The Nielsen Nexus

[Joe Barron]

Of the short orchestral pieces, no one has mentioned the Saga Drom yet. A beautiful, haunting work, with an unforgettable section for winds near the center. I also quite like the recurring five-note motif in the bass.

I was in Gettysburg over the weekend, and on the drive home I ilstened to my tape of the fourth and fifth symphonies: twice. bernstein in the fourth, Horenstein in the fifth. Tape also includes the Saga Drom (Horenstein) and At the Bier of a Young Artist (Blomstedt). Great comp[any on the long drive down Pa. Route 30.

[vandermolen]

Of the short orchestral pieces, no one has mentioned the Saga Drom yet. A beautiful, haunting work, with an unforgettable section for winds near the center. I also quite like the recurring five-note motif in the bass.

I was in Gettysburg over the weekend, and on the drive home I ilstened to my tape of the fourth and fifth symphonies: twice. bernstein in the fourth, Horenstein in the fifth. Tape also includes the Saga Drom (Horenstein) and At the Bier of a Young Artist (Blomstedt). Great comp[any on the long drive down Pa. Route 30.

Oh yes, Saga Drom is a wonderfully atmospheric piece. I also like the atmospheric 'Imaginary Journey to the Faroes Islands' - especially the opening section.  I have the old Unicorn CD (and LP) with Horenstein conducting Symphony No 5 and Saga Drom.  They are fine performances.  I especially like the performance of the symphony as it features the most manic and closely miked side-drummer in the free cadenza section.  I also like Raphael Kubelik's EMI recording of this haunting Symphony (surely another candidate for 'the greatest 20th century symphony' thread).

[Joe Barron]

Odd --- I never cared for Kubelik's version. The Fifth is a hard symphony to get right, I think. My favorites I guess are Horentstein's, Bernstein'sand Schmidt's. I also have the complete symphonies with Blomstedt and the SFS, and that's a very strong set, too.

[vandermolen]

Odd --- I never cared for Kubelik's version. The Fifth is a hard symphony to get right, I think. My favorites I guess are Horentstein's, Bernstein'sand Schmidt's. I also have the complete symphonies with Blomstedt and the SFS, and that's a very strong set, too.

Those are all good versions as, I think, is this one. It did not get good reviews but was, paradoxically, the No 1 choice (for Symphony No 5) of The Good CD Guide Top 1000 CDS:

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Those are all good versions as, I think, is this one. It did not get good reviews but was, paradoxically, the No 1 choice (for Symphony No 5) of The Good CD Guide Top 1000 CDS:

Interesting, I heard Rozhdestvensky conduct these very 2 symphonies in a Nielsen mini-festival here in Moscow a couple years ago. He really emphasized the quirky and odd elements in them.

[Joe Barron]

Happy birthday, Carl! Today, June 9, 2009, is Mr. Nielsen's 144th birthday. Princeton radio commemorated the occasion with a broadcast of the great Wind Quintet, which was interrputed during the variations by a severe thunder storm warning.

I don't think I ever told you guys this, but when I was in college, majoring in creative writing, I wrote a one-act play about Carl Nielsen. Like everything else I did for school, I have destroyed it.

[bhodges]

I don't think I ever told your guys this, but when I was in college, majoring in creative writing, I wrote a one-act play about Carl Nielsen. Like everything else I did for school, I have destroyed it.

  Wow, what made you decide on Nielsen as a subject, and what was the gist of the play?

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Fabulous juvenilia!

[Joe Barron]

 Wow, what made you decide on Nielsen as a subject, and what was the gist of the play?

--Bruce

It was a one act that took place just as Carl was completing his Clarinet Concerto in the late 1920s. It dealt primarily with his disillusionment over his career. I don't know what inspired it: we were sitting in class talking about subjects, and I suddenly got the image of Nielsen destroying a bust of himself with his cane. The bust was in progress, still soft, and was intended as a gift from his wife, Anne, a sculptress. It was kind of a hokey script, and rereadng it years later, I was amazed I got an A for it. Probably the best thing to come out of the class was that I introduced my prof to Nielsen's music.

There wasn't much information available on Nielsen's family back in the 1970s. I made his daughter, Irmelin, a homebody who bakes in her spare time. Turns out she was a well-known choreographer, quite prominent in Denmark, every bit as arty as the her parents.

The creative life is the hardest thing to depict onstage, I think. How does one portray the labors of a writer or painter or composer in a way that's dramatically interesting? Tom Stoppard did a great job in "Shakespeare in Love," but then his protagonist produced Romeo and Juliet, an objet trouve.

[karlhenning]

There wasn't much information available on Nielsen's family back in the 1970s. I made his daughter, Irmelin, a homebody who bakes in her spare time. Turns out she was a well-known choreographer, quite prominent in Denmark, every bit as arty as the her parents.

I trust you meant you met his daughter? . . .

[Joe Barron]

I trust you meant you met his daughter? . . .

No, I made her, that is, wrote her as a character. I never met her. Years after writing the play, I read about her in Jack Lawson's pictoral biography, the one published by Phaedon, and the only complete bio in English. I also learned that Nielsen and his wife were separated in the early 1920s. Carl had several affairs and fathered five or six illegitimate children during the marriage.

Irmelin died in 1974, just about the time i was discovering her father's music. Nielsen's other daughter, Anne marie, nicknamed Sos (or sister), lived until 1983, age 90. I was in Copenhagen in 1978, and had I known at the time she was still living, I would have tried to look her up.

Anne, Carl's wife, died in February 1945, just before the end of the Nazi occupation.

I often wonder if Victor Borge's family knew the Nielsens.

[bhodges]

The creative life is the hardest thing to depict onstage, I think. How does one depict  the labors of a writer or painter or composer in a way that's dramatically interesting? Tom Stoppard did a great job in "Shakespeare in Love," but then his protagonist produced Romeo and Juliet, an objet trouve.

Very interesting, Joe.  I am impressed that you would even tackle such subject matter!  As you say, it's difficult.

--Bruce

[Superhorn]

  I recently learned that Nielsen had a few illegitimate children from affairs he had with other women. For shame,Carl ! 
  As well as his two daughters, Nielsen also had a son who  unfortunately suffered from permanent physical diabilities.
  I don't know if the Chandos recording with Rozhdestvensky and the Danish RSO of the complete incidental music to the play Aladdin is still available, but I have it and you should seek it out. It features a chorus,
and at one point, the male singers have to sing through megaphones.
  Most intriguing. Most people know only the suites of music from the play.

[Joe Barron]

   As well as his two daughters, Nielsen also had a son who  unfortunately suffered from permanent physical diabilities.

Nielsen's son, Hans Borge, was mentally retarded. The composer also had a brother who settled in Chicago. Today there are many Nielsens in the Chicago phone directory.

[karlhenning]

Oh, but they cannot all be his descendants . . . .

[Joe Barron]

Oh, but they cannot all be his descendants . . . .

I don't know: if the brother was as horny as Carl apparently was ...


From Bill Mauldin:

"This is th' town my pappy told me about."

[karlhenning]

Any Nielsen scores under Jansen in p.d.?

[Joe Barron]

Any Nielsen scores under Jansen in p.d.?

What do you mean by "under jansen"? When I was working in publishing, the rule was that anything published in its final form before 1920 is public domain.

[karlhenning]

Although I have not actually listened to it for a couple of months, I find myself humming bits of the Violin Concerto all the time.

[Joe Barron]

In troth, 'tis a good thing to hum.