Hemsing, Eldbjorg / Salonen, Esa-Pekka - Hillborg: Violin Concerto No. 2 CD
To mark the 70th birthday of Swedish contemporary composer Anders Hillborg, award-winning conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are releasing an album of some of his best-known works. Together with violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing and soprano Hannah Holgersson, they have recorded Hillborg's compositions: Liquid Marble, Kväll and the Violin Concerto No. 2.
Anders Hillborg has become one of the leading contemporary classical composers of our time, whose works have been commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Among the renowned musicians he has worked with are clarinettist Martin Fröst, soprano Renée Fleming, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, violist Lawrence Power and renowned conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel and David Zinman.
In the orchestral piece Liquid Marble, Hillborg experiments with extremes. The ascending cascades of sound in the introduction, the rapid runs of the strings and woodwinds and an ecstatic ragtime episode are just some of the elements of the work. As in many other works, Hillborg wants to inspire the listener with an evocative title. He explains: "Liquid Marble is a contradiction that I hope can evoke associations with the music."