DANISH SYMPHONIES OF THE LATE ROMANTIC PERIOD
Louis GLASS (1864-1936) Symphony No
5 Sinfonia Svastica (1916)
Rudolph SIMONSEN (1889-1947) Symphony
No 2 Hellas (1921)
Hakon BØRRESEN (1876-1954)
Symphony No 2 The Sea (1904)
Herman SANDBY (1881-1965) Symphony
No 4 (1955)
Danish Radio SO/Launy
Grøndahl
Mono ADD
rec Glass 22 Oct 1957; Simonsen 5 Sept 1954; Børresen 3 June 1954;
Sandby 19 Mar 1956.
DANACORD DACOCD 370-371
[CD1 54.15 + CD2
61.12]
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The forebears of this Danacord set are hinted at by the timings of each disc.
This was first issued as a 2LP gatefold set in the early 1980s. It even sports
the same apposite artwork.
Further back in time we owe the existence of these recordings to the ever-blessed
Danish Radio. Grøndahl, a composer in his own right, carved an enduring
reputation as a pioneer for Danish music and especially for Nielsen and the
late romantics. The recordings are all mono and show their age in varying
degrees but leave undimmed the concentration this conductor brought to radio
studio and concert hall.
The notes are by Danacord regular, Mogens Wenzel Andreasen, and serve as
a miniature guide to Danish symphonists active in the years straddling the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. So many names and so much more yet to
hear: P E Lange-Muller, Fini Henriques, August Enna, Ludolf Nielsen, Asger
Hamerik, Otto Malling, Victor Bendix, Jens Emborg, Peder Gram and Rued Langgaard.
In the company of Sandby, Børresen and Simonsen, Glass stands shoulder
high. He combines in the Fifth Symphony (ominously entitled Sinfonia Svastica
- but it is nothing to with the Nazi Swastika!) really memorable ideas
with a Tchaikovskian brilliance. His ideas strike home and convince with
their burning sincerity.
The symphony is in four titled movements: 1 Dayswork; 2 Rest;
3 Shadows; 4 Dawn. Dayswork has the vivacious rush of
In The South and Elgar's Second Symphony mixed in with Tchaikovsky
spliced with Nielsen. The movement's horn-lofted ecstasy and 'cracked' reeds
lend a chilly open air tang. The orchestra is good but there is a hint of
slavonic wobble in the horns. The other movements touch on the
Pathétique, contented Delian uplands, warm hazed days, dappled
autumn days and a great swoon of a sunrise. In the finale at 8.43 the darting
upward and downward strokes are so typical of Elgar 2. The recording and
some brief roughnesses of ensemble make this not the ideal (for that you
need to hear Michael Schønwandt's off-air 1982 tape with the DRSO)
but it is to be preferred to the earth-locked Marco Polo version. There are
signs (going by the issued Fourth) that Danacord's valuable premiere
intégrale of the six Glass symphonies will serve up a first preference
version of No. 5. Until then this historic mono version is the most spirited
and closest to the generous soul of the work.
Simonsen was a Nielsen admirer although the influence claimed for Nielsen
in the Hellas Symphony escapes me.
There are four Simonsen Symphonies - all from the 1920s:-
No. 1 Zion (1920)
No. 2 Hellas (1921)
No. 3 Roma (1923)
No. 4 Denmark (1925)
Hellas is a work of wirier sinew than the Glass. Of the four symphonies
on these CDs this is the one where the grit of the twentieth century is most
evident. The piercing tone of the woodwind, the treble-emphasis of the strings,
the grinding sustained high pressure recall two much later symphonies - Vaughan
Williams' Fourth and Stanley Bate's 1940 Third Symphony. Clawing, chasmal,
this is a slow wheeling tempest of a work (especially in the first movement).
The movements are entitled: The Orestie; Solitude by the Temples;
Pallas Athene.
The Børresen is another proposition altogether. Here we are in
neo-Schumann mode. While his very strong First Symphony and Violin Concerto
are dramatically Tchaikovskian this work is picturesque and with movement
titles (Surf, Summer, Tragedy Yachting) to prove it.
We are not that short of recordings either (see CPO and Da Capo) but
Grøndahl keeps up the pressure, always at the heels of his players.
The last three movements encompass a fruitily woodwind-embellished chase
with a memorably charming 'hiccupping' theme (2), an adagio influenced by
the great horn lament of Tchaikovsky 5 (3) and a Mendelssohnian finale. Do
not expect a highly impressionistic sea picture à la Nystroem or even
Alfvén. This belongs to an earlier era closer to Raff and Rubinstein
than Sibelius or Madetoja.
Herman Sandby was a much travelled cellist of world renown. He was first
cello with the Philadelphia for several years. He was also a close associate
of Percy Grainger indeed Grainger had designs on Sandby's wife (according
to John Bird, Grainger's biographer). The Fourth (of five) Symphony is the
only one of the four here to lack descriptive movement titles. Oddly enough
it is also the least symphonic. Its 'tongue' is Delian. It can be likened
to the sort of symphony you might have expected Delius to have written had
he leaned towards symphonies - a sort of cross between Brigg Fair and
North Country Sketches. The symphonic impulse is vestigial. The impression
is of a rhapsodic and opulent dance dream. I would still like to hear the
other four - 1 (1920), 2, 3, and 5 (1956).
A fine set of historic significance and generating considerable interest
both for what it is and as an 'overture' to future recordings of the complete
Glass, Sandby and Simonsen. The 'axle' work here is the Glass - a work which
will yet secure a prominent reputation and, more to the point, great affection
among music-lovers. Recommended.
Rob Barnett
In case of difficulty copies can be ordered from:-
Discovery Records Ltd
discovery.records@virgin.net
phone
01672 563931
fax
01672 563934
or Danacord via their website at
www.danacord.dk
