Ophelia Dances

The idea of building great music from modest or fragmentary means has characterized the work of Nordic composers for generations. In Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen's music, that idea finds a particularly exquisite and absolutely contemporary expression. In Toccata the music glances towards a filmic chase-down, whereas Nielsen in Ophelia Dances claims to 'hear the dancing' of that fragile character from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The album concludes with Nielsen's single-movement symphony, Symphony No. 3, which sets in motion a cumulative journey upwards from low to high: a symphonic Tower of Babel, reaching for the heavens. All of the works on this release are world premiere recordings, and the album is being released to mark Svend Hvidfelt Nielsen's 60th birthday. Nielsen is also a gifted church organist, and on this album he plays the organ solo part in the Toccata.