‘The Danish song is a young blonde girl’, or at least so said Carl Nielsen and Kai Hoffman in 1926.
For the second time in a week, the Copenhagen Phil will at 8pm Saturday October 12 play the unparalleled setting of Christiania’s Grå Hal. Continuing the centenary celebrations of the Danish Composers’ Society the concert, curated by Jexper Holmen and Frode Andersen, sees composers of the 21st century respond to the idea of what ‘the Danish song’ can be today.
Freshly composed pieces will sit alongside Holmen’s vehemently physical sole orchestral work Transcendental Preference and Amongst, Simon Steen-Andersen’s ‘concerto for extremely amplified guitar and orchestra’. In all, three consecutive acts form the evening with various ‘intermezzo’ pieces by Anders Monrad/Jesper Elving, Jeppe Just, Jeppe Ernst, and Wayne Seigel complementing larger works by Pernille Sejlund, Thomas Agerfeldt, Jesper Egelund, Peter Bruun, and Anders Brødsgaard.
The result of collaboration between Holmen and Andersen, the closing work most boldly addresses the overarching theme: Song we sing to ourselves is, as well as the Copenhagen Phil, to be performed by the audience itself. Surely an experience not to be missed!