Most of my early acquaintance with music was through the radio
in the 1950s. The then only Swedish radio channel broadcast
every weekday a programme called the ‘Gramophone Hour’. It mixed
popular and classical music, beginning with an overture and ending
with a march – or vice versa. A recurring favourite was a riveting
orchestral piece, in Swedish entitled Tango jalusi. Having
little knowledge in English in those days the word ‘jalusi’ was
a bit confusing, since this is the Swedish word for Venetian blind.
Even to a not-yet-teenager the music was so alluring that I was
sure it must be something more exciting than a blind. Then, one
day the radio announcer said something about svartsjuka
(literal translation ‘black sickness’ but meaning ‘jealousy’).
Then I figured out that in all likelihood some jealous person
was peeping through a Venetian blind. I have learnt a thing or
two since, but even then I knew that the composer’s name was Jacob
Gade and that he was Danish. The recording invariably played was
the Boston Pops (in Swedish The Boston Promenade Orchestra) under
Arthur Fiedler. When I later got a record player of my own I soon
found a recording with Mantovani and his Orchestra which was quite
good and less smarmy than some of his arrangements.
For many years I
thought that Jalousie was a one-off by some reasonably
gifted musician who had a lucky day. The present disc has a
different message: Jacob Gade was a multi-talented musician
who started playing as a child and at the age of nine made his
debut as trumpeter in his father’s ten-member band. A year later
he was invited to Copenhagen as guest soloist in the Tivoli
Band! He also learnt the violin and started composing; before
he was twenty he had his first compositions published. He worked
as violinist with various orchestras and was soon promoted to
conductor, first in entertainment and dance bands and later
in theatres and cinemas. He also appeared as solo violinist,
playing Paganini and Bach among other things. He spent a few
years in New York in his early forties, playing for two years
in the New York Philharmonic. Back in Denmark he continued working
with cinema orchestras but with the advent of talking film that
type of music became redundant. For some years he led entertainment
orchestras but then jazz made its entrance also in Denmark;
that was the end of his conducting career. From then on he concentrated
on composing.
Having been involved
in popular music for most of his life he still had the scope
for writing more large-scale works. His oeuvre has to be classified
as light music; nothing condescending in that. Well written,
well orchestrated music in this genre still has a hold on a
lot of people. The Strauss family’s works are as alive today
as they were in the 19th century. Naxos’s successful
series of works by Leroy Anderson – another composer of Scandinavian
extraction, his parents emigrated from Sweden – proves that
this is indeed evergreen music.
Pride of place –
occupying track 1 – goes to Jalousie, played here with
irresistible lilt. The Odense Orchestra need under no circumstances
feel second best to the Boston Pops. However peeping through
the Venetian blinds reveals gems of comparable lustre among
the other works here. Leda and the Swan is lyrical, evocatively
orchestrated, inoffensive but beautifully romantic ballet music.
The first movement, The first meeting, of Suite d’amour,
has a beautiful melody – why has nobody told me about this before?
– and the second movement, In love, is a truly catchy
tune. Rhapsodietta, is what the title tells us: a number
of melodies, loosely fit together. The opening is rather brash
but it is vital music and it is expertly orchestrated. The other
tango, Romanesca, has a violin solo in the opening, like
Jalousie, and after the slow introduction it is a rather
fiery work. Composed eight years after its famous big brother
it was probably intended to be another hit but never quite made
it. The rustic suite Wedding at Himmelspind is really
attractive. Himmelspind is a small place outside Vejle, where
Gade was born - in his youth he often played at village weddings
there, so he has surely caught the atmosphere. It is highly
entertaining throughout. The third movement The wedding feast,
with its roots in folklore, strikes a nostalgic note among Scandinavians
– it opens with rustic fiddlers. The Finale is riveting.
In the Viennese-inspired Valse caprice there is a long
violin solo, whereas Copenhagen Life felt more anonymous.
Possibly the pick of the whole programme comes last: the alluring
slow waltz Douces secrets, which is the earliest composition
here. It was published, as several other of his works, under
the pseudonym Maurice Ribot, foreign names obviously making
a good impression in those days.
The excellent Odense
Symphony is conducted with élan as well as a fine feeling for
lyrical beauty. Swiss-born Matthias Aeschbacher is the son of
the distinguished pianist Adrian Aeschbacher, whose DG recording
of Schubert’s Impromptus was an early favourite of mine. The
audio side is excellent and the surround sound gives the impression
of being there. It is hard to imagine this music better
performed.
Peeping through
the Venetian blinds into Jacob Gade’s attractive world was a
pleasing experience. The only jealousy I felt was towards those
who got to know this music before the blinds opened to me.
Göran Forsling
Odense Symphony
Orchestra/Matthias Aeschbacher 
[66:42] 
