VCs on Dacapo

[Alan Howe]

Friends may be interested in this new CD of VCs from Dacapo...

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/?page=catalogue&id=7588&setlanguage=en

The three concertos it contains are those by Niels Gade, Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard.

Being a great fan of the Gade VC, I bought the CD for that particular work and am glad to say that the performance is splendid. For anyone unfamilar with the piece, this is late Gade (1880) - and very much all of a piece with other roughly contemporary VCs such as those by Reinecke and Dietrich. So, if you don't know it, here is a golden opportunity to acquire it on a CD with two other interesting rarities - of which more later...

[Amphissa]

I'm glad to learn of this release. It has not shown up on Amazon or Arkiv Music in the U.S. Will have to keep an eye open for it.

I'm also quite curious about the concerto by Langgaard. I'm never heard it, never seen another recording of it available. Would you care to comment on it?

[Alan Howe]

The Langgaard VC is a curious, but enjoyable piece. Only nine and a half minutes long, it has a prominent part for piano and gives the impression of being a sort of pastiche, with (as the sleevenote indicates) high-Romantic passages mingling with others of a more neo-classical flavour. Not really my cup of tea, but a nice filler for the other two VCs on the CD.

[Alan Howe]

The Lange-Müller VC is quite an original piece, sounding as though it is built on folk-like themes and having a rhapsodic feel throughout. It is occasionally very beautiful indeed and full of feeling. Highly recommended to those who don't know it!

[jimmosk]

Good to see this release, but if you really want to dive into the world of the Danish violin concerto, there's no beating this ten-disc set of twenty-six(!) violin concertos by everyone from Claus Schall (1757-1835) to Leif Thybo (1922-2001).

The complete box, reviewed at http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/feb99/danish.htm, is I believe no longer available, but the individual two-disc sets still are: http://www.danacord.dk/collections/violin.html.

-J

--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page:  http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction:  http://tinyurl.com/527t7

[Alan Howe]

True, although the recording quality of that (valuable) set is very variable, as is the quality of the music which it contains. The Gade VC, however, is a major neglected Romantic-era work and, with the excellent couplings on the new Dacapo CD, contributes to a thoroughly recommendable programme captured in superb modern sound and in top-flight performances.

[Pengelli]

 Re: Langgaard's VC. My experience of Langgaard is that he gets more into a couple of minutes of music than allot of more highly rated composers get into a whole hour! I also admire his total disregard for conventional form. His symphonic cycle is (to quote 'The Honeymooner's) a real riot! You never know what he's going to do next!
  Anyway,back to VC's. (The couplings sound good).

[Alan Howe]

There's very little of substance in Langgaard's VC, unfortunately. It's the makeweight on a great CD...

[Pengelli]

Oh dear,not one of his best,eh? (I haven't heard it yet). I find his symphonies fascinating. One of the Gramophone critics reviewing the complete cycle (I have them on separate cd's) described him as 'losing the plot' after No 2. But it's the diversity,and sheer eccentricity, of the cycle that I find makes his symphonies so enthralling. All that variety from one mind. At times quite wacky. I think  critics like that have a very conventional way of looking at things.
Another thing about Langgaard that impresses me is that however miserable and bitter he seems to have felt; it doesn't show in his music. I suppose it was his means of escape from his predicament,of course.
However,the other concerto's sound very interesting,and I'll have another  nine odd minutes of Rued,for the archive!

[albion]

Another thing about Langgaard that impresses me is that however miserable and bitter he seems to have felt; it doesn't show in his music. I suppose it was his means of escape from his predicament,of course.
However,the other concerto's sound very interesting,and I'll have another  nine odd minutes of Rued,for the archive!

I really love the music of Langgaard - the abrupt, kaleidoscopic sectionalism of his style very much brings Havergal Brian to mind. One of my favourite pieces is his sarcastic response to the acclaim which greeted Nielsen - the following is taken from the booklet notes for Chandos CHAN 9786:

Carl Nielsen, Our Great Composer (1948)
is one of the isolated composer's most
desperate – and sarcastic – utterances. In a
foreword to the piece (the whole text of which
is identical to the title) Langgaard complains
at having had to live and breathe in a musical
Denmark 'infested' by Carl Nielsen. Langgaard
was highly critical of Nielsen (1865–1931)
and his music, even though the latter was one
of Langgaard's most important sources of
inspiration around 1920. He submitted his
ironical tribute to Nielsen, which is 'dedicated
to "Musical life in Denmark" 1891–1948' to
Danish National Radio incomplete (only the
seven opening bars are fully scored)
accompanied by the acrid comment that the
orchestration could surely be completed by
Emil Reesen. Reesen was one of the people
who had assisted Carl Nielsen in the
orchestration of occasional music. The work
comprises thirty-two bars, and after the last
bar Langgaard dictates that the work is to be
'repeated to eternity!'. The present recording
of Bo Andersen's realisation of the score
attempts to indicate this.

[Pengelli]

He really,really did hate old Carl's guts,didn't he! Quite funny in a horrible sort of way. Of course,from our moral perspective, he should have been more philosophical,shouldn't he (?). But,my goodness,it must have so-o-o frustrating. I think I might have cracked too!
Funnily enough,I actually find Langgaard's music more rewarding than Nielsen's. I would honestly rather listen to Langgaard's best music,any day. Also, in his own way, I honestly think he's just as great a composer. As I said before,there is so much variety in his scores,yet he always manages to be his own man. Like Havergal Brian who was writing both 'The Tiger's' and the 'Gothic Symphony' at around the same time,you'll listen to some of his music and think,how could this have come from the same mind? Extroadinary! I honestly think that,in terms of of invention and sheer off the wall vision he very often left Carl Nielsen standing.
That's not to disparage Nielsen,who was of course,without doubt, a genius. But poor Rued certainly deserved his due!

[Alan Howe]

Nielsen or Langgaard? Are you serious? Langgaard is a fascinating composer, but I'll keep Carl over Rued any day. True greatness must out.

[eschiss1]

By way of an aside, my appreciation of Nielsen's music went up very considerably (though I don't think my opinion was ever very low) when I became acquainted with his better vocal music.  Some of his songs, even early strophic ones, are exceedingly charming, inventive (harmonically for example) and memorable and seem to shine lights on aspects of his personality that the symphonies and concertos by and large, I think, don't.  Anyway! (And the opera Saul og David (?) besides being very good music is related to the symphonies it's contemporary with in intriguing ways )
Eric

[Peter1953]

I like Gade's VC very much. This is what you can expect of a real romantic concerto. The Lange-Müller is quite pleasant too, and Rued Langgaard's work... well, it's curious.
But, Pengelli, is Carl Nielsen a genius indeed? Could be. I only have one CD, the Naxos coupling his VC (not too bad, the work has its moments), the Clarinet Concerto and the Flute Concerto. I don't like these wind concertos at all. They don't trigger me to buy other works by Nielsen.

[albion]

They don't trigger me to buy other works by Nielsen.

The heart of Nielsen is found in his six symphonies: to begin with the 'classical' first and work through to the eccentricities of the sixth is a wonderful journey. I would strongly recommend Blomstedt and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra on an inexpensive EMI Triple: these are great interpretations. Langgaard was a maverick, like Havergal Brian, and will accordingly always be on the fringes of the repertoire. Nielsen, like Sibelius, basically worked within the boundaries of classical form but pushed constantly to find new expression within these confines.

I would not want to be without the music of either composer - in this sense both Nielsen and Langgard are 'great composers' in my life.