ANDERS BRØDSGAARD (b.1955): in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni.

Description: Numerology meets harmonic analysis in these seven piano pieces and concluding piano concerto (which forms more than a third of the whole) which make up Brødsgaard's ingenious, varied and inventive cycle. Pitch relationships and rhythmic proportions are based on ratios derived from the harmonic series, which gives the music a sense of tonality and a consistency of metrical structure, however complex the resulting patterns may turn out. The individual pieces are very varied in texture and mood. 'Joker' and sections of the piano concerto have a lively, quasi-minimalistic feel, with energetic, shifting patterns. But "Requiem" is a study in sonority and resonance (including some restrained unconventional playing effects), while "Attacca" begins with a wild study in furious, percussive clusters. "Hymn" is a tribute to Messiaen, and both birdsong and the older composer's characteristic serial approach to rhythm are readily discernible. Jazz and rock elements put in fleeting appearances here and there - in 7-9-13 (hilariously combined with the phrase which it is now impossible not to hear as prescient of boogie-woogie in Beethoven's last sonata, Op.111) and 'Bacchanale', especially, while 'PyroMania', inhabiting the treble end of the keyboard, is a flickering study in updated early 20th-century impressionism. The concerto incorporates elements of the earlier pieces, extending the additive arithmetical constructions through the greater resources of the larger ensemble, in which polyphonic presentation of material of widely divergent character is possible. The cycle manages to be hugely entertaining, while simultaneously intellectually engaging, expressively free while meticulously structured. Rolf Hind (piano), Esbjerg Ensemble; Christopher Austin.