VIDEO PODCAST: Slava Ukraini! - recorded on the day Europe woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. Also features Caitríona O'Leary and Eric Fraad discussing their new film Island of Saints, and pays tribute to Joseph Horovitz, Malcolm Troup and Maria Nockin.
SPONSORED: An Integral Part - Lindsey Wallis looks forward to the Canadian Music Centre's tribute concert to composer Roberta Stephen.
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The Danish composer Per Nørgård was born at Gentofte on 13 July 1932, the son of a draper, and studied in Copenhagen with Vagn Holmboe and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
Nørgård's early music was influenced by that of his teacher, Vagn Holmboe, and by that of Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen, but in the 1960s he began to experiment with some of the modern European compositional techniques, including his own brand of serialism based on his own 1959 discovery of the melodic 'infinity series'. Later, in the early 1970s, he also developed harmonic and rhythmic infinity series, and used all three techniques in his third symphony.
Besides composition, Nørgård is also a writer of articles about his thoughts on music, both technical and philosophical.
CD Spotlight. Timeless Sandscapes - Symphonies by Per Nørgård impress Gerald Fenech. '... superlative performances ...'
CD Spotlight. Northern Landscapes - Symphonies by Per Nørgård, recommended by Ron Bierman. 'It's hard to imagine a more ideal presentation ...'
CD Spotlight. Sacrificing the 'unmodern' - Music by Julius Röntgen and Per Nørgård, heard by George Balcombe. 'How could any audience resist ... ?'