Hakon Borresen - Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 1

Hakon BORRESEN (1876-1954)

Violin Concerto In G-Major, Op. 11 (1904)

Symphony No. 1 In C-Minor (1901)

Rebecca Hirsch (Violin)

Aalborg Symphony Orchestra

Owain Arwel Hughes

Børresen, a Danish composer, sported a Norwegian name. This was down to his Norwegian grandfather who moved to Denmark in the early 1800s. Young Børresen was taught by Svendsen and travelled in Europe during the early 1900s. His violin concerto was given at one of Nikisch’s concerts. There are three symphonies to his name and all are here. His most famous work is probably the opera The Royal Guest although its reputation and Børresen’s has been largely restricted to Denmark and perhaps Germany.

The Violin Concerto (1904) dates from the same year as the Second Symphony. The first of the three movements is nearly a quarter of an hour long. In a striking theatrical gesture after the opening serious flourishes the violin begins a capricious theme out of a silence of several bars. At 9:27 a warm theme emerges from the accompanying strings and resurfaces at 12:25. The middle Adagio sings quietly without being wildly distinctive. The last movement has its fireworks but this is no empty Paganinian display. Shuddering strings and some drama mark out the movement. Overall this is a work of delicacy, warmth and charm. The Dvořák concerto is a counterpart. It radiates the same largely carefree character.

Make no mistake this work has some extremely attractive moments and is well worth hearing. It has quite a strong profile though written, I would imagine, under the thrall of the Tchaikovsky concerto…The Børresen is the sort of work that belongs in Hyperion’s Romantic Violin Concerto series alongside the Schoeck, Ivanovs and Bortkiewicz concertos.

Børresen was only 24 when he wrote the Symphony No. 1 (1901). The first movement alternates darkness with a certain bright intensity usually allocated to the strings. According to the always excellent programme notes, Børresen had heard Svendsen conduct the famous three Tchaikovsky symphonies as well as the Sibelius First before he wrote this symphony. This is gorgeous music —heavily derivative maybe but evidently written with a driving young ambition and impulse which his two later symphonies lack. Listen to the glowering sunrise effect at 7:40 Track 4—wonderfully sustained. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony can be heard in the second movement—allegretto. The third movement opens happily with chirping woodwind and a relaxed urbane demeanour. The last movement, while not consistently dramatic, has much drama about it and many stormy Tchaikovskian moments. This is the one movement which Nikisch agreed to present in Leipzig though Børresen refused wanting the whole symphony or nothing.

In 1953, the year before his death, Børresen added a note to the score saying that the second movement could still be played but ‘but hardly the symphony as a whole’. I am glad that we have heard this symphony and that we and future generations can enjoy it easily again. The music is sincere and the fact that it inhabits a sound-world borrowed very heavily from late Tchaikovsky and very occasionally early Sibelius should not in itself inhibit our enjoyment…and there is much to enjoy here.