Langgaard's Lyre

[vandermolen]

I didn't know Langgaard had founded a Boring Music Society?!!

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/was-the-founder-of-the-boring-music-society-a-neglected-genius/

An interesting, if somewhat arrogant and I'll-informed, article. I certainly don't agree that it was 'all downhill' from the First Symphony (which is not the greatest in my view). Nielsen may have been the greater composer but there are aspects of Langgaards' output, which I find more appealing, especially Symphony 4 and 6, Sinfonia Interna and 'The Music of the Spheres'.

[Biffo]

I didn't know Langgaard had founded a Boring Music Society?!!

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/was-the-founder-of-the-boring-music-society-a-neglected-genius/

I have to say that I found the article more than a bit patronising. I recently worked my way through the symphonies and found them uneven but No 6 is excellent and if any of them are going to enter the repertoire it stands the best chance (possibly along with No 15). I found more of Strauss than Nielsen in many of the symphonies but also plenty of individuality.

[Madiel]

Woe, woe to the reviewer who dares to have an opinion that the fans do not like.

[Karl Henning]

Woe, woe to the reviewer who dares to have an opinion that the fans do not like.

Well, if Jeffrey is right, arrogance and poor information are greater vices than entertaining a variant opinion.

[Madiel]

Well, if Jeffrey is right, arrogance and poor information are greater vices than entertaining a variant opinion.

If.

[Madiel]

For one thing it's perfectly obvious to me the downhill reference was to the state of Langgaard's career after the 1st Symphony, not to whether his 1st Symphony was best.

[vandermolen]

For one thing it's perfectly obvious to me the downhill reference was to the state of Langgaard's career after the 1st Symphony, not to whether his 1st Symphony was best.

I don't know enough about Langgaard's public reputation at the time of his First Symphony. Maybe it's a bit like suggesting that Glazunov's reputation was 'all downhill' after his First Symphony success when he was about 16. Was Langgaard ever popular? I'm glad that it's 'perfectly obvious' to you because it certainly wasn't to me.

[vandermolen]

Woe, woe to the reviewer who dares to have an opinion that the fans do not like.

Surely the reviewer and the fans are entitled to an opinion. It's known here as democracy.

[relm1]

For one thing it's perfectly obvious to me the downhill reference was to the state of Langgaard's career after the 1st Symphony, not to whether his 1st Symphony was best.

I thought the young Langgard was very highly regarded and his bitterness took hold at his subsequent neglect since he held on to more traditional direction when the trends were for nationalism and Nielsen basically was the national voice.  So in some of Langgaard's works, you have a feeling of "but I can do that too".

[SymphonicAddict]

I have to say that I found the article more than a bit patronising. I recently worked my way through the symphonies and found them uneven but No 6 is excellent and if any of them are going to enter the repertoire it stands the best chance (possibly along with No 15). I found more of Strauss than Nielsen in many of the symphonies but also plenty of individuality.

Bolded text: I agree with those statements.

[vandermolen]

Bolded text: I agree with those statements.

+1 in addition to symphony 4 (my favourite), 10 and The Music of the Spheres.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

For one thing it's perfectly obvious to me the downhill reference was to the state of Langgaard's career after the 1st Symphony, not to whether his 1st Symphony was best.

That's how I would be reading it... and that would certainly be a succinct but accurate description of his career.

[vandermolen]

Interesting and very positive comparative review of the new CD on Musicweb today:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Sep/Langgaard_symphonies_6220653.htm

[cilgwyn]

At his best,Langgaard's symphonies have what I might describe as a wild,wide eyed,"visionary" quality which elevates them above some more mundane late romantic symphonies I have encountered. I don't think it's too silly to place his Sixth symphony,for example,amongst those of Nielsen,as one of the most striking and compelling scandinavian symphonies. There is an intensity to his imagination there,which really is quite extraordinary. I can fully understand why Chandos chose a Van Goch painting for the front of the Jarvi cd. Also,parts of the Fourth symphony have a similar visionary quality and intensity. The "nature painting" isn't just pretty,post card scenery. There is an ecstatic, pantheistic quality which lifts it above mundane pictorialism (at least for me!). Rob Barnett,in his Musicweb review,thinks that "It is staggering to think that this piece was written during the Great War by a composer still only 23".

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Langgaard455.htm#ixzz5SIANUKLK

[vandermolen]

At his best,Langgaard's symphonies have what I might describe as a wild,wide eyed,"visionary" quality which elevates them above some more mundane late romantic symphonies I have encountered. I don't think it's too silly to place his Sixth symphony,for example,amongst those of Nielsen,as one of the most striking and compelling scandinavian symphonies. There is an intensity to his imagination there,which really is quite extraordinary. I can fully understand why Chandos chose a Van Goch painting for the front of the Jarvi cd. Also,parts of the Fourth symphony have a similar visionary quality and intensity. The "nature painting" isn't just pretty,post card scenery. There is an ecstatic, pantheistic quality which lifts it above mundane pictorialism (at least for me!). Rob Barnett,in his Musicweb review,thinks that "It is staggering to think that this piece was written during the Great War by a composer still only 23".

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Langgaard455.htm#ixzz5SIANUKLK

I very much agree with you cilgwyn. Also the particular VG painting chosen for the cover of that fine Chandos disc was the quite extraordinary 'Cornfield with Crows' which links VG directly with 20th Century Expressionism. I just bought/smuggled in that animated film about Van Gogh.

[SymphonicAddict]

I very much agree with you cilgwyn. Also the particular VG painting chosen for the cover of that fine Chandos disc was the quite extraordinary 'Cornfield with Crows' which links VG directly with 20th Century Expressionism. I just bought/smuggled in that animated film about Van Gogh.

+1

There is a sort of transcendent quality on those specific works (4 & 6), above all the 4th, which is arguably his best symphony overall. From the very beginning I find it thought-provoking, almost esoteric, that strong horn call with the timpani is gorgeous, and the subsequent fragment in the strings, for me, is fascinating. A quite effective beginning for a work. Somehow, I feel identified with the mood of this score, it's something beyond me to be honest.

[relm1]

At his best,Langgaard's symphonies have what I might describe as a wild,wide eyed,"visionary" quality which elevates them above some more mundane late romantic symphonies I have encountered. I don't think it's too silly to place his Sixth symphony,for example,amongst those of Nielsen,as one of the most striking and compelling scandinavian symphonies. There is an intensity to his imagination there,which really is quite extraordinary. I can fully understand why Chandos chose a Van Goch painting for the front of the Jarvi cd. Also,parts of the Fourth symphony have a similar visionary quality and intensity. The "nature painting" isn't just pretty,post card scenery. There is an ecstatic, pantheistic quality which lifts it above mundane pictorialism (at least for me!). Rob Barnett,in his Musicweb review,thinks that "It is staggering to think that this piece was written during the Great War by a composer still only 23".

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Langgaard455.htm#ixzz5SIANUKLK

I have a somewhat contrarian view of Langgaard.  He is a good composer.  NOT a great composer.  That means I enjoy a lot of his music and much of it is frustrating to me.  Some I find amazing, deep, and complex, and some I find deeply bland.  He is inconsistent in a way the great composers aren't.  The style isn't a problem at all, it is the inconsistency of quality.  I thought this new recording by the Vienna Philharmonic was excellent but the work isn't exceptional, it is just good with exciting moments.  I love Antichrist opera and many of Langgaard's works but he is a pretty good composer.  For example Bruckner is an average composer with some great works and some inferior ones.  Langgaard falls in that category.  Still worth hearing, recording, and exposing people to.

[cilgwyn]

I did say,"at his best"! I would reply in more depth,but I've got things to do!! Hopefully,later!

[vandermolen]

+1

There is a sort of transcendent quality on those specific works (4 & 6), above all the 4th, which is arguably his best symphony overall. From the very beginning I find it thought-provoking, almost esoteric, that strong horn call with the timpani is gorgeous, and the subsequent fragment in the strings, for me, is fascinating. A quite effective beginning for a work. Somehow, I feel identified with the mood of this score, it's something beyond me to be honest.

Very much my view of Symphony 4 as well.

[Rinaldo]

So in some of Langgaard's works, you have a feeling of "but I can do that too".

This. I wonder where his musical mind would've taken him if he wasn't handicapped by jealousness.