Description
Boreas
A considerable amount of chamber music was composed in the Faroe Islands throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. This recording presents five of the period’s most active composers: Atli Petersen, Sunleif Rasmussen, Edvard Nyholm Debes, Kristian Blak, and Heðin Meitil.
The album contains 7 original compositions.
The compositions are almost entirely performed by Boreas Woodwind Quintet – named after the Greek God of north wind, Boreas. The quintet formed in 1988 while its members were studying at the Danish Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. Since then, each of the musicians has made a name for themself, both in Denmark and on the international classical music scene. The quintet consists of Joakim Dam Thomsen on oboe, Nicolaj von Scholten on flute, Anna Elisabeth Klett on clarinet, Signe Haugland on bassoon, and Nina Frederike Jeppesen on horn.
Boreas has a wide repertoire, spanning from Baroque to contemporary music.
Tracklist
1. Blásarakvintett (Atli Petersen) 1991
2. Fantasi yvir Tívils Døtur (Sunleif Rasmussen) 1990 (original melody by William Heinesen)
Svabo (Kristian Blak) 1991
Five movements:
3. Polonaise
4. Capricioso
5. Engelsk
6. Vísa
7. Trampe Dans
Heyst við Frostnátt / Autumn with Frost Night (Edvard Nyholm Debess) 1993
Two movements:
8. I
9. II
10. Dialogue (Kristian Blak) 1993
11. Vetrarmyndir / Winter Pictures (Sunleif Rasmussen) 1991
12. Woodwind Quintet no. 1 (Heðin Meitil) 1993
Total length: 66:35
Recorded at Sound Track Studio, Copenhagen, June 1993.
Released on the following formats:
CD and digitally on all major platforms (Spotify, etc.).
You can check it out by using this link: https://bfan.link/boreas
Additional information
Written by the composers themselves.
1. Blásarakvintett (Atli Petersen, b. 1963) 1991
“The quintet was composed for the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney 1991, at which Faroese compositions were presented in a special concert.”
2. Fantasi yvir Tívils Døtur (Sunleif Rasmussen, b. 1961) 1990
“I wrote this piece for a Danish Radio program, for which Anna Klett and I were assisting producers. The basis for the composition is a melody originally written by William Heinesen for a play. This melody is quite similar to Faroese »skjaldur« – traditional rhymes that are sung to children. My piece begins with elements from William Heinesen’s original piece, using for example his canonic arrangement of the melody. As »Fantasi« progresses, however, it develops into my own style of composing.”
3. Svabo (Kristian Blak, b. 1947) 1991
“Svabo is a suite of five movements, all of which are based upon tunes from the music notebook of the Faroese researcher and scientist Jens Chr. Svabo. Svabo (1746-1824). He had learned to play the violin while studying in Copenhagen, and he was probably one of the few Faroese of that time who did play an instrument. He lived in Patursastova in Tórshavn. From this house, one could hear his sometimes happy, sometimes melancholic, violin.”
4. Heyst við Frostnátt/Autumn with Frost Night (Edvard Nyholm Debess, b. 1960) 1993
1st movement
“As the title indicates, the Faroese weather plays an important part in my woodwind quintet. With this piece of music I am trying to capture the feelings I have when summer has gone and autumn is well on its way. This is a very unsteady time of the year, with stormy, rough weather and bright calm days in between. It is as if the climate cannot make up its mind whether to let go of the summer and turn to the winter or not: struggling of the seasons!”
2nd movement
“And then suddenly, one night it gets very quiet and frosty cold, and you can see all the stars in the clear sky. You can actually feel the silence. This is the first frost night of the year – winter has come again!”
5. Dialogue (Kristian Blak, b. 1947) 1993
“In this dialogue of two instruments the mood of the clarinet is, at the beginning of the piece, lyrical and dreamlike, perhaps absent minded, while the first remarks of the guitar are positive and energetic. The optimism of the guitar influences the clarinet, while the guitar itself gradually becomes more serious and silent.”
6. Vetrarmyndir/Winter Pictures (Sunleif Rasmussen, b. 1961) 1991
“Some years ago I saw an exhibition by Faroese artist Eyðun av Reyni. He had named the collection of large paintings Winter Pictures. These paintings were inspiration for a short piece for woodwind quintet and piano.”
7. Woodwind Quintet no. 1 (Heðin Meitil, b. 1963) 1993
“The feeling of flying is probably the most important inspiration for my woodwind quintet. Not in some metaphysical way, but in a concrete way, as I imagine it might be sitting in the cockpit with my hand on the rudder, steering through a reality where the laws of Newton are experienced so differently.”
