Danish composer Herman Koppel (1908-98) had a long and distinguished career as composer, pianist, and teacher, as well as patriarch of a musical dynasty that was famous in his native land. Koppel’s early compositions were highly influenced by Carl Nielsen, whom he met while a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. After Nielsen’s death in 1931, Koppel struck out in different directions, though intimations of the elder composer’s style could still be heard as late as the 1957 Symphony No. 6. The five-movement “Sinfonia breve” contains many Nielsen-esque touches, right down to string writing and the conspicuous use of the triangle and snare drum. Koppel’s Symphony No. 7 (1961) is marked by contact with the new current of serialism then running through Danish music. Though he never fully embraced the technique, Koppel nevertheless came up with a compelling work that experiments with the new harmonies in highly inventive ways yet remains tonal around the edges. The stark, angry nature of some of the music is reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s Connotations for Orchestra, which premiered only year later.
After his Seventh (and last) symphony, Koppel turned increasingly to concertante forms, as in the 1978 Concerto for Orchestra, the most interesting work on the disc. By this point Koppel had banished all traces of his early influences and was engaging in creative exploration. The Concerto organizes the orchestra into five instrumental groups that play both against and off of each other, with each group having its own melodic signature. Koppel creates some arresting moments by the very clever juxtapositions of the various groupings (the soaring strings against the Martinù-like percolating woodwind textures). Moshe Atzmon and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra sound perfectly at home in all three widely varied musical styles on this program (and really step up to the plate in the Concerto). Add to that powerfully vivid recorded sound and you have a commanding disc for collectors of 20th century music.
