Abrahamsen: Left, alone album review — magic and mystery from a miniaturist

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The success of Hans Abrahamsen’s mesmerising and personal song cycle Let me tell you a decade ago brought the Danish composer to international notice. Now aged 70, he has written plenty of other music, both before and after, for those who want to explore further.

This disc brings together two substantial works with orchestra — Left, alone (2015), effectively a piano concerto, and Ten Sinfonias (2010), both recorded live with the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne — plus a short filler for brass and percussion called Two Pieces in Slow Time (1999).

In the spirit of much new music at the moment, Abrahamsen is something of a miniaturist, at his most memorable when he is focused on detailed motifs or combinations of sounds. He also has a fascination for fairy tales and the chill of winter, themes that combined in his recent opera, The Snow Queen.

Those fingerprints are present here, too. Six miniature movements make up Left, alone. The title refers not to loneliness, but a piano solo conceived for left hand only, reflecting Abrahamsen’s own weakness in his right hand. The music threads its way through contrasting terrains of mystery and occasionally danger, until it blossoms in a fairytale magic kingdom at the end, all beautifully realised by soloist Tamara Stefanovich.

Ten Sinfonias started life as a string quartet way back in 1973, and it may seem that not much extra is gained from its enlargement to an orchestra based on a Baroque line-up, but this is another intriguing set of miniatures. Magic and mystery again lie in wait.

★★★★☆

‘Abrahamsen: Left, alone’ is released by Winter & Winter