Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Piano Music
Arne Skjold Rasmussen (piano)
rec. November 1960, Copenhagen for BBC broadcasts
Danacord DACOCD892 [59 + 57]
When Arne Skjold Rasmussen recorded Nielsen’s piano music for the BBC in a series of recitals broadcast in 1954, he was the obvious choice. Between 1952-53 he’d recorded much of the solo music on 78s for the Tono label and these recordings were subsequently reissued on Turnabout LPs. All this material has been reissued in recent years on Danacord, reviewed here, where you will find some more information about the pianist. The music he didn’t record for the label had already been recorded by other leading performers, such as Galina Werschenska on HMV and France Ellegaard on Decca and, infuriatingly for Rasmussen, his nemesis Herman D. Koppel also recorded the Symphonic Suite, Op.8. The two men maintained something of a running feud throughout their performing lives.
Robert Simpson, BBC producer at the time, held the pianist in high esteem and the BBC itself invited Rasmussen to give a live broadcast in 1959 but not only was he reluctant to travel to London again, he was also an anxious public performer and declined. Thus it was that he was taped in a series of recitals in Copenhagen that were broadcast on the BBC in 1960. The BBC didn’t retain their session tapes and Danish Radio didn’t keep copies – I am strongly indebted to Jesper Buhl’s comprehensive booklet notes for all this information – so it’s fortunate that writer and broadcaster Lyndon Jenkins, who will remembered with admiration by those who heard him, appeared with a colleague’s privately-made ¼ inch tapes of the broadcasts. Permission was secured from the BBC for their transfer and three broadcast recitals can be heard in this twofer – two CDs for the price of one, incidentally.
That is a rather lengthy background because the story is a salutary one, I think. The sound quality obtained is excellent for the time and Rasmussen proves a master performer of the repertoire, his broadcast performances proving just as impressive as his commercial ones. True, much of Nielsen’s piano music is either broadly pedagogic or ‘character’ based but it’s how Rasmussen conveys this material that marks him out. The Five Piano Pieces, early works of 1890, show Nielsen’s powers of characterisation even in brief sketches such as these. A stronger test comes with the Symphonic Suite, which calls on the pianist’s powers of focused tonal grandeur as well as cultivation of amplitude, rather Brahmsian in influence. Though he once telephoned Koppel to tell him that he’d got the all the tempi wrong in his recording, in actual fact the two feuding pianists are not too far part, at least in strict tempo terms.
The Chaconne, Op.32 draws sonic richness from Rasmussen as well as delicacy and refinement in another Brahms-infused work. The accomplished Theme and Variations of 1917 unfolds over 16 minutes logically, taking in the sepulchral (variation 7 is especially fine) as well as the energised and capricious. This is one of Rasmussen’s most satisfying Nielsen broadcast performance. The Suite, Op.45 encompasses both delicacy and a resonant gravity, whilst the Three Piano Pieces, Op.59 was his last major piano piece, firmly etched and powerfully conveyed. The two sets of Piano Music for Young and Old were composed the year before Nielsen died and offer a lighter slant on the sharp and flat keys from a composer devoted to the propagation of educative material.
This admirable project has been carried out with great care and dedication.
Jonathan Woolf
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Five Piano Pieces, Op.3 (1890)
Symphonic Suite, Op.8 (1894)
Humoresque-Bagatelles, Op.11 (1894-97)
Festival Prelude (1900)
Chaconne, Op.32 (1916)
Theme and Variations, Op.40 (1917)
Suite (The Luciferan), Op.45 (1919-20)
Three Piano Pieces, Op.59 (1928)
Piano Music for Young and Old, Op.53 Books I and II (1930)
