NIELS ROSING-SCHOW (b.1954): Granito y arco iris for Bandoneón and 9 Instruments, Orbis for String Orchestra, Equinoxe for Sinfonietta, Black Virgin for Symphony Orchestra, Orichalk for Symphony Orchestra.

Description: Rosing-Schow's preoccupation with patterns in nature - waves, shadows, repetitive structures with their own organic individuality - produces some of his most striking and original music yet, in these recent orchestral and ensemble works. In the bandoneón concertino, 'Granite and Rainbow' the fluid, atmospheric textures of music contrasting with the 'granite' of the underlying structure lead to a tumultuous yet highly organized progression of gestures, like minimalism but with a far more adventurous harmonic vocabulary than one usually encounters in that genre. Equinoxe contrasts light and darkness through an almost visually graphic opposition of timbre and harmonies, while the sumptuous, dark-hued orchestral Black Virgin suggests the mysterious 'black Madonna' of Christian symbolism as a more archaic, primeval goddess figure. Orichalk the name of a mysterious Atlantean metal, contains elements of ritual and a fluid plasticity, the metal in question having unusual properties of malleability and transformation into minutely detailed forms, an apt analogy for the composer's music. Guillaume Hodeau (bandoneón), Århus Sinfonietta, Århus Symphony Orchestra; Jean Thorel.