Niels GADE (1817-1890)
Erlkönigs Tochter, Op. 30 (1851-54; rev. 1864) [42:41]
Fünf Gesänge, Op. 13 (1846) [13:05]
Erlkönigs Tochter – Sophie Junker (soprano)
Die Mutter – Ivonne Fuchs (alto)
Oluf – Johannes Weisser (baritone)
Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Concerto Copenhagen/Lars Ulrik Mortensen
rec. live, Koncertsalen, DR Koncerthuset on 24-25 February 2017 (Tochter); Studio 2, DR Koncerthuset on 21 February 2018 (Gesänge)
Liner notes in English, German and Danish. The sung texts are available online.
DACAPO 8.226035 [55:48]
Niels Wilhelm Gade was the most important and influential music personality in Denmark during his lifetime. He was composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Also internationally he was respected and he befriended Robert Franz, Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, whose violin concerto he conducted at the premiere. Mendelssohn was also an important source of inspiration for his compositions. After Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 Gade was appointed chief conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig but had to resign and return to Copenhagen at the outbreak of the war between Prussia and Denmark in 1848. Among his compositions are eight symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music and works for piano and organ and a number of large-scale cantatas, of which Elverskud is the most famous – and most popular. According to Inger Sørensen’s biography on Gade it was performed at least 184 times during the composer’s lifetime, and it has retained its popularity.
The plot for this Ballad founded on Danish legends comes from a folk-ballad titled Elveskud (The Elf-King’s Daughter). Sir Oluf is going to be married but he has been seduced by some elf-maidens and says to his mother one night that he is going out riding. He is fond of his blond and blue-eyed bride-to-be but is also fascinated by the black-haired and dangerous elf-king’s daughter. His mother warns him but he rides away all the same. In the dark forest he meets the elf-maidens and the elf-king’s daughter. She tells him to stay but he refuses. She curses him but he rides back home. In the last scene the chorus sing a morning song, In the East the Sun Rises, and the mother is worried that her son hasn’t come back. When he finally arrives he is pale and his companion is Death. The epilogue is a short moral, where the chorus warns people to stay away from the elf-king’s daughter.
Musically this is arguably Gade at his most Danish, but he was keen to explain that the music is all his own, albeit inspired by the old ballad. It is partly rather idyllic music, the light and airy prologue for instance, the melody of which returns in the epilogue. Oluf’s ballade (tr. 3) – legendarily recorded by Aksel Schiøtz – is lyrically beautiful while Nacht, o wie stille (tr. 5) is threateningly mysterious when he rides into the dark forest while the French horns murmur in the background. The dramatic climax comes at the end of this scene with the tumultuous encounter with the elf-king’s daughter. The morning song (tr. 8) is the best-known number in this work, still sung as a cappella choir all over the Nordic area. There is strong operatic feeling in the dialogues between Oluf and his mother and the elf-king’s daughter and Oluf.
There have been previous recordings of Elverskud. Limiting the choices to fairly recent times I found two. In 1997 Dacapo recorded it with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra and Concert Chorus under Michael Schönwandt and 2001 Chandos set it down with Danish Radio forces under Dmitri Kitayenko. The latter I haven’t heard but the Schönwandt is an old friend since almost twenty years. It may look surprising that Dacapo makes a new recording, but in reality these are two different works. Schönwandt recorded the original version, finished in 1854, which was printed the following year. He used full symphonic forces and it was sung in Danish. Mortensen plays the 1864 version, which differs in many places from the original. This was the version that Gade used for the rest of his life when he conducted it, but for unknown reasons he never published it and after his death it fell into oblivion and it was only quite recently that the revisions surfaced in the collection of the Royal Library. Moreover the Concerto Copenhagen play on period instruments and the size of the orchestra corresponds to the forces Gade had at his disposal. It is also the first recording of Erlkönigs Tochter sung in German, in accordance with the original printed material published in 1855. So the two Dacapo versions complement each other. The Schönwandt is today available as a Naxos download at a very affordable price. The playing and choral singing on both discs is excellent, tempos are roughly identical and the solo singing admirable. I was truly impressed by Norwegian Johannes Weisser’s interpretation of Oluf on the Mortensen disc. He has both lyrical warmth and elegance – the ballade (tr. 3) and dramatic intensity in the scene with the elf-king’s daughter. Sophie Junker in that role sports a bright girlish lyric soprano voice but in the confrontation with Oluf (tr. 7) she musters some steel as well. Ivonne Fuchs as the mother has all the maternal warmth and care for the role.
The Fünf Gesänge Op. 13 that complete the disc are among the best a cappella song in the Nordic choral repertoire. They are impeccably performed here and makes the disc even more valuable.
Ideally one needs both the Schönwandt and the Mortensen but if the budget only allows one of them, go for the Mortensen.
Göran Forsling
