Carl Nielsen - Songs, Vol. 1 (1988)

Liner Notes:

Carl Nielsen's songs are part of the Danish national heritage, but it may surprise many people to learn that these popular songs amount to only one fifth of his total production of approximately 250 songs. There are many reasons for this. When Carl Nielsen published his first songs—»Five Poems« and »Songs and Verse« with texts by J.P. Jacobsen—at the end of the last century, they seemed singularly odd in comparison with the romantic song tradition familiar from the works of Heise and Lange-Müller. It was not until he composed songs like »O, Danish Man« and, in particular, Jeppe Aakjær's »Jens the Roadman« that he struck a popular note which was to make him widely loved, even by people who did not generally appreciate his music. It was strophic songs that Carl Nielsen came to concentrate on in his vocal music, one of the few exceptions being »The Song of the Bear«, which, with its use of polytonality and dissonance, stands in sharp contrast to the songs that have become known through the Folk High School Song Book.

But Carl Nielsen's song production is richer and more varied than these songs suggest, as for example his »Four Jutland Songs«, in which he, a native of Funen, so successfully brings out the essentially Jutland character of the poems by Anton Berntsen, or his settings for Johannes V. Jensen's two humorous though bitter ballads from The Fall ofthe King.

Hans Christian Andersen's »Studies from Nature«, which could well be the motto for all Carl Nielsen's works,—not the outward appearance of nature, but nature as he himself formed—was composed in 1916 and published separately the same year.

»Ariel's Song« was written for a small play by Helge Rode, performed at Kronborg, Elsinore, also in 1916, on the occasion of the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death. It was published separately and dedicated to the singer Anders Brems.

During the years 1902-1907 Carl Nielsen composed two volumes of »Strophic Songs«, which were published in 1907 as Op. 21. »Shall the Flowers Wither Then« and »The Hawk« are from the first volume, while the two ballads from The Fall of the King—»Homeless« and »Good Nights—are from the second.

»Songs and Verse by J.P. Jacobsen«, Op. 6, were composed in the same year as Carl Nielsen's first collection of Jacobsen poems, Op. 4, and were published in 1893. The piano part plays an important role here. In many places, as for example in The Seraphs«, Carl Nielsen seems to hover between major and minor keys—a peculiarity that was later to become characteristic.

Like, »The Golden River«, »The Land of the Future«, was printed for the first time in Ubberup High School's yearbook. The latter is dated 28 November, 1929, but was not included in the Folk High School Music Book until 1940; the former was composed in the previous year and printed in the Folk High School Paper in 1928. It has never been reprinted.

In 1924 Carl Nielsen became interested in Anton Berntsen's collection GjemmÆvvel. From this he first of all set to music, partly in through-composed form, the amusing and dramatic account of the fisherman Jens Madsen, who was out spearing eels when the ice started to break up. In 1925 he composed another three songs originating from the same collection. The four songs were published posthumously in 1941 under the title »Four Jutland Songs«.

»The Song of the Bear« has acquired an opus number of its own, and it the longest through-composed song Carl Nielsen ever wrote. In a letter to his friend, the composer Rudolf Simonsen, dated 29 June, 1922, he writes: » ... and I have meet the Swedish poet Almqvist (1793-1866), a most remarkable, extremely distinctive and varied poet (I feel as if I were »Wahlverwandt« with this strange man)—and I shall probably become closer acquainted with him later on . . .«

This was to be in the following year. Carl Nielsen had persuaded Aage Berntsen, the poet responsible for »Springtime in Funen«, to re-create Almqvist's saga of the wilderness, »The She-Bear« from Book of the Rose, in rhymed verse. This extremely complicated tone poem was finally dated 15 November, 1923. Carl Nielsen wrote to his son-in-law Emil Telmanyi: » ... my daughter Irmelin thinks it very dramatic, and I my self am reasonably satisfied with the work.«

On 21 December, 1929, Carl Nielsen wrote a melody in a ballad style entirely his own to Thøger Larsen's poem »Denmark, Now Sleeps the Light Night«. Oluf Ring's well-known setting to this poem was then already eight years' old, and has retained its popularity:

»Danish Weather«, a poem by Ove Rode set to music by Carl Nielsen, was published separately by Borup's Music Publishers in 1927, the same year as it was composed.

»Reunion«—to a text by Paludan-Müller—was composed on Saturday 4 January, 1930, and printed in the April edition of the Folk High School Paper in the same year. It has never been reprinted.

From the two famous collections »Twenty Danish Songs I-II«, respectively 1915 and 1917, come »She Knows Me Not« and »My Little Bird«—both to poems by Hans Christian Andersen—as well as »Look Around, One Summer Day«. These are all from the second volume, while »Farewell, My Blessed Town of Birth« and »The Refsnæs Lads« are from the first.

»The Groves Are Shining Green Now« was printed for the first time in the collection »Twenty Folk Melodies, 1921« and, with its simple, catching melody, it became part of the Danish national heritage when included in the Folk High School Music Book together with another song from the same collection: »Morning Dew Which Gently Trembles.«

The melody to »In Cooling Shadows« from Johannes Ewald's »The Joys of Rungsted« was published for the first time in Johan Borup's Danish Song Book from 1926, for which Carl Nielsen had been asked, as previously, to write melodies. However, to judge from some correspondence with, for example, the High School principal Harald Balslev, Carl Nielsen does not appear to have been entirely satisfied with them.
Thus, in a letter to Balslev dated 10 May, 1926, he writes: » ... but don't you think I could soon stop composing these popular songs?« What Carl Nielsen does not mention, however, is that he also composed an arrangement, with independent piano passages. It is this version, the manuscript of which is housed in the Royal Library, that has been used in this recording.

»My Native Soil« was composed in 1929 to a text by Frederik Poulsen, but was not printed until 1940, nine years after Carl Nielsen's death.

Peder Severin. Trained at the Opera Academy of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Thereafter awarded grants for continued studies at St. Cecilia in Rome, with Professor Georges Cunelli in London and Anton Dermota in Vienna.

Debut in 1971 at the Jutland Opera—in 1972 at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen. Since then Peder Severin has sung a great many lyrical tenor parts, in opera and operetta and as a soloist in classical oratorio both with Danish symphony orchestras and symphony orchestras abroad, such as the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Slask and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. He has also given many lieder recitals.

His collaboration with Dorte Kirkeskov began in 1981 with a lieder concert in the Tivoli Concert Hall. Since then they have given many recitals, their repertoire ranging from Danish and Norwegian composers like Carl Nielsen, Lange-Müller, Peter Heise, Grieg, Sibelius, and Peterson-Berger to lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Beethoven and Mahler.

Dorte Kirkeskov was taught by Esther Vagning at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, graduating in 1973. Thereafter she studied for a period with Hans Leygraf at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik and Theater in Hannover. From 1975-77 she studied in the soloist class under John Damgaard at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, from which she made her debut in 1977. She has since supplemented her education with international master classes, and today she is very much in demand in Denmark as a chamber music player, and not least as an accompanist of lieder.

Henrik Poulsen, designer and one of Denmark's leading Carl Nielsen specialists, has taken the initiative regarding this recording of Carl Nielsen's songs, most of which are relatively little known, and many of which have never been published or recorded before.

Credits:

• Peder Severin, tenor
• Dorte Kirkeskov, piano

Track List:

1. Studie efter naturen (Study after Nature), song for voice and piano, FS 82
2. Ariel's Song ('Selv naar Tordenen tynger'), for voice and piano (from FS 80)
3. Strophic Songs (7), for voice and piano, FS 42 (Op. 21): No 1, Skal Blomsterne da visne? (Shall the Flowers Wither Then?)
4. Strophic Songs (7), for voice and piano, FS 42 (Op. 21): No 2, Høgen (The Hawk)
5. Viser og vers (Songs and Verses) (5), FS 14 (Op. 6): No 1, Genrebillede (Genre Piece)
6. Viser og vers (Songs and Verses) (5), FS 14 (Op. 6): No 2, Seraferne (The Seraphs)
7. Viser og vers (Songs and Verses) (5), FS 14 (Op. 6): No 3, Silkesko over gylden Læst (Silken Shoes on a Golden Last)
8. Viser og vers (Songs and Verses) (5), FS 14 (Op. 6): No 4, Det bødes der for (A Moment of Pleasure, and Age of Pain)
9. Viser og vers (Songs and Verses) (5), FS 14 (Op. 6): No 5, Vise af Mogens (Song from Mogens)
10. Fremtidens land (The Land of the Future), song for voice and piano, FS 145
11. Strophic Songs (7), for voice and piano, FS 42 (Op. 21): No 6, Husvild (Homeless)
12. Strophic Songs (7), for voice and piano, FS 42 (Op. 21): No 7, Godna (Good Night)
13. Fire Jydske sange (Jutish Songs) (4), for voice and piano, FS 115: Jens Madsen a An-Sofi (Jens Madsen)
14. Fire Jydske sange (Jutish Songs) (4), for voice and piano, FS 115: Wo Dætter (Our Daughter)
15. Fire Jydske sange (Jutish Songs) (4), for voice and piano, FS 115: Den Jenn a den Anden (One and the Other)
16. Fire Jydske sange (Jutish Songs) (4), for voice and piano, FS 115: Ae Lastræ (The Haypole)
17. Balladen om bjørnen (The Ballad of the Bear), song for voice and piano, Op. 47 (FS 109)
18. Guldfloden (The Golden River), song for voice and piano, FS 127
19. Danmark, nu blunder den lyse Nat (Denmark, now sleeps the pale Night), song for voice and piano, FS 146
20. Dansk vejr (Danish Weather), song for voice and piano, FS 122
21. Gensyn (Reunion), song for voice and piano, FS 151: Gensyn
22. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Hun mig har glemt (She Knows Me Not)
23. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Min lille Fugl (My Little Bird)
24. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Farvel min velsignede Fødeby (Farewell, My Blessed Town of Birth)
25. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: De Refsnædrenge, de Samsøpiger (The Refsnæs Lads, the Samsø Lasses)
26. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Se dig ud Sommerdag (Look Around, One Summer Day)
27. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Nu lyser Løv i Lunde (The Groves Are Shining Green Now)
28. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Morgendug der sagte bæver (Morning Dew Which Gently Trembles)
29. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Rungsteds Lyksaligheder: I kølende Skygger (The Joys of Rungsted: In Cooling Shadows)
30. En snes danske vise (20 Danish Songs), FS 70: Hjemstavn (My Native Soil)

Download Links: Enjoy the Music, or here.

Other recordings of music by Carl Nielsen:

• Carl Nielsen: Orchestral Music
• Carl Nielsen: Symphonies
• Carl Nielsen: Chamber Music, Vol. 1
• Carl Nielsen: String Quartets, Vol. 2 [Hybrid SACD]
• Carl Nielsen: Violin Concerto & Songs; Rued Langgaard: String Quartet No. 3
• Carl Nielsen: Complete Symphonies (Box Set)
• Nielsen: Orchestral Works
• Carl Nielsen: Complete Piano Works
• Carl Nielsen: Complete Symphonies 1-6 - London Symphony Orchestra / Ole Schmidt
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 2 "The Four Temperaments"; Aladdin Suite
• Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto & Works for clarinet & orch.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 5/Bohemian-Danish Folk Tune/Symphonic Rhapsody
• Carl Nielsen: String Quartets Op. 5 & 13Carl Nielsen: Songs
• Carl Nielsen: Chamber Works for Wind
• Carl Nielsen: Chamber Works for Violin & Strings
• Jean Sibelius / Carl Nielsen: Violin Concertos

Gustav Mahler - Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1991)

Mahler has always been one of my favorite composers. I especially like his symphonies, but his Lieder are on a par with the symphonies, and Des Knaben Wunderhorn is my favorite in this genre. This recording is good. I have heard better interpretations, but this one is skillfully done, and I have always liked Mackerras' approach to Mahler.

Liner Notes:

Here we feel the heartbeat of the German people... Here German passion burns and German jesting makes merry; here German love blooms. Here sparkle truly German wine and truly German tears. The book contains some of the loveliest flowering of the German spirit.

The enthusiasm of the celebrated poet Heinrich Heine confirms that the collection of over seven hundred verses entitled Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn) is an important expression of German nationalism. The anthology was the work of Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and was published in three volumes between 1805 and 1808. The source material, some of it three centuries old, was collected throughout German-speaking Europe, probably in response to the trauma of the Napoleonic occupation.

The title Des Knaben Wunderhorn is derived from the opening poem of Volume One. Its dedicatee, Goethe, had recommended the verses 'to all intelligent people', and in his view their varied subjects—fairy tales, ghost stories, miracles, murders, nursery rhymes and recollections of war—were well suited to musical treatment. Although neither Beethoven nor Schubert showed interest, Weber certainly did, for it was in the Leipzig library of Weber's grandson Karl in 1888 that Mahler, who had already set several of the poems for voice and piano, discovered the edition to which he would return so often in the years to come. Together Karl Weber and Mahler embarked upon an operatic project which was abandoned, but eventually gave rise to the song 'Der Schildwache Nachtlied', completed in 1892.

Mahler was the first composer to make extensive use of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, setting twenty-one poems in all, of which the finest are those with orchestra composed between 1888 and 1901. Furthermore, the verses became so important to him that they pervaded the symphonies of these years: the Second, Third and Fourth are collectively known as the Wunderhorn Symphonies, and incorporate song material both vocally and orchestrally.

Like Arnim and Brentano before him, Mahler had no qualms about changing the verses to suit his own expressive ends. To achieve brevity for instance, he omitted stanzas in 'Das irdische Leben' and 'Verlor'ne Will'', while elsewhere he sought musical balance by repeating words or sentences, and occasionally by adding words of his own. In keeping with the nature of the originals, he avoided complex musical structures, though in the more extended songs there is thematic development and a unifying role for the orchestra. Instrumental textures often have a chamber music clarity, emphasising contrasted colours rather than rich sonorities. Although the orchestra is not large it is always varied, with percussion frequently significant; for these songs typify the subtle calculation of Mahler's orchestral language.

The moods of the poems suited Mahler well, contrasting humour and sadness, jesting and bitterness, with recurring macabre images. The songs fall into three groups: the military songs which use march-like music; the lyrical, mainly love songs and those in humorous vein. But such classifications must be approached with caution, since each song has its own special sound world.

'Revelge' (Reveille) is one of Mahler's most sinister creations: a regiment returns from battle to stage its last parade, but the soldiers are skeletons. The military aspect is vividly drawn both in the accompaniment and in several interludes, while the opening phrase of the orchestral prelude, the basis of the spectral atmosphere, was later used in 'Nachtmusik I' in the Symphony No. 7.

'Das irdische Leben' (Earthly Life) is a short song of considerable psychological depth. A hungry child appeals to its mother, only to be given empty promises of bread tomorrow. Mother and child have their own themes which are doubled by the woodwind, while the strings scurry relentlessly on towards the bitter conclusion, the child's death.

The playful love song 'Verlor'ne Müh" (All in Vain), in Swabian dialect, is a sensuous ländler for male and female singers in which the girl's personality is wittily drawn by the grace-notes in her vocal line.

The charmingly Schubertian 'Rheinlegendchen' (A Little Rhine Legend) is in the form of a ländler; here the most subtle musical feature is the extent of the tonal range beyond the home key of A major.

'Der Tamboursg'sell' (The Drummer-Boy) of 1901, the last of the songs to be written, concerns a drummer-boy awaiting execution as a deserter. A funereal tread expresses his melancholy as he bids farewell to life.
In 'Der Schildwache Nachtlied' (The Sentinel's Night Song) a sentry is killed because the apparition of his lover lures him from his duty. The effect created is suitably eerie: the girl's music has a sustained lyrical flow, while the sentry is characterised by a march tune and military motifs.

'Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?' (Who made up this little song?) is a light-hearted nonsense verse set to a flowing moto perpetuo. Again the model is that of the ländler, the vocal line doubled by strings or woodwind.

'Lob des hohen Verstandes' (Praise from a lofty intellect) is a comic verse in which a singing contest between a cuckoo and a nightingale is judged by a donkey. It mocks pomposity and self-importance characterised especially as the donkey's braying 'Ija' motif. Interestingly, Mahler used the opening theme of this song in the complex Rondo-finale of the Fifth Symphony. Of 'Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt' (Anthony of Padua's Sermon to the Fishes) Mahler wrote: 'Not one of the fish is the wiser for the sermon, even though the saint has performed for them! But only a few people will understand my satire on mankind.' A smoothly-contoured ostinato represents the swimming fish; this parodistic song became the basis of the orchestral scherzo of the Resurrection Symphony.

'Lied des Verfolgten im Turm' (Song of the Prisoner in the Tower) concerns a prisoner who maintains his thoughts of freedom while locked in his cell. All the while his sweetheart stands outside the tower, and her music has a gracefulness and charm which contrasts with the prisoner's passionate vigour.

While 'Trost im Unglück' (Solace in Sorrow) is a lively duet between a Hussar and his former sweetheart, it is also a negation of love with an undercurrent of bitterness.

'Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen' (Where the shining trumpets blow), a lovers' rendezvous at midnight, became in Mahler's hands an eerie meeting between a girl and the ghost of her dead soldier sweetheart. The mood is tender and intimate, though the structure is among the most sophisticated in the Wunderhorn songs, with recurring quasi-military music for woodwind, horns and trumpet. Fanfare figures surround the soldier's ghost, while his sleeping lover has string music of melting lyricism.

TERRY BARFOOT, 1991

PRODUCER'S NOTE

In 1899, Mahler published twelve orchestral songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, under the title 'Humoresken'. Of these twelve songs however, two had been later incorporated into symphonies ('Urlicht' into the fourth movement of the Second and 'Es sungen drei Engel' into the fifth movement of the Third). For this reason they are usually omitted from modern performances of the songs, and are not recorded here.
The two remaining songs which make up the twelve on this disc—'Revelge' and 'Der Tamboursg' sell'—were published independently in 1905.

Hailed by the Guardian newspaper as the leading baritone of the day, and perhaps the best British baritone ever, THOMAS ALLEN has received international acclaim for his operatic performances, concerts and recitals in the major musical centres of Europe, America and the Far East. Particularly renowned for his interpretations of Count Almaviva, Papageno and especially Don Giovanni, his repertoire ranges over a broad spectrum to include such roles as Eugene Onegin, Rossini's Figaro, Orestes in Iphigénie en Tauride, Valentin, Pelléas, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Mandryka, Prince Andrei in War and Peace, Busoni's Doctor Faust, Malatesta and Billy Budd.

On the concert platform he appears regularly with all the great orchestras under such conductors as Abbado, Davis, Muti, Haitink, Giulini, Sawallisch, Rattle, Tate, Ozawa, Sinopoli and Solti. As a recitalist he works closely with Roger Vignoles and Geoffrey Parsons, and has appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Prague Spring Festival, the Salzburg Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival. He has made numerous highly-praised recordings.

Thomas Allen has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Newcastle and Durham, an Hon RAM from the Royal Academy of Music and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music. In 1989 he was invested with the order of Commander of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen.

ANN MURRAY has built a formidable international reputation and is one of the world's most sought after mezzo-sopranos in the repertoire of Handel, Mozart, Rossini and Strauss. She sings with the world's great orchestras working with such conductors as Levine, Muti, Solti, Boulez, Ozawa, Harnoncourt and Sawallisch.

She has sung in all the world's great opera houses. In the UK she is a regular guest with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the English National Opera. Her career now centres on the Munich and Vienna State Operas, La Scala Milan (where she has sung all her major roles—Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira and Sesto) and the Salzburg Festival, where she has appeared every year since her debut there in 1981.

Credits:

• Thomas Allen, baritone
• Ann Murray, soprano
• The London Philharmonic
• Sir Charles Mackerras, conductor

Track List:

1. Revelge (baritone)
2. Das irdische Leben (soprano)
3. Verlor'ne Müh (duet)
4. Rheinlegendchen (baritone)
5. Der Tamboursg'sell
6. Das Schildwache Nachtlied (duet)
7. Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? (soprano)
8. Lob des hohen Verstandes (baritone)
9. Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt (soprano)
10. Lied des Verfolgten im Turm (duet)
11. Trost im Unglück (duet)
12. Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (soprano)

Download Links: Enjoy the Music, or here.

Other recordings of Des Knaben Wunderhorn:

• Des Knaben Wunderhorn - The Gustav Mahler Song Edition, Vol. 1 
• Mahler I: Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon [Box Set]
• Mahler - Des Knaben Wunderhorn / von Otter, Quasthoff, Berlin Phil., Abbado
• Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
• Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
• Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
• Gustav Mahler: Orchestral Songs
• Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Thomas Hampson
• Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn