Curio Corner
If Only They Had Written for Films –
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931).
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Symphony No.1. Symphony No.2 'The Four Temperaments'. Symphony No.3 'Sinfonia
espansiva'. Maskarade Overture. Aladdin Suite.
San Francisco Symphony
conducted by Herbert Blomstedt
DECCA
Double Decca 4609852 [67:55]
Crotchet
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Symphony No. 4 'The Inextinguishable'; Symphony No. 5
The Danish National Radio
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Schønwandt
Dacapo 8.224156
[75:56]
Crotchet
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Symphony No. 3 'Espansiva'; Clarinet Concerto; Overture: Maskerade
The Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Myung-Whun Chung
BIS-CD 321 [67:45]
Amazon
UK
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Opera: Maskerade
Danish Radio Symphony
Orchestra and Choir conducted by John Frandsen
Unicorn-Kanchana
DKC9073-4 (2CDs)
Back in the 1960s, I was once so impressed by some introductory music for
a TV drama series starring Donald Wolfit and Alan Badel, that I wrote in
to find out what it was. I discovered it was from Carl Nielsen's Symphony
No. 3 'Sinfonia espansiva'. Nielsen's music is very personal, highly individual
and very dramatic and emotional. Tragically for us, and like so many other
major 20th century composers, his life drew to a close in 1931 just as the
'talkies' were taking off.
The Danish composer Carl Nielsen was prolific in almost all genres: two operas,
six symphonies, three solo concertos, chamber music, piano and organ music
and a large number of songs as well as occasional music.
Despite being anti-Late Romantic his music has melody but it also has telling
and not unattractive dissonances. It has a Brahmsian classicism and embraces
features of European modernism. Nielsen was often vague about the meaning
of his music and he was loathe to reveal a programme but much of the material
for his symphonies is about life: its joys and turbulence. The symphonies
provide an agreeable introduction to his music. The Second Symphony has the
clearest meaning. It is explicitly mood music describing four human temperaments:
Choleric; Sanguine; Melancholic; and Phlegmatic. The Third Symphony I have
already mentioned and is probably the most tuneful and accessible of all
the Nielsen symphonies. The Fourth Symphony is about the inextinguishable,
elementary will to life. It is highly dramatic and is memorable for a dual
between two sets of timpani in the final movement. The snare drum, is strongly
featured in the Fifth Symphony. A fine new recording of both the Fourth and
Fifth Symphonies is available from dacapo in a distinguished series of all
the Nielsen symphonies recorded by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Michael Schønwandt. Adventurous listeners might want
to explore the comically quirky and intensely introspective Clarinet Concerto
again with an important snare drum contribution is on BIS coupled with a
wildly exuberant Maskerade Overture and the Sinfonia espansiva. The whole
of Nielsen's comic opera, Maskerade which has gained the status of a Danish
national opera, can be heard on the recommended Unicornp-Kanchana recording
listed here. It is a comic exposure of social morés, rigorous conventions
and riotous behaviour and it brims with good humour and invention. It has
the touch of a 'modern Mozart'
Ian Lace
Next Month –
Debussy
