Arne Nordheim composed his single-movement cello concerto Tenebrae (''Shadows'') in 1982. The commission—from Rostropovich—prompted him to compose a series of three interrelated works for the instrument between 1980 and 1983: the short solo piece Clamavi, the concerto itself and finally Wirklicher Wald, an intense and impassioned setting of Rilke's poem Todeserfahrung (and two verses from The Book of Job) for soprano, cello, chorus and orchestra. Tenebrae is one of Nordheim's finest achievements, a compelling, nightmarish work, containing music of visceral impact, not least in its central section where a ghastly and terrifying apparition is invoked out of the darkness. Although sounding aleatoric in places, Tenebrae is always notated exactly and unlike many of Nordheim's scores involves no electronics.
Magma was written six years later for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra's centenary in 1988. It is a violent work, hissing and seething like some vast subterranean lake of boiling, molten rock held under ferocious pressure, forever in flux yet constant in substance. The treatment of the musical material reflects its subject: in perpetual metamorphosis but with the raw intervals intact and recognizable. The Oslo orchestra under Yoav Talmi acquit themselves very well, although in Magma they do not display the sheer verve that the Dutch players under Jarvi brought to the premiere. Truls Mork is certainly on top of the solo part in Tenebrae and unless Rostropovich decides to record it, it is hard to see this being bettered.
With a total playing time of 47½ minutes, though, Aurora have not been generous; the inclusion of one of Nordheim's shorter early works (e.g. the Canzone of 1961) would have provided a rounder picture of the composer and better value. None the less, this reservation aside, the present disc deserves and duly receives an urgent recommendation.'