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Programme Note

SURF – for chamber orchestra (1983/1992).

The original version of SURF (in Danish "Brænding") for small ensemble is from 1983.
In 1992, for a ”Nørgård 60 years” concert, the composer Hans Abrahamsen made a new version – for sinfonietta.

Nørgård writes about the composition:
SURF is a short piece, 5-6 minutes, commissioned by the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende in 1983 for the final concert in their yearly Chamber Music Contest (for teenagers). The ensemble then – consisting of the finalists - was two flutes, clarinets, horn, piano and accordion).

Together with my work for sinfonietta “Prelude to Breaking” the present “Surf” is the nearest I have come to tone painting in music, here the raising and falling of waves – their roars and final dissolution into silence.

Per Nørgård (1992)