Poul Ruders (born 1949) Six Symphonies
Symphony 1 Himmelhoch jauchzend – zum Tode betrübt (1989)
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Leif Segerstam
Symphony 2 Symphony and Transformation (1995-6)
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Michael Schønwandt
Symphony 3 Dreamcatcher (2005-6 rev. 2009)
Odense Symphony Orchestra/Scott Yoo
Symphony 4 An Organ Symphony (2008-9)
Flemming Dreisig (organ), Odense Symphony Orchestra/Roberto Minczuk
Symphony 5 (2012-3)
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Olari Elts
Symphony 6 (2021)
Odense Symphony Orchestra/Christopher Lichtenstein
rec. 1990-2025 at two different venues
Bridge 0606A/C 3 CDs [166]

Outside his native Denmark, Poul Ruders is probably best known for his opera The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, which has been produced in many countries. However, at home, he has been building up an impressive cycle of symphonies. Now Bridge has brought them all together. The first fiveare reissues of previous recordings, and Bridgehave licensed Symphony 1 from Chandos and Symphony 2 from DaCapo. Symphonies 3 to 5 come from earlier Bridge issues. They have added a new recording of Symphony 6. Ruders is now in his mid-seventies and thinks he will probably not write another.

Symphony 1 is a massive affair, lasting over half an hour and the longest of all these works. It is also written for the largest orchestra, with quadruple wind, six horns, a piano and a synthesiser included in the score. It is in four movements and takes its theme from its subtitle Himmelhoch jauchzend – zum Tode betrübt,which is a line of Goethe meaning ‘to heaven rejoicing – cast down until death.’ The first movement sets this out with a tumultuous opening which gradually moves towards despair. There are two quotations from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, one for the jubilant outburst and the other the recitative in which Herod pretends to express concern for the new-born king of the Jews.  There is a middle section in which we hear an early carol on piccolo and piano before a grim version of the opening returns.

The second movement is very strange, being a single complex chord (B flat minor plus D flat major) with only slight shifts in the orchestration to give some variety. Forebears include Schoenberg’s Farben (colours) from his Five Pieces for Orchestra and also Holst’s Neptune from The Planets. The third movement is a very brief skirl of sound and leads into the finale, marked Maschera funerale, death mask, which is again based on a single complex Mahlerian chord  which is gradually pared away. This is a grim and impressive work.

Symphony 2, though recognizably by the same composer, is different. It is in just one movement and is scored for a chamber orchestra. It is very intense. The main feature is an almost continuous angular but lyrical line high on the violins., Underneath this, the brass come in with a regular pulse, which gradually transforms into a kind of lumbering bass. The title, Symphony and Transformation, is taken from a ballet which used Ruders’ own second violin concerto as well as music by Nielsen, and here it refers to the constant transformation of the opening theme. This is also a powerful work, though in a very different way from Symphony 1.

Symphony 3 is titled Dream Catcher, that being a Native American device consisting of a loop attached to a feather, which is supposed to trap good dreams and send them to the sleeper. This symphony is in two movements. The first opens with a bang before moving to a slow, serene, mysterious theme which represents the Dream Catcher. This is varied and developed before moving, without a break, into the rather shorter second movement,. This is fast and furious in a way we have learned to expect from Ruders. Towards the end we hear bell sounds, at first sounding like tolling but then changing the note.

Symphony 4 is titled An Organ Symphony, and Ruders compares his work with the Saint-Saëns Symphony 3, often known as the organ symphony. However, in that work the organ appears only in two of the movements, whereas in Ruders’ work it appears in all four. Nevertheless, its role is not as a concerto soloist but rather, as Ruders puts it, as a symphony with organ obbligato. There are four movements. The first begins with a mysterious chord on the organ, supported by the strings, slow moving and quiet. The second movement, Cortège, is marked Adagio estremo, Brutale and begins slow and grim, with brass fanfares and clanging bells. However, the atmosphere suddenly lightens and become almost playful at times. The third movement is a brief whirling scherzo. The finale is a chaconne with many mood changes. This is an unsettling work.

I was greatly impressed by Symphony 5 when I had it for review some years ago (review) and I was again this time round. Ruders said he wanted to call it Ring of Fire but was dissuaded because that title had already been used more than once.  Anyway, two fast and furious movements enclose a quiet one. In the fast movements one is conscious of the sense of controlled power, rather than the wildness of the violent passages in some of the earlier symphonies. The slow middle movement is somewhat Sibelian in feeling.

Symphony 6 is the shortest of these works. being in one movement and lasting less than twenty minutes. The orchestra is also a relatively small one, though with some unusual instruments. This makes it sound rather like Sibelius’s Symphony 7, and indeed it is rather like that work in its constant sense of sustainedpower. The wildness and fury of some of the earlier symphonies has here been disciplined without losing any of its character or strength. I was deeply impressed by this work, which forms a fitting culmination to this cycle of symphonies.

The performances here are given by two orchestras working under six different conductors, with no conductor represented more than once. They are well prepared and confident, but I could wish that one conductor had really taken up Ruders’ cause and given us an integral cycle. Still, we should be grateful that we do now have them all, albeit by different hands. However, there is a problem: the original issues of the first four symphonies were each on a separate disc with couplings of other Ruders works. These have been dropped to fit the cycle onto three discs. Symphony 5 came by itself on a rather short measure disc. I do think that, to keep faith with those who have followed Ruders and bought those earlier discs, that Bridge should consider releasing the third disc here, with Symphonies 5 and 6, separately, so that those who bought the first four can complete the cycle without excessive duplication. Either way, this is an impressive cycle and a worthy successor to Nielsen and Holmboe.

Stephen Barber

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