Axel Borup-Jrgensen: Organ Works (CD, SACD, Our Recordings)

The smallest fluctuations and nuances in Axel Borup-Jørgensen’s music can have the impact of an earthquake. It is a music born out of stillness. It is a quiet modernism, where the silences speak just as insistently as the few, but decisive, outbursts.

The present recording provides an overview of Borup-Jørgensen’s small but highly distinctive oeuvre for organ. Borup- Jørgensen’s unique and surprisingly numerous works for the “King of Instruments” set him apart from many of his contemporaries. In addition to writing highly individual solo works, six of the pieces recorded here call for additional musicians, from Strophen (1962), an expressionistic setting of a text by Rainer Maria Rilke for voice and organ, to Portal for percussion and organ, op.181 (2009), a work composed for concert in honour of his 85th birthday.

Joining organist Jens E Christensen on this sonic journey are percussionist Mathias Reumert, mezzo-soprano Pia Rose Hansen, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen, and Lars Sømod, second organist on organo per due, op.133.1 (1989).