Hans Abrahamsen (b.1952)
Ten Sinfonias for orchestra (2010)
Left, Alone for piano left hand and orchestra (2014-2015)
Two Pieces in Slow Time for brass and percussion (1998-1989)
Tamara Stefanovich (piano)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/Peter Rundel, Mariano Chiacchiarini
rec. live, 2014-22, Philharmonie, Cologne; WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismark-Saal, Cologne
Winter & Winter 910 287-2 [49]
Hans Abrahamsen’s accomplishments include the extraordinary Let me tell you for soprano and orchestra, inspired by Shakespeare’s Ophelia. I was knocked sideways in the 1970s when I heard his 1973 orchestral piece Stratifications.
This programme starts many years later in his development. In the earliest work here, Two Pieces in Slow Time, the composer tells us of his fascination with time. He writes in the booklet: “in the first piece time moves forward and in the second time moves backwards”. Sadly, I cannot hear this. He also admits that the piece developed in his mind during a dry creative period, when he often looked back and developed older works. This score emerged from two piano works from a set of Ten Studies composed mostly in the 1980s. They are quite imposing and elemental. Their place in a concert programme might be difficult to determine.
The Ten Sinfonias also emerged from an earlier work, the 1973 String subtitled Ten Preludes. The music aims towards C major, rather than starting in that key, as did Bach and Chopin. Abrahamsen’s first Sinfonia is in no particular key. The tenth is a brief neo-baroque fanfare-style type piece in C, marked Presto con spirito. He further emphasises those characteristics: he includes in his limited orchestration horns and trumpets in C and just oboes and bassoons in the woodwind. So, what we might call the overall tonal structure supplies the formal structure of this highly satisfactory work.
The most recent of these live recordings is Left, Alone for left hand piano and orchestra. The composer notes that he was “born with a right hand that is not fully functional”. That has led him to explore left-hand repertoire in depth. He wrote this work for “a composer who can play with the left hand”. The twenty-two-minute work has two sections, each subdivided into three. This intriguing structure alternates fast and slow music; fast is very fast, and slow is almost motionless. Some rather droll markings include ‘like rain, light and bubbly’, which sums up the third section of the first part perfectly. The work ends with the skittering and twitterings of ‘fairy-tale time’. This fine and unique contribution to a still rare repertoire is thoroughly worth investigating.
The programme, only forty-nine minutes, offers a helpful view of Abrahamsen’s recent development. There is much here to pore over and grasp, especially given the ultra-clear recording and the high-quality performances under the sympathetic eyes of Peter Rundel and Mariano Chiacchiarini.
Gary Higginson
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