The Nordic nature and the special moods associated with life in the Nordics are in focus at this year's Rued Langgaard Festival. The dense darkness in the winter and the explosions of light in the summer are a basic condition, and it has influenced Jean Sibelius, Nancy Dalberg and Rued Langgaard, who have each composed unique music that is rooted in a rich romantic emotional world and the Nordic mind.
Friday 1 September 10:30, the writer Knud Romer speaks about loneliness in the lives of Nancy Dalberg, Langgaard and Sibelius as well as his own experiences of loneliness.
Saturday 2 September 10:00, musicologist Thomas Husted Kirkegaard gives a lecture about Nancy Dalberg, titled: At finde sin stemme for døve øren - Finding your voice falling on deaf ears. Kirkegaard is postdoc at The Danish Music Museum where his current research project focuses on historical Danish women composers.
Saturday 2 September 11:00, Nordic String Quartet performs Nancy Dalberg's String Quartet no. 1. Dalberg wrote three string quartets, each of which occupies a somewhat special position among her works. The first was the very first instrumental work she presented at a public concert. The second was the work she first had published and performed abroad, while the third – despite being premiered 20 years before her death – was not published during her lifetime. In 2019, the acclaimed Nordic String Quartet delivered the first complete recording of Dalberg's quartets.
Saturday 2 September 20:00, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester performs Dalberg's Scherzo for String Orchestra, where music bright like a summer wind alternates with melancholy notes.
Sunday 3 September 15:00, Esbjerg Ensemble performs Dalberg's Arabian Music from the Sahara, for oboe, viola and drum (1928), an arrangement of Arab themes that Nancy Dalberg had written down when she was staying with her husband in North Africa in the winter of 1922-23. Together with soprano Johanna Nylund, the ensemble further more performs a selection of Nancy Dalberg's songs.
Find more information about the Rued Langgaard Festival and the full event and concert programme here.