Music of the Abyss

Rued Langgaard's (1893-1952) inner division can be experienced at it's extreme in the chamber music written between 1913 and 1924, in which the secure world of his youth is undercut by a dark musical understream. This is most apparent in the work for piano, Music of the Abyss, which is presented here in a transcription for chamber ensemble by Allan Gravgaard Madsen (born 1984) of which this is the first recording. This meeting between Langgaard and Gravgaard brings to a climax the work's view of modern man's destructive strength in a crazy ride towards the abyss.