The Nielsen Nexus

[vandermolen]

Cool! (If only it had been the Schuman Violin Concerto )

I totally agree with your Schuman comment Karl.

[vandermolen]

Very nice, Jeffrey. If only they would have performed Nielsen's "Violin Concerto" instead of Schumann's. Who was the violinist by the way?

Thanks John. Thomas Zehetmair.
Here is a review:
https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-23-storgards-zehetmair-bbc-philharmonic-july-2016
One of my friends said that the performance of the Nielsen made the second movement sound like Shostakovich's 4th Symphony and it was an incredibly intense experience. As for recordings I like the new Gilbert recording but the most anarchic side drummers feature on Jascha Horenstein's Unicorn recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and on the just released Barbirolli recording. After the concert I'm tempted to get the Storgards recording but that is only part of a complete set of the symphonies on Chandos.

[The new erato]

I totally agree with your Schuman comment Karl.

Yes, one of my favorite violin concertos from the last century.

[Scion7]

re: your Proms concert - I will be watching YT in case someone posts anything from it there

[Karl Henning]

...And I've always thought that Nielsen's Violin Concerto is inexplicably poor compared to his other works.

I've never considered the Violin Concerto at all disappointing. To me, that would be like finding fault with L'oiseau de feu because it isn't  Le sacre du printemps.

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[Karl Henning]

You like that piece? It seems rather meandering and long, anyway not surprised it is so infrequently performed.

I do like it, though I also remember mild disappointment on my first hearing. I got over it 

Time to listen again, to be sure ....

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[North Star]

I've never considered the Violin Concerto at all disappointing. To me, that would be like finding fault with L'oiseau de feu because it isn't  Le sacre du printemps.

Hear, hear, Karl.

[prémont]

I've never considered the Violin Concerto at all disappointing. To me, that would be like finding fault with L'oiseau de feu because it isn't  Le sacre du printemps.

Thi is certainly common sense.

[Karl Henning]

You like that piece? It seems rather meandering and long, anyway not surprised it is so infrequently performed.

And (with both respect and affection) wouldn't a Wagnerite incline towards "meandering and long"? 

[Mirror Image]

Thanks John. Thomas Zehetmair.
Here is a review:
https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-23-storgards-zehetmair-bbc-philharmonic-july-2016
One of my friends said that the performance of the Nielsen made the second movement sound like Shostakovich's 4th Symphony and it was an incredibly intense experience. As for recordings I like the new Gilbert recording but the most anarchic side drummers feature on Jascha Horenstein's Unicorn recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and on the just released Barbirolli recording. After the concert I'm tempted to get the Storgards recording but that is only part of a complete set of the symphonies on Chandos.

Thanks for the info, Jeffrey. I have to voice an opinion of indifference to Storgards' Nielsen set (w/ the BBC Philharmonic). I think the performances lack the drive that's needed in the music, which conductors like Bernstein, Oramo, Gilbert, Chung, among others supply by the truckloads. I'm not trying to steer you away from that set, but think the Oramo would be a better way to go (if you feel you would like another Nielsen symphony cycle).

[vandermolen]

Thanks for the info, Jeffrey. I have to voice an opinion of indifference to Storgards' Nielsen set (w/ the BBC Philharmonic). I think the performances lack the drive that's needed in the music, which conductors like Bernstein, Oramo, Gilbert, Chung, among others supply by the truckloads. I'm not trying to steer you away from that set, but think the Oramo would be a better way to go (if you feel you would like another Nielsen symphony cycle).

Thanks John. I'm afraid that temptation got the better of me before I read your post and I have ordered the Storgards set . However, I read a very good review of the performance of Symphony No.5 and as this is the one I heard Storgards conduct I shall still look forward to hearing it. I like Oramo's recording of Prokofiev's 5th and 6th symphonies which I recently acquired - so I shall look out for his Nielsen cycle. I thought that Sjorgards recording of the Korngold Symphony was rather underrated. I don't think that I have a complete Nielsen cycle by a single conductor. I have the Bernstein/Ormandy cycle and the historic Jensen/Tuxen one plus many individual recordings of symphonies 4-6.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks John. I'm afraid that temptation got the better of me before I read your post and I have ordered the Storgards set . However, I read a very good review of the performance of Symphony No.5 and as this is the one I heard Storgards conduct I shall still look forward to hearing it. I like Oramo's recording of Prokofiev's 5th and 6th symphonies which I recently acquired - so I shall look out for his Nielsen cycle. I thought that Sjorgards recording of the Korngold Symphony was rather underrated. I don't think that I have a complete Nielsen cycle by a single conductor. I have the Bernstein/Ormandy cycle and the historic Jensen/Tuxen one plus many individual recordings of symphonies 4-6.

Well, perhaps you'll enjoy Storgards much more than I did. I do hope that BIS boxes up their Oramo cycle someday or even better if Oramo conducts more of Nielsen's music (hopefully with the same orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic).

[vandermolen]

Well, perhaps you'll enjoy Storgards much more than I did. I do hope that BIS boxes up their Oramo cycle someday or even better if Oramo conducts more of Nielsen's music (hopefully with the same orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic).

I'll report back in due course. Yes, I noticed the Oramo are only available separately and are a bit pricey - so, holding back for the moment.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Not mainly Nielsen, but plenty:

There's Something Wonderful In The State Of Denmark

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/17/theres-something-wonderful-in-the-state-of-denmark/#7a50e5cc5a73

[Turner]

Thank you for the link. Some refreshing thoughts in the article, such as likening Nielsen a bit to Martinu, and Langgaard a bit to Rheinberger and Rautavaara. Though capricious, perhaps, another step in widening the horizon as regards the often somewhat provincial reputation of Danish culture. And dealing with the largely unknown, even in his own country, Leif Kayser, is highly unusual.

[calyptorhynchus]

Can someone help with some information.

I remember reading somewhere, though I can't remember where, that after Nielsen had completed his 29 Small Preludes for Organ FS 136 the Church Music Board of the Lutheran Church looked them and approved their use except for two of them (and can't remember which two).

However at the time I listened to a recording carefully and the two that the Church didn't approve seemed very similar to the others. The only reason I could think of at the time they might have rejected them was that these two alluded to Danish songs that were too secular or indelicate.

Does anyone know the reason?

[Turner]

I browsed a few internet sources including Danish ones, and the three books I own about Nielsen (Carl Nielsen Companion, and Steensen´s and Jensen´s biographies), but didn´t find the exact pieces that were criticized. It seems that the criticism came from Povl Hamburger (music critic) and Knud Hjortø (an author), among others.

Hamburger criticized them in Dansk Musik Tidsskrift magazine. The main reason is not given in the summary I have, but he also wrote, that they were too old-fashioned stylistically. He wrote that only nos. 14 & 29 were appropriate for the church music of the day.

Hjortø wrote briefly, that some of the preludes lacked a solemn atmosphere or they were maybe even too humorous, in the magazine "Vor Ungdom" (Our Youth).
Nielsen then gave a detailed answering, in the same magazine.

However, reviews after the first performance (28 of them, in Skovshoved church, by Poul Schierbeck) were positive. There was a complete performance later, in Skt. Johannes Church, by Peter Thomsen.

There´s an English article about the set of organ preludes here, including the mentioning of 2 further ones composed about a year after the first set of 29:
http://img.kb.dk/ma/cn/forord/CNU_II_12_13_pr.pdf

[DaveF]

The story as I've read it is that the original dedicatee, one Johannes Hansen, though that all the preludes were unsuitable for church use (and Nielsen cheerfully agreed, but said something like "They'll get used to them").  The first performance omitted only one which the performer, Poul Schierbeck, thought unsuitable - no.23.  But I wasn't aware of any actual intervention by the church.

[Karl Henning]

Most interesting.

[calyptorhynchus]

After typing my question I went back to try to find where I might have gained the information, and of course it was exactly where you'd expect, in the CD notes to the Bis recording (by Elisabeth Westernholz).

These notes, by Knud Ketting, state that:
1. Nielsen himself on one occasion said that nos 8, 9, 15, 18, 22, 26 & 28 of the Preludes were 'definitely not suitable for Church use in our time'.
2. At the premiere Poul Schierbeck refused to play no.26
3. Soon after, however, all 29 were played in a Church by Peter Thomsen.

So I misremembered about two of them being not authorised.

However, as I said, they all sound suitable to me, none of them sound frivolous.

Which reminds me of another story: when Havergal Brian was a young man, in the 1890s, he worked as a church organist. He was reproved, however,  for playing extracts from the Ring on the organ in his practice sessions!