Variants . . . Ib Norholm
Icon of Read Tears - unattacked . . . Carsten Bo Eriksen
Rose-dΘcliΘ . . . Lars Graugaard
Cinque pezzi diversi . . . Rafal Augustyn
Partita for violin & piano . . . Lutoslawski
Musica Mirabilis is a young duo - Christine Pryn (violin) and Joachim Olsson (piano) - from Denmark. In the midday recital at the Hugh Lane Gallery on Sunday they presented three pieces by Danish composers and two from Poland.
Lutoslawski's Partita was not only the most substantial piece of the recital but also the one in which most happened. Musical events succeeded each other in sometimes unexpected ways, but creating their own logic as they proceeded. The playing was fiery, and the composer's allotting of certain choices to the instrumentalists seemed to inspire them.
Augustyn, another Pole, did not intend his five miniatures for public performance, but their popularity earned them that place. They are not only diverse, as in their title, but diverting illustrations of instructions provided - passione, vigore, tenerozza, etc. The movement con tenerozza is dedicated to Messiaen and has a flavour of the long slow solos of the Quartet for the End of Time.
A similar flavour was detectable in the pieces by Eriksen and Graugard. Long melodic lines like spun out passages of plainchant on the violin were accompanied by piano parts that might have been distanced sounds of nature. This highly introverted music might have been intended to soothe the listener into meditative mood.
Norholm's Variants (1959) shows the composer wavering between an advanced complexity and something more simple. It was far from soothing, but neither was it abrasive; it was a cautious search for a new direction, even if its statements were boldly expressed.
