Sunleif Rasmussen is the Faroe Islands’ first “art music” composer, and he’s quite a serious one. His Symphony No. 1 was the 2002 winner of The Nordic Council Music Prize, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a big, glittering, ambitious piece full of “water music” and other evocative sounds, presented in the kind of “in between” tonal and atonal harmonic framework that seems to be all the rage these days. There’s no mistaking the talent at work here. The orchestration is quite evocative, with lots of bell sounds and, in the central cantabile, some beautiful passages in which the string players vocalize their musical lines as they play them (also a feature of the corresponding movement in the saxophone concerto). Rasmussen also has a good understanding of the need for contrast: witness the rhythmic percussion writing about 14 minutes into the opening movement.
Still, for all that, the music lacks a readily perceivable form (assuming you think that’s important) and strikes me as long for its material. It’s not difficult to listen to, but Rasmussen does not quite persuade this listener that it matters. Others may well feel differently. The Saxophone Concerto is livelier and more highly contrasted, as befits a concerto. How you respond to it will depend on your tolerance for solo saxophone in an orchestral context, especially given its “honking” melodic lines in the outer movements. That said, the performances are stunning. Whether in regular stereo or SACD, the orchestral textures have ideal clarity and a totally natural perspective. Under Hannu Lintu the Danish National Symphony Orchestra plays magnificently. Jeanette Balland does what she can with her less-than-alluring solo lines, but I can’t imagine a more sympathetic presentation of either work. Rasmussen clearly is a talent to watch–but it seems to me that he doesn’t have to try so hard.
