The Elsinore Players på Bornholm 1976

This chamber ensemble - now almost legendary in Danish musical life - was formed at the beginning of 1975 on the initiative of the composer Karl Aage Rasmussen. Rasmussen was throughout the years responsible for programming and conducting in almost all concerts and recordings. Here is a brief review of some highlights in the career of The Elsinore Players: Debut or premiere in Copenhagen and Aarhus, May 1975, with Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, with Niels Pihl in the sovereign main singing role, plus the premiere of A Ballad of Game and Dream which is heard here, as well as dance pieces by Praetorius arranged by Poul Ruders and lute music by John Dowland as an overture to Davies’ work. Portrait concerts of the most significant Danish composers, for example Axel Borup-Jørgensen, Tage Nielsen, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Ib Nørholm, Poul Ruders, Hans Gefors, Jørgen Plaetner. Many premieres of works by Danish and foreign composers must of course not be forgotten. And first performances in Denmark of major international works that are classics today, for example El Cimarron by Hans Werner Henze, the above-mentioned Eight Songs for a Mad King by Maxwell Davies, Kontakte by Stockhausen, Kantri-miusik by Mauricio Kagel and many others. As well as a number of recordings for Danish and foreign labels, the most important of which was perhaps a highly acclaimed recording of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the world-famous English soprano Jane Manning. In 1978 The Elsinore Players were involved when Karl Aage Rasmussen founded the NUMUS festival in Aarhus, and in the subsequent years they were almost the house ensemble, here too with innumerable first performances, including chamber operas by Karl Aage Rasmussen, John Frandsen and Hans Gefors as well as first Danish performances of works by foreign composers including Peter Maxwell Davies.

Anmeldelse af Karl Aage Rasmussens "A Ballad of Game and Dream" og Svend Nielsens "Kammerkantaten"

af Erling Kullberg

Kort historie om Elsinore Players

af Erling Møldrup