The Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen is now in his mid-40s and is represented in the CD catalogues by a symphony from 1974 (Kontrapunkt, 7/95) and two string quartets (Marco Polo) and a handful of other pieces. He studied in Copenhagen with Per Norgard and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and is one of the disciples of what is called ‘the new simplicity’. The earliest work on this disc is Winternacht (1976-8), both its companions, the Marchenbilder and the Lied in Fall, written for the late lamented Christopher van Kampen, the soloist on this CD. Abrahamsen is gifted with a sophisticated aural imagination; he has a sensitive ear for sonority. His fellow Dane, Poul Ruders is quoted as having called Winternacht “dreamingly poetic”, and there is no doubt that he possesses a keen, gentle sensibility. Having said that, I should add that the textures, while changing subtly, are ultimately static; there is no lack of activity but little real musical movement. Perhaps this is why at the end of all three pieces I felt a little let down and short-changed. Others may feel differently and there is a fresh and individual sound world that many may find a sufficient reward. The London Sinfonietta under Elgar Howarth play with their usual dedication as does Christopher van Kampen.
Lastly comes a transcription of a commanding late piano piece by Nielsen. Abrahamsen feels that there is “something in the Nielsen that was not resolved on the piano” (I wonder if he has heard Arne Skjold Rasmusen on Danacord or Leif Ove Andsnes on Virgin, 7/96, play them) and thinks that “our image of Nielsen has been a little too conservative”. Along with the Clarinet Concerto, the Three Pieces, Op. 59, are the most forward-looking and searching of his later works. I don’t think Abrahamsen’s arrangement makes them any more effective or telling or “resolved” than Nielsen’s original: indeed quite the reverse. The opening of the first sounds clumsy in his transcription and the opening of the second loses its bite.'