SVEND NIELSEN
Butterfly Valley
Svend Nielsen, composer
Ars Nova Copenhagen
Tamás Vetö, conductor

About
Svend Nielsen (b. 1937) is an important figure in Danish music. He has written an impressive body of work in the Romantic-Impressionist tradition, and as a composer he balances between the lyrical and the succinct. This CD features Svend Nielsen’s most extensive vocal work Butterfly Valley, based on a famous sonnet cycle by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. It is poetic vocal chamber music that unfolds as a grand, sensual tour de force - a major work of contemporary Danish music.

Reviews
P2 Prize - DMA Classical 2007
Lyt til Nyt Prize

Politiken Critic's Choice 2007

Svend Nielsen commands an excellent lyric style and mixes in intriguing vocal effects for an engaging and captivating 45 minutes of music ... Ars Nova's performance is exquisite. They glide along with great ease while navigating some rather difficult passages. They truly sing with a single voice and have a great dramatic focus to their sound.
(Sequenza 21)

Ars Nova's performance is needle sharp when it comes to articulation, tuning and expression.
(Musicweb International)

Det er magisk smuk og suggestiv musik, der overbevisende møder udfordringerne i denne beruset-vemodige tekst om livsfølelse og dødsbevidsthed ... Hver sanger lægger sine egne penselstrøg med forfinet præcision, renhed og udtryksfuld smidighed, og Vetös følsomme ledelse tryller magien frem af detaljernes mylder.
(Politiken)

Sommerfugledalen er som at få en gave – et skrin der lukkes op og afslører alverdens skatte for øjne, sprogsans og øren. En magisk cd.
(Lyt til Nyt, Danish Radio)

Denne udgivelse er en begivenhed ... Ars Nova Copenhagen forløser værket forbilledligt med dets mange sanglige udtryk.
(Kristeligt Dagblad)

Ars Nova under Tamas Vetö synger dette moderne poetiske storværk aldeles fremragende.
(* * * * * Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten)

Credits
Recorded at Mariendal Kirke, June 2006

Recording producer: Preben Iwan
Sound engineer: Preben Iwan

Graphic design: Elevator Design
Publisher: Edition Samfundet,

Dacapo acknowledges, with gratitude, the financial support of Danish Composers’ Society, KODA’s Fund for Social and Cultural Purposes and KODA’s Collective Blank Tape Renumeration