Imagine that I play to you Rued Langgaard’s 1916 one-movement Fantasi-Sonate, and then, without my saying anything about the music, its composer, or when it was written, simply ask you to describe what you heard. Would the restless opening section and its recapitulation strike you as Schumann, with his customary swirling middle voices leaking out mild dissonances that gently cry for help? Or perhaps you’d ascribe the thickly scored triplet theme or more chorale-like writing to Reger. But when the music grows progressively starker, stranger, and texturally threadbare in the final pages, as if the composer were about to expire with pen in hand, you know you’re not listening to Schumann or Reger! Even in Langgaard’s 1947/49 three-movement Vanvidfantasi, you swear you’re hearing outtakes from Schumann’s Humoreske Op. 20, until the last movement’s middle section leapfrogs into late Sibelius and early Schoenberg in heated argument, abruptly crosscutting back to Schumann-tinged E-flat major for just a few measures, and concluding in mid-air.
If you think that’s weird, try the one-and-a-half-minute long Hél-Sfaerernes Musik (1948), in which a progression of rising minor-chord fanfares bump heads with punched-out, pointillistic single notes and jackhammer bass-register trills. The routine is repeated, and the piece concludes with three low E-flats and a Chopinesque chord rewritten by Charles Ives. By contrast, the 10 Gitanjali-Hymner from 1918 channel their quirky late-19th-century harmonic ideas through a more lyrical and pianistically conventional surface style. You can read all about this cycle’s literary subtext in the booklet notes, but what really counts is the sustained invention and variety from piece to piece.
Pianist Berit Johansen Tange is a solid and reliable artist, but I wish he’d let go more in the larger works’ climaxes, expand his dynamic range in all directions, and add some color to his sonority. Still, these are all world-premiere recordings, save for Vanvidfantasi, and easily will suffice for rare-piano-music mavens on the lookout for fascinating, virtually unheard repertoire. However, to experience Langgaard’s volatile creativity at full blast, start with his orchestral music, especially the Fourth Symphony.
