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- Per Nørgård
Trio, Op. 15 (1955)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
THE CLARINET TRIO, OP 15
A strong inspiration from Nordic nature takes the work through its four movements, and a direct influence from Sibelius' melodics is obvious. But the Sibelian feature has been transformed and it is in the attempt to describe what this "transformation" consists in that you discover the distinctive character of the clarinet trio. You get a clue already when listening to the introductory, expansive duo for clarinet and cello: a clarinet note grows in volume and changes to the note above (G sharp > A), but at the same time the first note (G sharp) is ehard again, now in the cello, which also makes the volume grow and the note change (to A) - but in a different way! Contributing to these constant shades of expression is a marked "polyphonic stream of rhythm" where you can hear various centres of gravity in the apparantly smooth ensemble playing of the three instruments. The first movement and the finale are related in their slow clarinet/cello-duo-introductions; the introspective melodies of the second movement grow to a piercing climax of intense harmonies driven into a nightmarelike corner of blind repetitions. The third movement exorcises all dreaming in a raging rhythmic storm which is over almost before it has begun.
Per Nørgård
A strong inspiration from Nordic nature takes the work through its four movements, and a direct influence from Sibelius' melodics is obvious. But the Sibelian feature has been transformed and it is in the attempt to describe what this "transformation" consists in that you discover the distinctive character of the clarinet trio. You get a clue already when listening to the introductory, expansive duo for clarinet and cello: a clarinet note grows in volume and changes to the note above (G sharp > A), but at the same time the first note (G sharp) is ehard again, now in the cello, which also makes the volume grow and the note change (to A) - but in a different way! Contributing to these constant shades of expression is a marked "polyphonic stream of rhythm" where you can hear various centres of gravity in the apparantly smooth ensemble playing of the three instruments. The first movement and the finale are related in their slow clarinet/cello-duo-introductions; the introspective melodies of the second movement grow to a piercing climax of intense harmonies driven into a nightmarelike corner of blind repetitions. The third movement exorcises all dreaming in a raging rhythmic storm which is over almost before it has begun.
Per Nørgård