 |
| A
Smörgåsbord similar to the ones my Swedish grandfather used to lay
out for the family every Christmas Eve. |
This
season, the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert's direction
embarks on a multi-year project to perform and record the works of
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931).
Read the excellent review the first concert received
here.
Although
I had passing acquaintance with this music, I decided to review
Nielson's symphonies again and immediately heard some things which
reminded me of music by other Scandinavian composers who had been
influences on Nielsen, some acknowledged by him. What I've attempted
to do here is assemble something of a musical smörgåsbord for your
delectation, education and entertainment. In the process, I hope to
make a few points unmistakably clear:
1.
There really are composers of past epochs, who despite exceptional
talent, rarely had their works performed because they were considered
“derivative” or not original enough. In art generally the drive
for originality has often led to absurd extremes. In music, the cult
of originality for its own sake alas is a dead end road which leads
to as many pointless destinations as adapting the banal and boring to
rote formal manipulation or system. But given the exceptional
quality of today's orchestral musicians, in particular their freedom
from former traditions and manners of playing their instruments or of
preferences or concentrations on certain styles of music, and that
the musical world and audiences are changing enough to become more
venturesome, we fully expect to see some of these presently neglected
or unfamiliar gems surfaced and given a new life in a hopefully less
prejudiced environment.
2.
There is an artistic detachment, both emotional and technical,
evident in much of the music I want to present here. While these
composers are routinely classed among the romantics (a term as we
have seen is directly related to fictional literature), and indeed
they composed from the 1840's into the 1920's, covering the entire
romantic period, none of them are participating in the apparently
groundbreaking and revolutionary movements that engrossed many of the
more familiar romantic composers. Almost despite the allures of
romanticism, these composers are all in one way or another instead
the stylistic descendents of the patriarchs of the classical symphony
(the First Vienna School); Haydn and Schubert in particular, with
notable steals, where appropriate, from Beethoven and very
occasionally from Mozart.
3. I think it would be a
mistake to regard the work of these composers, as Scandinavian or
Nordic in style or feeling or having anything much to do with Denmark
or Sweden. They were born there and may have plied their craft as
composers in their homelands, but each of them is very much going
along with the eclectic nature of Scandinavian culture as it has
been, extending back for a thousand years at least. I want
to suggest that these composers are themselves guests at a European
continental musical smörgåsbord at which they pick and choose
elements which they will use in a variety of often ingenious, clever
and even humorous juxtapositions not to be found among the
continental romantics. Since their intention is to maintain their
emotional separateness, rather than involve themselves directly or
personally with their music, none of it is autobiographical to any
significant degree. First and foremost they intend an entertainment
that is formalized in the familiar form of a symphony, but that takes
a detached position regarding mood and explores aspects of the sound
of choirs of instruments within the orchestra seldom heard in the
symphonies of others. Their music creates spaces, or suggestions of
physical energy and movement of various kinds, as musical
abstractions. I would even guess that while some of it sounds easy
enough, a lot of it is probably more difficult than the standard
repertoire.
Franz Berwald
So
let's begin with Franz Berwald (1796-1868) [BEAR-valdt], the first
great Swedish composer of any note, whose life covers that of
Schubert, except that Berwald lived forty years longer. He came of a
musical family and wrote all four of his symphonies within four years
from his arrival in Vienna in 1841. So he wrote them in his late
forties and in Vienna and they may be rightly regarded as a kind of
set of souvenirs. Each of them lasts around half an hour. They are
structurally tight, feature some techniques borrowed form the
classical composers, specifically the writing for woodwind choirs
alternating with running themes in octaves in the strings, punctuated
by often quite astounding brass part writing and extensive use of
tympani.
And
in these symphonies we hear Berwald's contribution to what the other
composers would also follow; the use of far wider ranges of possible
chord and key progressions, leading the listener to wonder what
difference a starting or ending key may matter or whether a theme
really needs to be memorable as much as to project the right mood
required by the composer to elicit the particular intellectual or
sensual effect on the listener, again with that overall sense of
reserve and detachment from all of it.
I.
Allegro con energia
II.
Adagio maestoso
III.
Stretto
IV.
Finale. Adagio - Allegro molto
Scored
for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets,
3 trombones, timpani, and strings.
Performed superbly by
Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester conducted by Okko
Kamu
Berwald's
Sinfonie Sérieuse was premiered on December 2, 1843, in Stockholm,
conducted by his cousin, Johan Fredrik Berwald. The Berwalds were a
musical family in Sweden going back many generations. But this only
performance, it was said, was not very good. I hardly think
considering the intricacies in the music that it could have been.
From the start, Berwald's style seems ... peculiar, until one begins
to hear it through a lens of proper detachment. The performance
didn't help Berwald and it was the only one of his symphonies to be
performed during his lifetime. Why are we not surprised? He's
clearly no Beethoven. But does that mean his work is no good?
Sometimes time seems required. It's also required of the players
that they be both precise and dispassionate; play exactly what the
music says at exactly the required volume, etc.
Berwald spent
years in Berlin and Vienna, and he wrote in those places outside his
native Stockholm, so there's nothing particularly Swedish intended.
It's comparable to the symphonies of Mendelssohn and Schumann, but
Berwald is already stretching the envelope.
Besides
detachment Berwald is a bit of a wise-acre, you'll hear all kinds of
things. This is also supposed to be a minor key symphony, but that's
ambiguous nearly at all times and the movement ends on a triumphant
major and it doesn't seem to matter whether the final key is even
related to the key in which the piece began.
I.
Allegro
II.
Andante
III.
Allegro assai
Scored
for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets,
tenor trombone, 2 bass trombones, timpani and strings.
Performed
again superbly by Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester conducted by Okko
Kamu.
This one has a brief vaguely Haydnesque introduction,
then the pranks begin. You'll begin to ask yourself whether he
doesn't intend his audiences to laugh out loud. These composers are
I believe intended in part to be taken as pranksters and I don't see
why anyone wouldn't chuckle at a lot of what Berwald has devised to
go on in this work. I even hear phrases that remind me of Ives'
first symphony. Much of what Berwald does can be called zany. If
you're too serious, you'll probably just blow it off as really not
all that good, and in so doing miss half the fun. Also notice that
when Berwald, and later the others too as we get to them, are not
overly fond of an extended ending to a movement; when it's done, it's
done.
II.
Adagio - Scherzo (Allegro assai) - Adagio (in G major)
III.
Finale: Presto in C minor
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2
clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and
strings.
Performed again superbly by Helsingborgs
Symfoniorkester conducted by Okko
Kamu.
Widely regarded as the best of the lot, there are things
in this symphony that will seem startling, especially where he allows
a theme to slide through a series of unpredicted progressions. One
wonders whether anyone would have really understood the cleverness of
many of his little episodic creations whether they be listeners or
members of the orchestra. Sometimes one vaguely hears Berlioz and at
other times someone equally unlikely. It's quite clear to me that
for his time, Berwald was an exceptionally gifted orchestrator. The
second movement stretches the regular form in that it places the
scherzo inside the andante! There's also a big Haydnesque surprise
along the way.
Symphony #4 in E-flat Major "Sinfonie
Naïve"
I.
Allegro risoluto
II. Adagio
III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
IV.
Finale: Allegro vivace
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2
clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and
strings.
Performed again superbly by Helsingborgs
Symfoniorkester conducted by Okko
Kamu.
This
symphony may be telling a story, but it isn't as necessary as that it
maintain symphonic form. Perhaps then it's just exploring a range of
emotions characterized as naïve. This work, written in the
mid-1840's contains besides the usual bows to Haydn and Schubert,
phrases and orchestration one would hear in Berloz. One wonders
whether Berwald had occasion to discover anything left in Berlin or
Vienna by the peripatetic French composer.
Now then, well perhaps you've already had enough. Well,
not quite yet. Let's hear a work that was written ten years later as
the composer was in his late fifties, a piano concerto this time.
I'll note ahead of time that this isn't really like a Chopin or
Schumann concerto as much as a pastiche of one. The best possible
way to play it is as if one were playing one written by the other
composers but again with precision, a little sparkle and strict
fidelity to the written notes, regardless of how weird the phrase
might at first seem to both the fingers and the ears. Here it is
played rather wonderfully by Niklas Sivelöv. Again the Helsingborgs
Symfoniorkester is conducted by Okko Kamu.
Piano Concerto in D Major (1855)
[Part 3] III.
Allegro molto
The movements are intended to run right into
each other so the whole things is really one long movement. Lots of
baseless fluff? Well hey, it's at least as interesting as some other
more often heard concertos. Anyway I wanted to present some idea of
how this composer approached using the piano. He was certainly under
the spell of certain famous touring pianists of his day, no doubt
hoping this effort would be picked-up by some virtuoso. How nice
that we have these less favoured gems around to be played by more
competent orchestra players and really fine pianists using far better
pianos, etc.
Wilhelm Stenhammar
In
Stockholm, about three years after Franz Berwald breathed his last,
Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar [STEN-haw-mar] entered the world.
Wilhelm Stenhammer (1871-1927) would write two symphonies, two piano
concertos and a host of other works including chamber music and piano
sonatas. More of it is being played than ever before, but still
little of it is widely known. Hey, get in on the ground floor.
Stenhammer was among those who went to Berlin for a musical education
and fell under the influence of Wagner and Bruckner among others. He
was a conductor of the Göteborgs Symfoniker, the first professional
orchestra in Sweden and was able to program many works by native
Swedish composers. We may yet hear from some of them, who knows? In
the meantime, let's have a listen to his symphonies. You'll
recognize immediately the same writing for woodwind choirs juxtaposed
against string phrases, occasionally quite stunning brass effects,
and less whimsy than Berwald used, but certainly enough to produce
convincing and occasionally stunning orchestral sound.
Symphony #1 in F Major (1902-3)
I. Tempo Molto Tranquillo -
Allegro
II.
Andante Con Moto
III.
Allegro Amabile
IV.
Allegro Non Tanto - Ma Con Fuoco - Tranquillo
I
could not find the scoring for this one; it takes a big orchestra.
Part of the reason is that Stenhammar “withdrew” this work later
on, which is like disowning a child one isn't pleased with. Good
thing the scores managed to survive. I actually like this one better
than his second symphony; maybe it's the high violins against subdued
horns which opens and closes the first movement, and the end of the
symphony as well. The second movement is a gravely beautiful thing
too even with its blatant steals from Brahms, oh well. Maybe it's
the pace of the scherzo movement. There's plenty that traces right
back to Wagner in here too. This symphony is a little sappier than
the other one, less like some from his heroes, Sibelius or Nielsen in
tone, but it's still breezier than any Bruckner. This work still
manages to preserves that reserve, that detachment from the really
serious, almost because there are some things in life that are more
serious than mere drama. He does some amazing things with unorthodox
progressions too, as had Berwald. But Stenhammar apparently
considered this first effort too old fashioned; that he needed to get
with the latest innovators. In the long run it hardly matters. It's
played here by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov. We are certainly grateful for performances like these, else
we wouldn't be able to get to know this soave symphony. Certainly more orchestras
need to play it.
Symphony #2 in g minor Op. 34
(1911-1915)
I.
Allegro energico
II. Andante
III. Scherzo: Allegro, ma non
troppo presto
IV. Finale: Sostenuto - Allegro vivace
Scored for the usual large orchestra, couldn't get more precise without consulting a score. You'll certainly notice quite a few blatant steals from Sibelius, as if this were written just after Sibelius' second symphony from which it certainly draws inspiration. The other composer who may come to mind is Edward Elgar. Stenhammar is said to have used Swedish folk and medieval church music motifs throughout. This symphony certainly has something a bit more commemorative or ceremonial about it. Even so, the reserve is somehow maintained; one is never quite of or in the music as much as one is asked merely to follow along or observe it as if from a distance either in time or circumstance. Perhaps its by the unexpected places the progressions may take one. This performance is conducted by Stig Westerberg and wonderfully played by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Before
getting to Nielsen, there's just one more striking instance of
Stenhammar's artistry on the web that I wanted to include here, a
spectacular performance of his Serenade in F Major Op 31 minus the
now included second movement called Reverenza
(you'll have to try and find it elsewhere).
This original version of the Serenade was played live by the Leipzig
Gewandhausorchester conducted by Herbert Blomstedt in 2005 at the Festival
concert celebrating Norway's 100th
year anniversary of political independence from Denmark and Sweden.
What
this work reveals is a kind of missing link between the musical
palettes of the Wagnerians with which Stenhammar studied and for a
time greatly admired, and new ideas springing from native talent in
Scandinavia, particularly Sibelius. You'll notice obvious steals
from each plate. But much in keeping with the pick and choose of the
Smörgåsbord table of available orchestral sounds, everything
Stenhammar chooses is passed through his predisposition for
unexpected chord progressions, sliding tone centres and the sense of
blithe detachment from even very deep or heartfelt harmonic
juxtapositions which he shares with Berwald and Nielsen. Much of the
time the emotional reactions produced might fit the romantic
classification if we are discussing the sense of dramatic or
fictional scenes being created and dissolved as if by magic;
enchanted, or dreamy. Sibelius did not create in a vacuum nor were
his innovations ignored. Stenhammar, only six years younger than
Sibelius, who however did not outlive him, was clearly a beneficiary,
as are we.
Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) has so far emerged as Denmark's greatest composer. He wrote a lot of music that has yet to be widely performed though his six symphonies and more are about to see a
revival. He came from a large but poor peasant family in Nørre
Lyndelse near Sortelung south of Odense on the Danish island of
Funen. I like this house, with its thatched roof, said to have been
his childhood home. From a rough and tumble childhood life with few
prospects, he entered the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen at
the age of 19, staying for a couple years where he didn't do that
well except that he managed to learn to play the violin better. But
he did study composition with Niels Gade who we will probably have
occasion to discuss on some future post as his work is interesting
and relatively unknown, though it seems Nielsen liked Gade as a
friend better than for his music, oh well. By 1889 at the age of 24,
Nielsen managed to accomplish something that poor Jean Sibelius had
very much wanted to do, to play violin in an orchestra. Instead
Sibelius would write one of the greatest violin concertos of all
time. Meanwhile Nielsen would play violin with the Royal Danish
Orchestra for 16 years until his fortieth year in 1905. A lot else
went on in his life which played a part in his compositions; he
married a fiercely independent artist, a sculptor, had to raise three
children along with his other duties as his wife was frequently
absent on location to do her commissioned art which brought in badly
needed funds. Throughout his life though, Nielsen seems to have been
one who made the best out of any situation. This happy go lucky
streak runs through his music like something emotionally unsinkable.
During that period, the turn of the 19th into the
turbulent 20th centuries, there could still be work
composing music for special events, theatrical productions or
cantatas. His income was supplemented by a pension after 1901, he
was 36. But overwork and other strains were beginning to take their
toll. After a serious heart attack in 1925, he was 60 years old, he
curtailed much work, wrote his childhood memoir and died in 1931 at
the age of 66. We wont go into the details of his eventually unhappy
marriage or the cares of his strenuous life, as we're here to discuss
his six amazing symphonies. Unlike some that were written during
this period and after, Nielsen's symphonies each take around a half
hour to perform. After digesting the works identified on this post
and combining them with the seven of Sibelius' output, you have a total
of 19 wonderful symphonies from the North to get to know as old
friends.
I.
Allegro orgoglioso
II.
Andante
III.
Allegro comodo — Andante sostenuto — Tempo I
IV.
Finale. Allegro con fuoco
Scored for 3 flutes, (Flute 1
doubles piccolo in Movement 4), 2 oboes,
2
clarinets in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns (1 and 2 in E-flat, G, and C
basso; 3 and 4 in B-flat basso and F), 2 trumpets in E-flat and C, 3
trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), Timpani and Strings.
We shall be
hearing Herbert Blomstedt conduct the San Francisco Symphony for most
of this music.
He's 31 and he writes his first symphony and
from the outset it is different, a jagged theme in an uncertain home
key of g minor and the thing is launched on its way, with many
reserved and odd by turns moods created by his imaginative
orchestration. It's all within the tight confines of traditional
classical symphonic forms which he always seems to have preferred
even as he stretched them in new ways unheard of before, unless that
is you had never heard Berwald or Stenhammar.
Symphony #2 Defire Temperamenter, "The Four Temperaments", Op. 16
(1901-1902)
I.
Allegro collerico (Choleric)
II.
Allegro comodo e flemmatico (Phlegmatic)
III.
Andante malincolico [sic] (Melancholic)
IV.
Allegro sanguineo — Marziale (Sanguine)
Scored
for 3 flutes, 1st flute doubles piccolo, 2 oboes, 2nd oboe doubles
English horn, 2 clarinets in A, B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3
trumpets in F, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), Tuba, Timpani and
Strings.
When
you have all that brass into the mix, you can create some really fine
walls of sound to use as more characters to play around with. There
are tremendous psychological factors under all this music, but along
with all that is the cool detachment that also allows unsettling and
upstart motives and phrases. The playing has to be really first
rate, no excessive vibrato or extra colour as he has written plenty
into the score as it is. The shifting of tonalities, something we've
observed since Berwald, is another factor he uses to take the
audience by surprise.
Symphony #3 "Sinfonia Espansiva",
Op. 27 (1910-1911)
I.
Allegro espansivo
[PART 1]
II.
Andante pastorale
[PART 2]
III.
Allegretto un poco
[PART 3]
IV.
Finale: Allegro
[PART 4]
Scored
for 3 flutes, 3rd flute doubles piccolo, 3 oboes, 3rd oboe doubles
English horn, 3 clarinets in A and B-flat, 3 bassoons, 3rd bassoon
doubles contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in F, 3 trombones (2
tenor, 1 bass), Tuba,
Timpani, Soprano solo, Mvt. II only (replaceable by 4th clarinet), Bass
solo, Mvt. II only (replaceable by 4th trombone) and Strings.
This
symphony is “expansive” but lasts only slightly longer than the
first two. The usual Sibelius cribbed idioms occasionally float
through it, but as is usual the treatments are highly original.
Times had changed enough that these kinds of oddities, many clearly
reminiscent of Berwald's techniques are and were more readily
accepted by Nielsen's audiences, especially in Denmark.
Symphony #4 "The Inextinguishable", Op. 29
(1916)
I.
Allegro —
II.
Poco allegretto —
III.
Poco adagio quasi andante —
IV.
Allegro
Intended to be played without breaks as one
continuous movement.
Scored for 3 flutes (one doubling
piccolo), 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (one doubling
contrabassoon), 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, 2
sets of timpani, and strings.
Written during World War I,
Nielsen's way of coping with the tragedy of the Great War was to look
beyond it and consider the will to life itself as the inspiration for
his latest greatest symphony, the inextinguishable being life itself;
the answer to death has always been life itself.
Symphony No.5, Op. 50 (1920-22)
I.
Tempo giusto—Adagio non troppo
II.
Allegro—Presto—Andante un poco tranquillo—Allegro
Scored
for 3 flutes (third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals,
triangle, tambourine, snare drum, celesta, and strings.
Paavo
Järvi conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, recorded during a
live performance at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 17 April
2004.
Nielsen said, "it is littered with false climaxes
at every turn." Always keep your audiences guessing where
you're finally going to land. This was the break from the previous
four symphonies, living in their traditional symphonic spaces.
Wonder if the war had something to do with Nielsen's determination to
strive to use new methods? He was in his fifties and perhaps he
begin to realize time was running out. We are in the range of
techniques involved with much that is modern in orchestral conception
now, bi-tonality, "deformation procedures" suggested by
James Hepokoski regarding musical modernism: breakthrough
deformation, introduction-coda frame, episodes within developmental
space, various strophic / sonata hybrids and multi-movement forms in
a single movement. You also hear the snare drum which is to figure
in many 20th century orchestral compositions, a symbol for
war, militarism, totalitarianism and oppression. Nielsen could
certainly find within his homespun complexity a place for cynical
comment on modern times that has become a trademark of many Soviet
era composers since the Great War and its aftermath. We are now at
the vantage point of cinema orchestration; symphonic scores and
orchestras playing soundtracks for documentaries or other dramas
based on modern world events amd life currents. Nonetheless, there
are still places where something hopeful sounds through; a searching
for transcendence, a way to climb out and above the wearisome.
II.
Humoreske. Allegretto -- Allegro -- Tempo I
III.
Proposta seria. Adagio
IV.
Thema mit Variationen. Allegro -- Thema. Allegretto un poco --
Variationen 1-9 -- Fanfare
Scored
for 2 flutes, 1st flute doubles piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2
bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in F, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1
bass), Tuba, Timpani, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Triangle, Cymbals,
Snare drum, Bass
drum and Strings.
Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Orchestra), Paavo Järvi, conducting.
Some have suggested
this is a partially autobiographical work involving his heart attacks
which led to his eventual retirement. In subtle ways it looks both
forward and backward. This performance allows us to see the
orchestra at work rendering this foremost modern work with brilliance
and energy.
I want to thank you for taking the time to
consider the still largely unknown works of these Nordic masters with
me. I hope you have truly enjoyed the experience!
FINIS
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) has so far emerged as Denmark's greatest composer. He wrote a lot of music that has yet to be widely performed though his six symphonies and more are about to see a
revival. He came from a large but poor peasant family in Nørre
Lyndelse near Sortelung south of Odense on the Danish island of
Funen. I like this house, with its thatched roof, said to have been
his childhood home. From a rough and tumble childhood life with few
prospects, he entered the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen at
the age of 19, staying for a couple years where he didn't do that
well except that he managed to learn to play the violin better. But
he did study composition with Niels Gade who we will probably have
occasion to discuss on some future post as his work is interesting
and relatively unknown, though it seems Nielsen liked Gade as a
friend better than for his music, oh well. By 1889 at the age of 24,
Nielsen managed to accomplish something that poor Jean Sibelius had
very much wanted to do, to play violin in an orchestra. Instead
Sibelius would write one of the greatest violin concertos of all
time. Meanwhile Nielsen would play violin with the Royal Danish
Orchestra for 16 years until his fortieth year in 1905. A lot else
went on in his life which played a part in his compositions; he
married a fiercely independent artist, a sculptor, had to raise three
children along with his other duties as his wife was frequently
absent on location to do her commissioned art which brought in badly
needed funds. Throughout his life though, Nielsen seems to have been
one who made the best out of any situation. This happy go lucky
streak runs through his music like something emotionally unsinkable.
During that period, the turn of the 19th into the
turbulent 20th centuries, there could still be work
composing music for special events, theatrical productions or
cantatas. His income was supplemented by a pension after 1901, he
was 36. But overwork and other strains were beginning to take their
toll. After a serious heart attack in 1925, he was 60 years old, he
curtailed much work, wrote his childhood memoir and died in 1931 at
the age of 66. We wont go into the details of his eventually unhappy
marriage or the cares of his strenuous life, as we're here to discuss
his six amazing symphonies. Unlike some that were written during
this period and after, Nielsen's symphonies each take around a half
hour to perform. After digesting the works identified on this post
and combining them with the seven of Sibelius' output, you have a total
of 19 wonderful symphonies from the North to get to know as old
friends.
