Rued Langgaard’s First Symphony (1908-11) should prove irresistible to anyone who likes big, colorful, late-Romantic music squarely in the tradition of Wagner and Strauss (the booklet notes also mention Tchaikovsky). Its five movements–Surf and Glimpses of Sun, Mountain Flowers, Legend, Mountain Ascent, and Courage–comprise a loosely organized program describing a climb up a mountain, but the inspiration is as much spiritual as it is literal. Scored for a huge orchestra, with extra brass in the finale, what gets the piece well beyond its obvious derivativeness is the sheer gusto and quantity of colorful invention that the 17-year-old composer packs into it. Premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic no less, it proved to be the single greatest success of Langgaard’s career before falling into obscurity along with the rest of his work.
The symphony has been recorded twice previously, although the only real competition for this newcomer is Segerstam’s version on Chandos. The performances in both cases are excellent, but Thomas Dausgaard leads the long outer movements with even more energy and enthusiasm at swifter tempos than does Segerstam, and the playing has just that much more brilliance. Best of all, the engineering is even better than on the Chandos recording, leaving a truly vivid impression of Langgaard’s extremely lavish timbral palette. Like his single opera (Antikrist), the music bears no trace of the somewhat bitter, quirky, angry composer that Langgaard later became. Here is nothing but a very talented musician stretching his wings for the first time, looking forward to a life of limitless possibilities. Hearing him is a joy. [9/23/2008]
