. Danish music is in general a very big part of Christina Åstrand´s repertoire. Her aim is to further the knowledge of Danish music, both in Denmark and abroad and is doing so in her choice of repertoire and with her many CD recordings.

She will continue her quest for Danish music this autumn, 2019, when she will be recording Danish violin romances for violin and orchestra with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra – entirely unknown pieces of music, which she had found hidden away in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The CD will be released on Dacapo in 2020. Several Danish composers have composed and dedicated works to her, a. o. Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Poul Ruders and Hans Abrahamsen, the latter with whom she has a long-standing collaboration. With Abrahamsen she founded Aarhus Sinfonietta.

Hans Abrahamsen has composed the two solo violin pieces “Capriccio” and “Herbstlied” for Christina Åstrand. The latter will be recorded in August and released on cd together with Allan Gravgaards Double concerto and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen “For violin and Orchestra” in spring 2020. Chamber music plays a big part in Christina Åstrand´s repertoire. Since 1995 she is concentrating her chamber music work in the Duo Åstrand/Salo with husband and pianist Per Salo. Together with Danish National Symphony Orchestra, they have commissioned a double concerto for violin, piano and orchestra, which will be premiered in September 2019. The Duo has recently been studying Friedrich Kuhlau and his works for violin and piano. This has resulted in two cd releases and a sheet music publication on Edition S of Kuhlau’s eight violin sonatas. So this fantastic, forgotten music can be heard and performed by other musicians.

In Denmark Christina Åstrand has received numerous awards and prizes – a.o. The Artist Prize of the Danish Music Critics.

Booklet for Allan Gravgaard Madsen: Nachtmusik - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: For Violin & Orchestra