Thomas Jensen (conductor)
Legacy - Volume 9
Leo Hansen (violin)
Alberto Medici (cello)
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra
Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra
rec. 1938-61, live and studio recordings
DANACORD DACOCD919 [2 CDs: 148]
Culled from diverse sources – both live and studio - these examples of Thomas Jensen’s legacy reveal his affinity with the lighter muse. From a Hans Christian Andersen concert broadcast of April 1958 – preserved thanks to Danish Radio – we have a slew of fine and vivid things, not least Emil Reesen’s sensitive melancholy, deployed most beautifully in the Intermezzo of his opera, The Story of a Mother. After Finn Høffding’s jovial neo-classicism there are extensive excerpts from the premiere of H.C. Andersen’s Picture Book by Henning Wellejus, the highlight of which is undoubtedly the drolly brassy March that inaugurates the final section heard here. Riisager’s Twelve with the Mail is always well worth hearing – deft pictures that manage to embrace ebullience and unfettered brio.
Fini Henriques was a multiple threat as a violinist, pianist and composer and the 1920 suite from his ballet The Little Mermaid features the well-known The Dance of the Joy of Life – and if that’s not enough to raise your spirits, nothing will. The remainder of the first CD comes from 78s. The July 1938 Riisager On the Occasion of… neatly fitted onto a single HMV 78. This was performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic as was the Paradise of Fools suite, recorded the previous year in September 1937. Brightly recorded, the strings can sound a touch shrill, but this ballet score is full of verve, tenderness and delicacy. The Procession of the Gluttons manages to be funny too. For Høffding’s It is Perfectly True, the Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra was engaged for this 1947 domestic Tono 78.
On the second disc we immediately run into somewhat meatier fare in the shape of Ebbe Hamerik’s 1932 Quasi passacaglia e fuga, an eleven-minute expressively rich and rather beautiful piece with light and serious elements held perfectly balanced in a capricious way. His suite from Marie Grubbe (1939) follows in this 1958 broadcast – bold, with scenes of Eastern bustle, highlighted by the wind and percussion, and full of felicitous tone depiction. Herman Sandby comes to the fore here in 1960-61 broadcast performances – he was still alive, and not to die until 1965. There’s a stormy The Vikings at Helgeland, a concert overture, and two subtly Delian Forest Impressions. There’s also Sandby’s 1958 Double Concerto for Violin and Cello – the last his own instrument – played by Leo Hansen and Alberto Medici. The concerto lasts a quarter of an hour and is cast in three conventional movements. It’s full of rhapsodic Delian fluidity with a richly melodic central movement and a truly giocoso finale, with lashing of Delian harmonies. This was its first performance, and one couldn’t have asked for more intuitive soloists. Three Danish Folk Songs, arranged for string orchestral by Launy Grøndahl - the last is exquisitely calm – end a programme of richness, variety and intriguing novelty, presided over by Jensen, a conductor of wide-ranging gifts, for whom the repertoire was second nature.
Fine transfers and even finer notes add to the pleasure of this twofer.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
CD1
Emil REESEN (1887-1964)
Intermezzo from the opera The Story of a Mother (1941) [5:55]
Finn HØFFDING (1899-1997)
Procession from the opera The Emperor's New Clothes (1926-27) [5:19]
Henning WELLEJUS (1919-2002)
From H.C. Andersen's picture book (1954): Andante sostenuto: Ole Lukøje arrives. Ole's dance [1:30]: Allegro: The Top and the Ball. The butterfly. The butterfly's dance.
The Spring Guys. The little Mermaid [5:54]: Allegro: The Nightingale. They talk in each other's mouths. They dance a gallop. The figures gradually disappear. The boy's lullaby. Ole's dance (and the disappearance) [6:20]
Knudåge RIISAGER (1897-1974)
From the H.C. Andersen ballet Twelve with the Mail (1942): January [2:21]: May [1:33]: August [1:32]: October [1:23]
Fini HENRIQUES (1867-1940)
Suite from the ballet The Little Mermaid (1920): Polonaise [2:03]: Menuet [2:58]: Valse lente [2:33]: The Dance of the Joy of Life [3:02]
On the Occasion of (1934): In the Black Pot [0:42]: Paul and his chickens [0:48]: Tinkle-tankle, tin soldiers [1:00]
Finn HØFFDING
Symphonic fantasy: It is Perfectly True! (1944) [8:16]
Knudåge RIISAGER
Paradise of Fools, suite (1936) [11:48]
Two Beggar-pupils Songs (1937): Now let us sing [1:35]: The song about the birds [1:53]
CD 2
Ebbe HAMERIK (1898-1951)
Quasi passacaglia e fuga (1932) [11:31]
Suite from the opera Marie Grubbe (1939) [18:18]
Herman SANDBY (1881-1965)
The Vikings at Helgeland (1920) [7:35]
From Forest Impressions (1938): Summer [5:26]: Autumn [5:46]
J.P.E. HARTMANN (1805-1900)
Triumphal March of the Nordic Gods from the ballet Thrymskviden (1868) [3:53]
Niels W. GADE (1817-1890)
Mariotta. Comedy play, overture (1849) [3:35]
Herman SANDBY
Double Concerto for violin and cello (1958) [15:19]
Three Danish Folk Songs: The song about Marsh Stig's daughters [1:18]: An Adorable and Joyful Summertime [1:51]: Folk song from Langeland [3:22] all arr. string orchestra by Launy Grøndahl
