And here we are again at the end of another month of marvelous music. I feel like if I could get around to doing more of these series for more individual nations/cultures, there would be so many gems to discover. … Continue reading Danish December: wrap-up
performed by Barbara Hannigan and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, or below with Hannigan and the Gothenburg Symphony under Kent Nagano Abrahamsen – let me tell you from Göteborgs Symfoniker on Vimeo. Hans Abrahamsen was born on … Continue reading Hans Abrahamsen: let me tell you
performed by the Odense Symphony Orchestra under Edward Serov (please note that the ‘third symphony’ on YouTube is actually his first. That’s an error. It’s a nice piece, but not the one we’ll talk about today. There’s no video available … Continue reading Ib Nørholm: Symphony no. 3, op. 57 ‘Day’s Nightmare’
performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Leif Segerstam I remember that every section of the symphony came to me, at strange moments, in a ‘complete vision’, like a sounding vision in time. Quoted from the composer, here (this … Continue reading Per Nørgård: Symphony no. 1, op. 13 ‘Sinfonia austera’
performed by the Kontra Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqBagXd55t8 In his book Surprised by Beauty, Robert R. Reilly suggests taking the Holmboe quartets in their published order, saying they might be the most challenging listens of everything the composer wrote. He hails Holmboe’s output … Continue reading Holmboe String Quartet no. 1, op. 46
performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard A week ago, we discussed Rued Langgaard’s first symphony, an enormous five-movement thing of craggy, youthful, ambitious Romantic music, if not a bit too ambitious for a kid of only … Continue reading Langgaard Symphony no. 12 ‘Helsingeborg’, BVN 318
performed by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Owain Arwel Hughes (sorry- no video for this work. I highly, strongly recommend purchasing at least whatever album the fifth symphony appears on, if not the entire cycle, but I can understand that that may … Continue reading Vagn Holmboe: Symphony no. 5, op. 35
performed by the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra under Frank Cramer, a world premiere recording, or below by the Danish Composers’ Society Niels Finn Høffding was born on 10 March 1899 in Copenhagen. He studied under a person I wanted to introduce earlier, … Continue reading Finn Høffding: Symphony no. 3, op. 12
performed by Steve’s Bedroom Band (I think) (more about that below), or from a very recent recording on Dacapo, linked below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFoE5Q_dg94 (second, third and fourth movements) Gustav Helsted was born 30 January, 1857, and was a composer. That’s literally … Continue reading Gustav Helsted: String Quartet no. 4 in Fm, op. 33
‘Mountain Pastorals’ performed by the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra under Ilya Stupel, or below by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard in what is likely a better performance, or this one with Segerstam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCS8hUZXJ-g&t=1s Rud Immanuel Langgaard (spelled … Continue reading Rued Langgaard: Symphony no. 1, BVN 32, ‘Klippepastoraler’
performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, with Soile Isokoski and Jorma Hynninen Nielsen’s third symphony premiered on 28 February 1912, in the same concert as the premiere of his violin concerto, this time with the composer on the … Continue reading Nielsen Symphony no. 3, op. 27 “Sinfonia Espansiva”
performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi So… The inevitable Carl Nielsen. This is (likely) the Dane you’re looking for. I’d written multiple articles on works of Nielsen in the past, but they’re kind of like the middle … Continue reading Revisit: Nielsen Symphony no. 1 in Gm, op. 7
performed by Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider, Amalie Malling & Morten Zeuthen (sorry, no video today… but here’s the album [with audio samples] or from iTunes, the score, and the parts for sale) Otto Valdemar Malling was born on 1 June, 1848 in Copenhagen (we’ll be … Continue reading Otto Malling: Piano trio in Am, op. 36
performed by the Omsk Philharmonic under Evgeni Shestakov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16j9gdRR55c Victor Emanuel Bendix was born on 17 May 1851 in Copenhagen, a Jewish Danish composer, student of Niels Gade (that again) and friend of one Carl Nielsen, who we’ve (briefly, long ago) … Continue reading Victor Bendix: Symphony no. 3 in Am, op. 25
‘Symphonie sérieuse’ performed by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard Asger Hamerik (sometimes spelled more German-ish as Hammerich, I am also guessing ‘Asger’ is the Danish equivalent of ‘Oscar’) was born on 8 April, 1843 in Frederiksburg, near Copenhagen. He … Continue reading Asger Hamerik: Symphony no. 5 in Gm, op. 36
performed by the folks listed in the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wa1sWhZd0g So there are a few reasons we’re doubling up on Gade this week. For one, I couldn’t find a recording (because apparently none has ever been made) of August Winding’s … Continue reading Gade String Quartet in E minor
performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Christopher Hogwood, or below by the Copenhagen Collegium Musicum under Michael Schønwandt (but I vastly prefer Hogwood) movements 3 and 4 here Niels Wilhelm Gade was born on 22 February, 1817 in Copenhagen, to … Continue reading Niels Gade: Symphony no. 6 in Gm, op. 32
Danish music! I’ll try not to make any comparisons, but I was just stunned by the volume and quality of Swedish music over the summer, preparing for September’s Swedish Symphony Series (awesome alliteration!), and this month, we’re doing Danish. There … Continue reading Danish December: a series
Fugue for Thought 