Old ode shines on new CD
review
R
Rachel Einarsson2 min read|5. April 2024
It is all about bringing a particular ode from around 1500 up to the present day.
Aros Guitar Duo has set out to do just that by playing six different versions of Morten Børup's ”In vernalis temporis” on the duo's album ”In Time”, released on 5 April 2024.
The result is a truly interesting, well-functioning and festive staging of the old number.
It is a fantastic idea: to have one theme with variations as the subject of a release. It is so well conceived. And a melody, moreover, that has such a long history in our own country and deserves to be kept alive, as it turns out. The scrap of melody ”In vernalis temporis” has its value extended, as it were, by this album; like an object suddenly placed into a painting, where it falls naturally in with the painting's other parts, which complement the object and make it shine in a completely new way.
Aros Guitar Duo is rooted in Aarhus in several ways. And in several respects the album works as something of an Aarhus story - but in a slightly different and somewhat more successful way, one might add. The two friends and later musical colleagues Simon Wildau and Mikkel Egelund met in Aarhus. They were trained here, and here they often listened to the city's town hall bells, which every day, when the clock strikes 12.00, alert the city's citizens to the fact by ringing out precisely Morten Børup's ode ”In vernalis temporis”. Morten Børup (1446-1526), who was likewise a prominent figure in Aarhus, among other things as rector of Aarhus Katedralskole for a number of years, also contributes nicely to the whole Aarhus idea of the release.
All six entries were composed by Danish composers in 2018-21, and it is moreover an exciting line-up of composers; different in musical characteristics and territories, age and styles. But in the end they all form a fine coherence with one another, which is also part of the idea of the album. It is permitted to experience the whole album as one unified work in six parts, we are told in the booklet.
It is not difficult.
The task is approached differently; with Rasmus Zwicki we are invited into a foundational tonal world where the music practically floats around and tries to find its form. It is like a dream universe, where ”In vernalis temporis” does not exactly show off in clear presence, but only slowly emerges and steps forward at the end. John Frandsen's version, by contrast, is fire and flame from the start: there is practically fire in the guitar in a catchy, fiery play of tones.
Please read the rest of the review at Klassisk bureau: New link