The Launy Grøndahl Legacy – Volume 4
Carl NIELSEN (1865-1931)
Maskarade, FS 39 (1904-1906)
Jeronimus - Holger Byrding (bass)
Magdelone - Ingeborg Steffensen (mezzo)
Leander - Thyge Thygesen (tenor)
Henrik - Einar Nørby (bass-baritone)
Arv - Marius Jacobsen (tenor)
Leonard - Poul Weidemann (tenor-baritone)
Leonore - Ruth Guldbæk (soprano)
Pernille - Ellen Margrethe Edlers (soprano)
Night Watchman and Master of the Masquerade - Georg Leicht (bass)
A tutor - Niels Juul Bondo (baritone)
Knud JEPPESEN (1892-1974)
The Eagle and the Beetle, FS 39 (1949) [28:03]
Danish Radio Choir and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Launy Grøndahl
rec. Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Studio One, live, 28 January 1954, (Maskarade) and live concert, 5 September 1954 (Jeppesen)
No text for Maskarade; printed English translation for The Eagle and the Beetle
DANACORD DACOCD884 [72:34 + 48:50]
This performance has been something of a Danacord staple and you may well have encountered it before in one of its prior guises, such as on DACOCD357/9 where it was coupled with Jensen’s performance of Nielsen’s Saul and David. It was broadcast in January 1954 before an invited audience in Studio One of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. For the broadcast a narrator was employed to signpost the plot ramifications, the necessity for which is removed in a recording so Danacord has excised the narration. It notes that a few brief moments eluded them, but you’ll find those moments few and far between.
There is tremendous vitality in this reading, which is clear from the overture where the boisterous scurrying immediately establishes a credible theatrical charge. Einar Nørby is ever the stage animal as Henrik, Leander’s valet, and richly characterful, whilst Thyge Thygesen, as Leander, sounds plausibly youthful and vibrant. Comic scenes can fall flat in broadcasts but not here; sample the ‘Ember Court’ scene in Act I. Magdelone is taken by Ingeborg Steffensen whose mezzo has an attractive sting when required and Holger Byrding, who assumes the role of Jeronimus; his folksy-hymnal denunciations are thoroughly accomplished. The heroine Leonore is played by Ruth Guldbæk, one of the best known of the cast members, and her finely focused soprano adds significantly to the success of the performance.
As for Grøndahl he ensures a supple and stylish turn of phrase, and his rhythms act as propulsive paragraphal points throughout the action. He allows the music’s near-Wagnerian moments – try Leander’s passage Se Henrik in the middle of Act 2 – to unfold gracefully but never hothouses the direction. The music’s many moments of wit and humour are given their due weight. The Danish Radio Symphony plays with great eloquence and sense of colour; refinement too in the Prelude to Act 2, which is beautifully moulded. The chorus too is on excellent form and never swamps the aural picture.
Danish broadcast standards were at something like their zenith here; the sound is clear and beautifully balanced. Though it’s not quite complete this production remains something of a triumph.
The coupling in this twofer is Knud Jeppesen’s The Eagle and the Beetle, which seems to be making its first appearance on disc. Composed in 1949 it takes Aesop’s fable as its source material and is cast for chorus and orchestra. The morality tale was adapted in five movements by the choir’s assistant director Niels Møller, though this is then compressed into three sections and the result is like a choral symphony. The orchestral writing is raptly descriptive and there is much that is dramatic, even brassy, including a memorable fugato section and fine alpine horns, the whole work ending with ethereal delicacy as the music recedes ‘into the blue’.
Once again, the orchestra, its chorus and the inspirational Grøndahl, who never seems to have conducted with anything less than full conviction, bring the music powerfully to life.
There is memorable music-making to be heard here and production standards prove to be just as fine.
Jonathan Woolf
