Drawn to the ‘twinkle in the eye’ in Carl Czerny’s Etudes, Knudåge Riisager (1897-1974) wanted them to ‘sparkle like the fizz in mineral water’ when he made his orchestral renderings in the late 1940s. When those scores were refashioned for a ballet, Riisager invested them with even more of his trademark buoyancy and colour but change was to come with the composer’s Violin Concerto of a few years later. The shift in style reveals the composer’s deep and developing thoughts on musical contrast, instrumental naturalness and concerto form and is realised vividly on this new recording from the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Ian van Rensburg.

Knudåge Riisager holds a special place in Danish music, enriching it with an extra dimension of spirituality and pithiness.

Etudes clearly represented a turning point in Riisager’s output. The music is a orchestral reworking of Czerny’s etudes, making free use of motifs and ideas for Riisager’s and Harald Lander’s ballet Etudes.

Etudes had its first performance at the Royal Danish Theatre on 15 January 1948, with the great ballerina role danced by Margot Lander. After this the ballet has gone from triumph to triumph over most of the world, and the music is thus unconditionally Riisager’s most frequently performed orchestral work.

Aarhus Symphony Orchestra are specialized in Riisager’s music, having recorded among other things his complete Symphonic Edition as well as other examples of his ballet music.