Danish or swedish composers

[pianisten1989]

Since almost all competition demands a contemporary piece (from like 1950->)  from the competitors homeland, or land of study, I'm looking for a swedish or Danish composer.

Isn't that a stupid idea anyways?! It's a hell lot easier to come from Russia and pick a composer than from, lets say, India...

Anyhow, I'd appreciate if you had some suggestions.

Best.

[retrouvailles]

Hey there are a lot of pieces by contemporary Swedish and Danish composers. Try looking at Danish composer Per Nørgård, who has a lot of piano works. Poul Ruders, another Danish composer, also has some works for piano. As far as Swedish composers go, you could look at Hilding Rosenberg and Lars-Erik Larsson, although I am not sure if Larsson has any works for solo piano. You might be able to do some Magnus Lindberg, who is a Swedish speaking Finn and has some very good piano works. There is a lot out there, and I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. You just have to look!

[fnork]

L-e larsson did write some horribly boring solo piano works. Stay away from them! Hilding Rosenberg however, has a fair output of nice piano music - one of my old teachers recorded his complete solo works. I´m especially fond of his "Theme and variations". I believe his suite for piano is rather decent too. There´s of course the improvisations as well - nice gems.

For a bit more contemporary swedish composers, I like some piano works by Daniel Börtz (especially the piano sonata and monologhi nr 11), Anders Nilsson (five orchestral pieces, which I have played - very effective piece, and a debussy-sounding little piece called "les cloches de la nuit") and Mikael Edlund (fantasia över en stad - fantasia over a city). There´s a lot more out there...

I also like Sven-david sandströms music - I played his piano trio for him some years ago, a very romantic piece. He did write a large piano work around the same time which sounds rather similar, but the piano trio is far more succesful in my opinion.

[pianisten1989]

Wow, thx. Do you know where I can find recordings? They doesn't have to be that good, but I kind of don't want, or can't afford, to buy a lots of cd's just to Maybe find something I like.

[pianisten1989]

Hmmm.. okey, new part aswell.. I don't want it to be like "Look how many notes I can hit if I use my whole arm!"-composition. I want it to be rather virtuos aswell. Any tips?

[retrouvailles]

Well, none of the works I mentioned, nor fnork, are those kinds of "forearm clusters everywhere" pieces. They are all pretty nice from what I have heard. Poul Ruders' piano sonatas are very much in the romantic tradition, but with a modern twist. Lars-Erik Larsson's piano pieces, from what I have heard, are nice also. Look at Da Capo records, a record company that specializes in Danish music. They are part of the Naxos corporation, so they are easy to get.

[fnork]

I can wholeheartedly recommend bying Hans Pålssons CD with works dedicated to him. I think its simply called "Dedicated to Hans Pålsson", and it contains Börtz piano sonata and many other swedish composers - Torsten Nilsson, Erland von Koch etc. Some works inspired by folklore, some more modernistic...a good mix, and well played. Hans Pålsson has recorded many CDs with contemporary swedish composers, check out his output.

For Hilding Rosenberg, I think my teacher Mats Widlunds complete recordings are rather decent, though he had to record them in a rather short time. Some pieces are better played than others, obviously...Mats has also played plenty of contemporary swedish music. One piece I rather like that he has been playing is Anders Eliasons "Disegno":

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I know you aren´t a fan of "forearm clusters everywhere" and so on, but Mikael Edlunds "Cadenza from ´the lost jugglery´" is really something to have a listen to:

There´s so far just one recording of Anders Nilssons "Five orchestral pieces", by Roland Pöntinen, and I don´t think he holds together the piece all that well. Some parts are excellent, some are so-so.

[chopinmozart7]

The string quartets by the Swedish composer Johan Wimanson are absolutely stunning.

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