The Launy Grøndahl Legacy - Volume 1
Carl NIELSEN (1865-1931)
Symphony No.2 The Four Temperaments, Op.16 (1901-02) [34:26]
Symphony No.4 The Inextinguishable, Op.29 (1914-16) [36:06]
At the Bier of a Young Artist (1910) [4:36]
Maskarade: Hanedans (Cockerel’s Dance) (1904-06) [4:36]
Symphony No.3 Sinfonia espansiva, Op.27, excerpts (1901-11) [11:02]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No.4 in B flat major, Op.60 (1806) [34:17]
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major Hob.I: 105 (1792) [21:54]
Johanne Karstens (soprano), Holger Bruusgaard (baritone)
Waldemar Wolsing (oboe), Carl Bloch (bassoon), Leo Hansen (violin), Alberto Medici (cello)
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Launy Grøndahl
rec. 1931-56
DANACORD DACOCD881 [70:48 + 76:31]
Danacord’s Launy Grøndahl retrospective is more than welcome. It opens with one of his best-known monuments, the famous 1951 HMV recording of Nielsen’s The Inextinguishable. This has appeared more than once on CD. If you are at all interested in historic Nielsen you may well have picked up Dutton CDCLP4001 when it was issued twenty or so years ago, where it was coupled with Thomas Jensen’s 1947 recording of The Four Temperaments (review review). That Second symphony is also represented in the first of the two CDs in this augural Grøndahl volume but this time in the shape of the live Grøndahl concert broadcast of June 1956 which Danacord issued in their historic symphony collection (review). For my money Dutton’s use of Cedar in its transfer of Symphony No. 4 slightly muffles the sound and I prefer the more open quality of the Danacord, where the percussion is certainly more defined.
The remainder of the concert offers a greater sense of novelty. Because Nikolai Malko and Fritz Busch were regular conductors in Copenhagen, Grøndahl – the permanent conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony – tended to be elbowed aside in favour of the eminent guests when it came to canonic repertoire. So, for example, rather than give Grøndahl the job of recording Mozart and Haydn in the late 40s and early 50s, HMV turned instead to the presumably more marketable international figure of Busch (review). The same is largely true of Beethoven as well and it’s equally telling that when the Ninth was performed in 1950 with the Danish orchestra it was Busch on the rostrum and the concert was recorded (review). Malko too took his fair share of important recording space (review) though less so in Beethoven. Grøndahl seems to have absorbed all this, even though it may have lost him some cachet when it came to HMV’s long international reach and distribution.
One advantage was that Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante had already been commercially recorded by Busch by the time Grøndahl came to perform it in June 1956. The same soloists are in their places as had recorded for Busch in January 1951. I wrote in my review of that Busch performance that it was a ‘robust, no-nonsense account, stylish, alert, splendidly prepared and well balanced. The string players have slim-line but attractively eager tones, nicely scaled and equalized though not overtly expressive. Violinist Leo Hansen plays with elfin eloquence in particular. Wolsing was an excellent oboist and makes his accustomed mark, as does bassoonist Carl Bloch.’ This Grøndahl performance is similarly purposeful and I wonder if he had prepared the orchestra before the Busch visit in advance of the recording. Bloch, incidentally, premiered Grøndahl’s Bassoon Concerto, a performance of which can be found in the second volume of this series which is devoted to the conductor’s compositions and is well worth acquiring. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, from the same concert, is big-boned and powerfully conceived with an eloquent slow movement. There are a few coughs and chair scrapes. The horns blare a bit in the recorded balance and early on the strings are decidedly recessed – things improve so I suspect the engineers rebalanced as the concert developed.
The remainder of the disc is given over to Nielsen. At the Bier of a Young Artist is from an HMV 78 and is beautifully done. The Cockerel’s Dance from Maskarade is the filler for the empty 78 side of the set of Symphony No.4, the recording that so thrilled a generation of Nielsen lovers. The final piece is the 13-minute segments of Symphony No.3 Sinfonia espansiva taken from the concert given in memory of Nielsen on 19 October 1931. One hears the voices of Johanne Karstens (soprano) and Holger Bruusgaard (baritone). This first appeared in a Danacord LP box set, subsequently reissued on a 6-CD set also called Great Singers and Musicians in Copenhagen: 1931-39 (review); the preserved sound is remarkable for its time.
The intention of this series is to present every surviving example of Grøndahl’s recordings, either studio or live. In the case of this twofer neither the Beethoven nor the Haydn has appeared before. The digital transfers in this volume are first class, as is the booklet. Novelty plus excellence equals success.
Jonathan Woolf
