Johannes Søe Hansen, Christina Bjørkøe – Works for Violin & Piano (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:20 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Dacapo
All of Vagn Holmboe’s (1909-1996) works for violin and piano are on this CD, which contains the three violin sonatas and a handful of other small pieces for the same instruments and for solo violin. This music is from the chronological extremes of his long career, which lasted from the 1920s until the 1990s. The violin was Holmboe’s own instrument and his violin works show a decidedly extroverted love of music-making. Much of the music is inspired by the folk music that Holmboe encountered and studied at the beginning of the 1930s in the Balkans and Transylvania, but also by the relatively neglected Danish fiddling tradition.
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Christina Bjørkøe – Fini Henriques: Piano Pieces (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:17 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dacapo
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the generation of Danish composers born in the 1860s started to make an impact. Among them, Fini Henriques, who had a special gift for beautiful, well-shaped melodies, and his popularity rested firmly on a generous output of single pieces, usually strung together in collections such as those presented here by Christina Bjørkøe. Billedbogen (The Picture Book) is a collection for children and proved one of his absolute bull’s eyes, whereas Erotik (Eroticism) and Melodiske profiler (Silhouettes) see the composer exploring the world of adult life. Henriques’s best works maintain a high level with their honesty and that brilliant touch which few of his contemporaries could rival.
Read moreChristina Bjørkøe – Animal Universe (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:41 minutes | 1016 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dacapo
The challenge of the Etude has intrigued and inspired composers from Bach and Chopin on: can music designed to improve technique hold its own aesthetic value?
Pianist Christina Bjørkøe has an inspired answer to that question. She commissioned a set of three animal etudes from twelve composers and here presents the charming, evocative and very useful musical menagerie that resulted. From flea to hippo, beginner to professional, there is something for everyone.