Carl August Nielsen

Nielsen - Concertos

Nielsen - Complete Piano Music

Nielsen’s piano works are among the most original and characteristic in the repertoire. There is no mistaking his idiosyncratic musical voice, his sense of joy of discovery and invention, and spirit of imagination and adventure. Nielsen’s complete piano music encompasses the full diversity and range of his creative output. Though he never aspired to brilliance as a performer, Nielsen’s piano works are nevertheless marked by his intimate knowledge of the instrument and his awareness of the its creative and expressive capabilities. From the symbolist-inspired music of the 1890s to the highly modernist Three Pieces, these works constantly attest to the richness of his imaginative vision.

Nielsen - Chamber Music Volume 2

The Violin Sonatas and works for Solo Violin

Carl Nielsen’s works for violin, both with and without violin accompaniment, have never achieved the same dizzy heights of popularity as his Wind Quintet, but they do give us a very wide-ranging picture of the composer. The Sonata No. 1 was avant-garde for its time, and was treated with suspicion upon its première in 1895. His last work for solo violin from 1928 was just as experimental, but was received with much more respect, because in the intervening period he had won the status of a national icon.

Nielsen - String Quartets Volume 2

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) took Danish music into the 20th century, and his chamber music holds a prominent position in the international repertoire. Following on from the immensely successful first volume released last year (which won an Editor’s Choice and was nominated for a Gramophone Award), Dacapo are delighted to present the second volume. The String Quartet in F minor was first performed during the young composer’s visit to Berlin in 1890 and was admired by the most influential musical personalities of the time. The E flat major quartet was published in Copenhagen ten years later with a dedication to Edvard Grieg.

Nielsen - The Collector’s Edition

Whilst his works may not show the influence of his country’s literature and landscape as overtly as does Sibelius (with many of his works bearing distinct echoes of the Kalevala and, at times, it is almost easy to see the forests and lakes that he knew and loved), Nielsen is a composer who absorbed the distinctive atmosphere of his homeland. His scores are clear and forcefully argued, he used progressive tonality rather than resorting to the atonal techniques being practiced elsewhere in Europe. His modern reputation is based primarily on his six symphonies but, as can be heard in the other works in this collection, he was adept in many musical forms. A number of modern composers now acknowledge their debt to the group of composers in various countries who developed tonality rather than turning their backs on it – Bartók in Hungary, Janácek in the Czech lands and of course Sibelius and Nielsen and it is interesting to note that more and more commentators have indicated the growing interest in and importance of this music. The majority of the recordings were made in Copenhagen with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt (Symphonies, Concertos and Tone Poems) and Mogens Wöldike (Choral works) in the first half of 1970s. Other works have been added to these thereby giving the listener a wide and fairly comprehensive survey of this influential composer. Like some other great composers – Bach, Mozart and Schubert for example – whose works have been catalogued by experts, Dan Fog and Torben Schousboe have completed this task for Nielsen and this set includes this FS numbering as the prime identification. Dates of composition are also included and Opus Numbers where and when they were allocated.

Nielsen - The Symphonies Volume 1

The most important Danish composer of the first part of the twentieth century, Carl Nielsen was prolific in almost all genres. Dissociating himself strongly from Late Romanticism, Nielsen orientated himself increasingly towards the new currents in European music without at any time abandoning his very personal and idiosyncratic style. The Six Symphonies, which become increasingly adventurous as the cycle progresses, are essentially tonal, emotionally direct works, which alternate long lines of melody with passages of blazing energy. The exuberant Symphony No. 1 is here coupled with the enigmatic Symphony No. 6, which has been described as “music of clear sunlight and sudden shadows

Horn

The Fibonacci Sequence, now well established as one of the foremost chamber ensembles in Britain. Composed of musicians of international repute, the Fibonancci Sequence is distinguished by the variety and imagination of its programming. Here, they explore the repertoire for horn with founder member and renowned horn player Stephen Stirling with an international reputation as a chamber musician. The repertoire on this disc presents Richard Strauss' symphonic tone poem 'Till Eulenspiegels’, the beguiling ‘Idyll for horn and string quartet’ by Alexander Glazunov, Mozart’s Quintet in Eb KV407 (386c) for horn and strings with the unique scoring pairing violas rather than two violins, Koechlin’s ‘Four Pieces’ (or tiny vignettes) for horn, violin and piano, the beautiful oddity 'Serenata in Vano' for cello, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn by Carl Nielsen and Poulenc’s uniquely scored Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone.

Nordic Showcase

Christian Lindberg conducts the Nordic Chamber Orchestra

Nielsen - Chamber Music Volume 1

Nielsen - String Quartets Volume 1