Editorial Reviews

From an early work by Carl Nielsen to a contemporary movement by Anders Nordentoft, Trio Ondine attempts to trace the development of modern Danish music on this 2004 release from Dacapo. The medium of the piano trio connects the works, a more obvious unifying feature than the less apparent but significant teacher-student relationships that link these composers over the course of a century. Yet the musical differences are most striking -- Nielsen's bright, Classically styled "Piano Trio No. 1" (1883) has no noticeable commonality with the brooding, quasi-Impressionist works by Vagn Holmboe. Similarly, Holmboe's "Piano Trio, Op. 64" (1954), and his "Piano Trio, Op. 129, Nuigen" (1976), seem much more conservatively structured than Per Nørgård's "Spell" (1973), which dispenses with traditional movements and pursues a more organic approach in its form. Anders Nordentoft's "Doruntine" (1994) is about as far as one gets from Nielsen, and its openly atonal language and free rhythms separate it as well from Nørgård's modified tonality and obsessively regular rhythms. These works reflect the stylistic changes that affected most twentieth century composers, so Danish music is not as unique as the liner notes might make it appear. The performances are clean and competent, and the sound quality is fine. Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide

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