[Cover graphic]
DACOCD 571-572 [ADD]		 Herman D. Koppel
Composer & Pianist, vol. 6
Requiem
Concertino for Strings No. 1 and 2
Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra
Chamber Concerto for Violin and Strings 		Return to Main Catalogue
 
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DACOCD 571 (CD 1)
Herman D. Koppel (1908-1998)
Requiem for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
Opus 78 (1965-1966)
53:57
[ 1 ]  Kain und Abel I. (Mo. I, 4, 1-2)
(MP3 sample Sound)
3:02
[ 2 ]  Hiob I. (Hiob III, 1-7)
2:45
[ 3 ]  Joseph. (Mo.I, 37, 12-28)
7:23
[ 4 ]  Kain und Abel II. (Mo. I, 4, 3-5)
2:47
[ 5 ]  Hiob II. (Hiob VI. 14-15, XVI, 18)
(MP3 sample Sound)
4:36
[ 6 ]  Jephtah. (Richter XI, 30-36)
6:36
[ 7 ]  Kain und Abel 111. (Mo. 1. 4, 6-8)
4:20
[ 8 ]  Hiob III. (Hiob XXX, 16-18, 20-23)
3:05
[ 9 ]  Psalm. (Psalm 27, 7 - 8 - 9)
6:34
[10]  Mose. (Mose II. 34. 29-32)
(MP3 sample Sound)
2:23
[11]  Matthäus - Jesaja – David
7:31
[12]  Psalm. (Psalm 33, 13-15)
2:49

Soprano solo / Jephta´s daughter: Lone Koppel
Tenor solo / Narrator: Ticho Parly
Job / Israel / Jephta: Rolf Jupither
Ruben / Joseph: Willy Hartmann
Juda: Mogens Schmidt Johansen
DR Symphony Orchestra
Danish National Radio Choir
, conductor
Concert recording Radio House Copenhagen 17.05.1982
 

DACOCD 572 (CD 2)
Concertino for Strings No. 1, opus 32
[ 1 ] Allegro con moto
6:45
[ 2 ] Andantino
4:20
[ 3 ] Allegro giocoso
5:13

DR Symphony Orchestra
Lamberto Gardelli, conductor
Recorded Copenhagen 1958
 
Concertino for Strings No. 2, opus 66
[ 4 ] Allegro
8:50
[ 5 ] Andante molto espressivo
3:54
[ 6 ] Molto vivace
(MP3 sample Sound)
9:30

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Rudolf Schwartz, conductor
Recorded London 06. 02. 1958
 
Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, opus 82
[ 7 ] Pastoral
(MP3 sample Sound)
6:27
[ 8 ] Rondo I
4:21
[ 9 ] Notturno
5:00
[10] Rondo II
2:05

DR Symphony Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor
Jørgen Hammergaard, oboe
Recorded Copenhagen 18. 02. 1971
 
Chamber Concerto for Violin and Strings, opus 83
[11] Tranquillo e fuendo
6:23
[12] Allegro moderato
6:15

DR Symphony Orchestra
John Frandsen, conductor
Milan Vitek, violin
Recorded Copenhagen 22.09.1972
 
HERMAN D. KOPPEL’s Requiem
For the biography of Herman D. Koppel, see DACOCD 561-562 		   
HERMAN D. KOPPEL's Requiem was written in 1965-66, the composer having begun the work one year after the completion of the oratorio Moses (1963-64). Moses was the legend about God's prophet, Moses; it started with the legend about the creation of man and ended with the death of Moses in the land of Moab. Beside Moses stood the narrative tenor and the lyrical soprano, each individualized, living their own life, having their own thoughts and feelings. In Requiem there is no principal character like Moses, and although both the tenor and the soprano reappear as persons of the same character as in Moses, they resolve more and more, getting involved in each other's actions and in other people's situations just as we all, wilfully or against our will, interfere in each other's fate. Where Moses was a dream, Requiem is a rude awakening: nothing is any longer what it ought to be, nobody is fully and completely himself, everybody carries each other in unsteady hands. Moses began with creation, but Requiem begins at the point where, apparently, man stands alone beyond God's protection and His reach - at the births of Cain and Abel. The work contains five stories from the Old Testament, all dealing with the relationship between a few human beings in situations where we live as each-other's brothers, daughters, and parents; there are the stories about brothers (Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brethren), stories about father and daughter (Jephthah and his daughter), about the completely isolated man (Job), and finally about a man in harmony with God but in confict with the others (Moses on Mount Sinai). All these stories have been broken into several independent movements, intermingled as in everyday life, forming together a world of actions and words rent by hatred, despair, loneliness, and fear. In the last movement but one, with words from i.a. the Sermon on the Mount, we perceive for a second the harmony and bliss coming from ourselves, which might be ours if only we could be oblivious of what we have seen and heard in the preceding movements and live with each other again. But the last movement reveals what was hidden to us all before: God's face, which, together with us but without our knowing it, has heard and seen all what happened to Abel, Joseph, Moses, and Jephthah's daughter, and the inexorability of his voice irredeemably takes away the possibility in ourselves, which is our last hope. Now we are really alone and, like the last movement of the Requiem, this loneliness will last forever.
Anders Koppel

Oboe Concerto, opus 82 (1970)

The concerto was written on the commission of the Danmarks Radio and frst performed by the soloist of this recording, Jørgen Hammergaard, the late solo oboist of the DR Symphony Orchestra. The orchestration is rather sparse: two futes, two clarinets, two basoons, two horns, celesta, harp, percussion (vibraphone, xylophone, triangle), and strings. The concerto has four movements:
1. Pastoral (andante)
2. Rondo I (allegro)
3. Notturno (adagio)
4. Rondo II (presto). The Pastoral opens with a seven-tone chord spread over five octaves, the individual tones being introduced from above and sustained until the chord has been built up, whereupon the soloist starts on an eighth tone which forms the beginning of a melody shaped on the material of the seven-tone chord. The Notturno is based upon the same material as the Pastoral, but in an entirely independent form, reminiscent of Lady Macbeth's sleep- walking scene from Koppel's opera Macbeth. Similarly, Rondo II is a new moulding of Rondo I, but it is true of all four movements that they emanate, melodically and harmonically, from the seven-tone chord opening the work. The solo part has an improvised character, capri- cious or contemplative, as if it were musical associations of the oboe aroused by the suggestions of the orchestra.
Gunnar Heerup

Concertino for Strings no. 1, opus 32

Herman D. Koppel: “In 1938, when I had composed Concertino for Strings opus 32, Svend Chr. Felumb, the conductor of Tivoli’s Symphony Orchestra, asked to do the frst performance.
But after the first rehearsal he got cold feet. He wrote to me: 'Our audience is rather reactionary when it comes to modern 'problem music'. I know my audience so well and stand with it every night. I am thinking principally of you as a composer and wonder whether or not you will have the success you expect? You know that personally I embrace contemporary Danish music with great interest and I don’t want you to think that I am letting you down.'
Eventually, Felumb performed one of my earlier pieces and the frst performance of the Con- certino was given by the renowned Thomas Jensen with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.” Today it is hard to imagine that this smiling piece, with its singing melodies and jumping rhythms, could ever be objectionable to an audience.

Concertino for Strings no. 2, opus 66

Herman D. Koppel: “I have never been inclined to formulate a musical program or subscribe to any form of system thinking. For me it is essential that a musical process occurs within limits, otherwise its tones become weightless - like a shot into empty space. On the other hand you must be free to follow your own direction and the direction of the material. Processes that are too abstract do not beneft art. But sometimes I have, as a composer, dipped my toe into the twelve-tone pond. The frst time was with my Concertino opus 66 in which the start of the frst movement is built on monodic melody in twelve-tone series. The theme is developed in the two following movements, at frst rhythmically, then in the manner of tempo and playing."

Chamber Concerto for Violin and Strings, opus 83

The Chamber concerto opus 83, composed directly after Herman D. Koppel’s oboe concerto, is a rather late example of his outstanding ability to write for the violin – a skill he developed throughout a lifetime collaboration with his brother, Julius Koppel and his sister-in-law, Else Marie Bruun Koppel – who were both leading violinists on the Danish music scene. With its interaction between sublime legato and frantic rhythm, the concerto provides a wide variety of tone-colour, making it a worthy vehicle for great violin playing in the traditional style.