The Nielsen Nexus

[Sergeant Rock]

It is curious then that Rozh cuts the ending of the piece. Doesn't seem to be any reason (the CD could have accomodated the extra two minutes).

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

It is curious then that Rozh cuts the ending of the piece. Doesn't seem to be any reason (the CD could have accommodated the extra two minutes).

Sarge

I wonder if they just had "bad" source documents.

[Sergeant Rock]

I wonder if they just had "bad" source documents.

Yeah, could be. The recording is over twenty years old.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

"Foul papers" 

[Brahmsian]

Hello GMGers.    It has been awhile (Nov. 2014)

Just been so busy with work and life with my wonderful girlfriend. 

Have been listening to a fair amount of Nielsen lately.  Excellent complete chamber music set, and that beige Bostock set.    Marvelous music!

[jlaurson]

Hello GMGers.    It has been awhile (Nov. 2014)

Just been so busy with work and life with my wonderful girlfriend. 

Have been listening to a fair amount of Nielsen lately.  Excellent complete chamber music set, and that beige Bostock set.    Marvelous music!

Gratifying to hear and welcome back!

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Ray!

[Mirror Image]

It's certainly nice to have Ray back around.

Does anyone recommend a good Nielsen biography in English? I was looking at this one:

[asin]0714835072[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

Hello GMGers.    It has been awhile (Nov. 2014)

Hey, Ray. It's good to see the Nut in the house again 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

It's certainly nice to have Ray back around.

Does anyone recommend a good Nielsen biography in English? I was looking at this one:

I've found the Phaidon series good.  (I've not seen this one, but I've read those on Debussy, Sibelius & Bartók.)  Not extensive bios, but a good amount of meat on the bones.

[Moonfish]

It's certainly nice to have Ray back around.

Does anyone recommend a good Nielsen biography in English? I was looking at this one:

[asin]0714835072[/asin]

Like almost all Phaidon books it is very likely to be oriented towards photos/art rather than the written content. I suspect it is a very introductory biography. It seems as if no hardcore academic biography has been written/published (yet). 

I presume that you have already come across the 'Carl Nielsen Edition"?
http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/dcm/cnu/

This one looks interesting....
http://www.amazon.com/Nielsen-Companion-Mina-F-Miller/dp/1574670050

[vandermolen]

Hello GMGers.    It has been awhile (Nov. 2014)

Just been so busy with work and life with my wonderful girlfriend. 

Have been listening to a fair amount of Nielsen lately.  Excellent complete chamber music set, and that beige Bostock set.    Marvelous music!

Welcome back! 

[Mirror Image]

I've found the Phaidon series good.  (I've not seen this one, but I've read those on Debussy, Sibelius & Bartók.)  Not extensive bios, but a good amount of meat on the bones.

Yeah, Karl. The Phaidon books aren't bad at all. I've read the one on Schnittke and Bartok so far. Love the accompanying photographs. I still need to read the Sibelius one.

[Mirror Image]

Like almost all Phaidon books it is very likely to be oriented towards photos/art rather than the written content. I suspect it is a very introductory biography. It seems as if no hardcore academic biography has been written/published (yet). 

I presume that you have already come across the 'Carl Nielsen Edition"?
http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/dcm/cnu/

This one looks interesting....
http://www.amazon.com/Nielsen-Companion-Mina-F-Miller/dp/1574670050

Thanks, Peter. I have not seen those books actually. I'm probably going to get the Phaidon Press book mainly because I have good experiences with their books so far. I'm not looking for a biography that's exhaustive, but these Phaidon books seem to contain more than just a standard biography and usually have some interesting anecdotes to add along the way. Robert Simpson's book on Nielsen looks quite interesting as he compares Nielsen's and Sibelius' symphonies.

[Mirror Image]

The more I listen to Nielsen the more I begin to realize how much of a kinship I have with his music. I can listen to any Nielsen work and come away with some kind of gratification. He was remarkably consistent and everything he composed has his unmistakable voice. Some people here may not like him or consider him the equal to other important composers of the 20th Century, but, for me, Nielsen stands right along side Sibelius, RVW, Shostakovich, Ravel, Bartok, Debussy, Stravinsky, etc. What he did for the symphony is truly awe-inspiring. The way he kind of just spit in the face of convention. Like all great composers, he did things his own way and with a sharp ear and mind, but he never turned his back on the greats before him. Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart were three of his favorite composers and he had a deep affection for Wagner as well. On this 150th anniversary year, I am reminded time and time again of why I count him as one of my favorites.

[Mirror Image]

So what do my fellow Nielsenites think of his operas: Saul and David and Maskarade? I currently have Schonwandt's Maskarade out-for-delivery. I'm thinking about picking up Saul and David at some point as well.

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recording-carl-nielsen-maskarade.aspx

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 2 "The Four Temperaments," FS 29




Nielsen's Symphony No. 2, Op. 16 (1901-02) was inspired by a depiction of the four temperaments or "humours" -- long used to describe one's personality and physical characteristics -- on the wall of a village inn on the Danish island of Sjaeland. The composer fashioned a symphony based on the temperaments, cautioning that his treatment of them was not intended to be programmatic; instead, these four states merely provide an outline of the moods in the work. Nielsen described the musical depictions in the symphony's four movements thus: "... [T]he impetuous (Allegro collerico), the indolent (Allegro flemmatico), the melancholy (Andante malincolico) and the cheerful (Allegro sanguino). But the impetuous man can have his milder moments, the melancholy man his impetuous or brighter ones, and the boisterous, cheerful man can become a little contemplative, even quite serious -- but only for a little while. The lazy, indolent man, on the other hand, only emerges from his phlegmatic state with the greatest of difficulty, so this movement is both brief (he can't be bothered) and uniform in its progress."

In addition to displaying the composer's masterful talent for sonic portraiture, the symphony also demonstrates one of Nielsen's highly individual techniques, which he called "progressive tonality": a series of adventurous modulations that bypass the formal key relationships characteristic of most Classical and Romantic symphonies. Nevertheless, the influence of Brahms is clearly in evidence, especially in the third movement. After a few early performance, the symphony was not often heard until the 1960s, when Nielsen's genius began to receive wider recognition.


[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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For me, this symphony is what hooked me on Nielsen. It has all the ingredients of what was to become of the composer of such masterpieces as Symphony No. 5 or the Wind Quintet. What separates it from Symphony No. 1 in G minor is the usage of progressive tonality and we start hearing a constant duality in the music. From light to dark, day to night, etc., this symphony also has a grand sweep in the Romantic sense. The slow movement Andante malincolico is almost on the verge of breaking down with orchestral sighs and cries. This may not be a 'GMG favorite' but it's always had a special place in my heart. I love all of Nielsen's symphonies and each symphony is a world unto its' own. As far as performances go, Blomstedt's with the San Francisco SO really moved me the first time I heard it and always kind of remained my benchmark.

What about you guys?

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 4, "The Inextinguishable," Op. 29, FS 76




Nielsen began writing this work (Det Uudslukkelige in Danish) during the summer of 1915, and completed it two weeks before the first performance, which he conducted in Copenhagen on February 1, 1916. In addition to triple winds and full brass, Nielsen specified two sets of timpani, as far apart as possible on the stage. While Symphony No. 3, the Espansiva of 1910-1911, proclaimed his indubitable maturity, the Fourth (which he started planning in 1914) became Nielsen's equivalent of Beethoven's Eroica, just as the Fifth would be his counterpart of Beethoven's Fifth. Years before, he had written, "It is a fact that he who brandishes the hardest fist will be remembered the longest." Certainly the proximity and brutality of World War I influenced the conflicts in his Fourth Symphony, although the Fifth of 1921-1922 expressed his real horror. In the score of The Inextinguishable Nielsen wrote, "Under this title the composer has endeavored to indicate in one word what music alone is capable of expressing to the full: the elemental Will of Life. Music is Life, and like it is inextinguishable. The title...might therefore seem superfluous; the composer, however, has employed the word to underline the strictly musical character of his subject. It is not a program, but only a suggestion about the right approach to the music."

Taking a cue from Mendelssohn's Scottish and Schumann's D minor symphonies, he wrote all four movements of The Inextinguishable to be played without pause, beginning with a violent struggle between the keys of C major and D minor. More even than Franck's D minor Symphony, however, Nielsen's Fourth is a "motto" symphony based on the E major second theme of his opening Allegro. This is introduced in "sweet-sounding" thirds by a pair of clarinets, replaced by flutes, horns, and strings before the strident main theme returns to do battle -- not only in the development but during the recapitulation -- a contest won by the motto in the coda, although not decisively enough to forestall a later, even more vehement challenge in the finale. Without pause, the folk-colored Poco allegretto in G replaces a scherzo, piquant writing for winds that remembers Serenata invano of 1914 as much as it anticipates the Quintet of 1922 and the flute and clarinet concertos. Its principal subject derives from the motto theme, but Nielsen puts this on hold in the ensuing Poco adagio quasi andante, whose searing, starkly scored main theme is developed in two-part counterpoint, derived from old Netherlands polyphony according to one Nielsen scholar. A nervous, stuttering new theme increases the tension. While the movement climaxes in E major, this crumbles in the struggle between themes. Suddenly, the strings begin a wild race that plunges into a terminal Allegro whose swaggering main theme in E major declares itself, only to be challenged by two sets of timpani that duel brutally for control until E major can finally assert itself and hold. Triumphant, the motto theme invites both timpanists to punctuate the "inextinguishable" victory.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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This is another symphony that made a huge impression on me when I first started getting into classical music six years ago. Symphony No. 4, like Nielsen's other symphonies, is a world unto it's own. There's a sense of transcendence in this music, but, as common in Nielsen's music, there's a duality happening here. It's almost like a struggle between heaven and earth. The rhythmic element of the music seems to keep it grounded and this is especially evident in the first movement: Allegro. What does everyone at GMG think of this symphony? I think it's a masterpiece, but don't take my word for it, I'm quite biased. A few favorite performances: Blomstedt/SFSO, Schonwandt/Danish NSO, and Oramo/Royal Stockholm PO.

[Mirror Image]

I'm still curious about this photograph:



I know Hahn has been performing the Nielsen Violin Concerto in recent years, but I wonder if she'll get around to recording it? Anyone know?

[Moonfish]

Carl Nielsen is the "composer of the month" in the current issue of BBC Music Magazine!