Terje Mikkelsen undoubtedly has a certain sense for bringing great, unknown music to his listeners. He was the first to record Grieg’ symphony, and has recently released premiere recordings by composers including Svendsen, Halvorsen, Alnæs and Tellefsen. As the second recording in a close co-operation together with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Mikkelsen is releasing the highly rewarding and rich orchestral works of Finn Mortensen.
Generous modernism – through twelve-note music and beyond
Very much inspired by Bruckner, Finn Mortensen’s symphony is a structural masterpiece in a late romantic style, loaded in emotional content. It has been commented on how Mortensen, himself audibly (?) a natural romantic, could become the foremost spokesman for international modernism in Norway. To him twelve-note music possessed an obvious great potential for emotional expressivity. In the time to come his compositions became much freer, and in his ‘neo-serial’ compositional style of 1970 melodic and tonal elements played an important part.
Mikkelsen the ‘enabler’
“Something as rare as an extrovert, proactive, conductor. Mikkelsen is an enabler; one who makes things happen.” This is the characteristic from IMG’s Andrew Jaimeson, and it is a precise description of the man who studied with Mariss Jansons during his many years in Oslo, as well as with Panula at the Sibelius Academy. Now, some 50 CD releases later, Terje Mikkelsen inspires and gets results with the top orchestras. In 2010 he toured with St. Martin in the Fields in Spain. The same year In 2010 he brought the Tchaikovsky Orchestra for a big tour in the UK to great critical acclaim, returning in 2011 with Czech National Symphony orchestra. In November this year he will take the München Rundfunkorchester on a tour to Spain where they among other works will perform the first symphony by Eyvind Alnæs.
Crossing borders
Having held the post as Chief Conductor in Riga, Türingen and Kiev, Mikkelsen is also in demand for his great abilities with such artists as Misha Maisky, Renee Fleming, John Lill and Michael Rudy. Now in September 2011, Mikkelsen leads the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in a spectacular recording with Keith Emerson on piano and keyboards in his famous compositions “Tarkus”, “The Endless Enigma”, “Piano Concerto” and a world premiere of his newly written work, “After all of This”.
