CHAN 9422 GADE FRONT.Qxd 28/1/08 4:18 Pm Page 1

CHAN 9422 GADE FRONT.qxd 28/1/08 4:18 pm Page 1 Chan 9422 CHANDOS Symphony No. 1 Hamlet Overture GADE Echoes of Ossian Overture The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitajenko CHAN 9422 BOOK.qxd 28/1/08 4:23 pm Page 2 Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) Symphony No. 1, Op. 5 35:52 in C minor • c-Moll • ut mineur 1 I Moderato con moto – Allegro energico 10:03 2 II Scherzo: Allegro risoluto quasi presto 7:47 3 III Andantino grazioso 10:38 4 IV Finale: Molto allegro ma con fuoco 7:21 5 Hamlet Overture, Op. 37 10:05 Andante – Allegro con fuoco – Marcia funebre: Andante lento 6 Echoes of Ossian Overture, Op. 1 14:46 Allegro moderato TT 60:55 The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitajenko Niels Wilhelm Gade Mary Evans Picture Library 3 CHAN 9422 BOOK.qxd 28/1/08 4:23 pm Page 4 introduction. The most notable feature is the from other folk songs – one example is the Niels Wilhelm Gade: Symphony No. 1 etc. way Gade bases the introduction on an theme of the second movement, which is a arrangement of a genuine Danish folk song, variation of one of the four songs Gade had ‘Ramund’. The song was actually a quick-fire, originally intended to include, namely ‘I Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) was the musical son’. In his earliest compositions scurrilous ballad, but Gade transforms it with walked out of a summer’s day’. most influential figure in nineteenth-century Gade grasped his teacher’s ideas and put them great assurance into a solemn, highly-charged Gade’s new symphony was rejected by the Danish music. As a composer, conductor, into practice with great enthusiasm. In late invocation of days of yore. Music Society, and instead he sent it to Felix teacher and administrator he determined the 1840 he entered a concert overture for a After the Ossian overture Gade took the Mendelssohn in Leipzig. In spring 1843 it level of a century of music; yet it was a hand- competition announced by the private Music ambitious step of composing his First was given its first performance by ful of national romantic compositions from Society of Copenhagen. Gade called his Symphony according to the ‘artistic folk Mendelssohn and his Gewandhaus orchestra, his youth which affected Danish music most. overture Echoes of Ossian, and submitted it tone’. He found a literary model for the and the audience were most appreciative. The foundations of Danish national under a motto drawn from Uhland’s poem symphony too, namely four verses from Later that year, Gade travelled to Leipzig to romanticism in music were laid by Andreas Freie Kunst: ‘Formel hält uns nicht Danish folk songs. However, he abandoned give the work another performance. From Peter Berggreen (1801–1880), a composer gebunden/unsre Kunst heißt Poesie’ (No the idea of composing the symphony to the 1844 to 1847 Gade conducted the who devoted his efforts to arranging and formula restrains us/our art is poetry) – a four folk songs, turning instead to a tune he Gewandhaus orchestra on a regular basis, and publishing Danish and Nordic folk songs. He motto that clearly linked the young composer had composed in 1840 for an anthology of after the death of Mendelssohn he became its considered that they reflected the national to European romanticism. patriotic historical poems collected and chief conductor. character. Through his publications Gade chose passages from the lays by published by Berggreen. ‘On Sjølund’s lovely It was in Germany that people first Berggreen primarily intended to raise James Macpherson on which to base his plains’ is the title of this song about recognised the particularly Nordic tone of the national awareness by disseminating the overture. Macpherson’s poem has Ossian, a Valdemar, a medieval king whose ghost two works, but it was also in Germany that songs in practical settings, but he saw an fictional bard, weaving songs and legends haunts his castle at Gurre. people first warned Gade about the additional perspective, too: the folk song from a distant past, and even though a few Gade uses his ‘artistic folk song’ as the limitations of national romanticism. Gade could inspire an ‘artistic folk tone’ in a new, decades later the lays were revealed to be basis for the first movement, and then uses was quick to appreciate this criticism, and national type of music. All that was required forgeries, they were a considerable source of the start of the melody to link the movements used it in defence throughout his life was for Danish composers to absorb the spirit inspiration in their day. They were translated cyclically. The tune appears in its entirety as whenever anybody urged him to write more of these folk songs and adopt their special in 1807–09 by a highly-esteemed Danish the symphony’s motto, and then variations of of his popular nationalistic pieces. His other character as their own. poet, Steen Steensen Blicher. its opening become part of the main and seven symphonies, written between 1843 and Gade started theory lessons under Gade’s overture has a slow introduction, a secondary themes of the first movement, 1871, are not imbued with the national Berggreen at the age of sixteen, in 1833. dramatic middle section in sonata form, and appearing again in the third movement and romantic folk tone. Following his first Berggreen dubbed his young pupil ‘my finally a repeat of the material from the finale. Other themes in the symphony come meeting with Mendelssohn he set increasingly 4 5 CHAN 9422 BOOK.qxd 28/1/08 4:23 pm Page 6 greater store by form and the classical ideals, inspired ideals. Not even Hamlet could drag Dmitri Kitajenko was born in St Petersburg played a particularly important role; it was and he used his lifelong post as conductor of nationalistic music out of Gade. But the and studied at the Glinka Music School, the Malko who brought the Orchestra to the restructured Music Society to overture is convincingly shaped by the means Moscow and St Petersburg Conservatoires, prominence after the Second World War. demonstrate these virtues in his own works Gade chose to use. and the Academy of Music in Vienna. From Since then many great conductors have and those of other admired composers. It is in sonata form, girded by a march 1976–1980 he was Chief Conductor of the worked with the Orchestra, including Daniel Nevertheless, national romanticism lived on motif. The introduction is ominous and Moscow Philharmonic and in 1979 was Barenboim, Paavo Berglund, Herbert for the rest of the century, in which gloomy, with an ostinato-like marching figure appointed Artistic Director and Music Blomstedt who was Chief Conductor from Hartmann and Heise (Denmark), and in the strings. In the central section a Director of the Stanislavski-Nemirovich- 1967–77, Sergiu Celibidache, Sixten Ehrling, Svendsen and Grieg (Norway) were not afraid persistent, leaping main theme is contrasted Datschenko Music Theatre in Moscow. Since Paul Kletzki, Rafael Kubelik, Vaclav of developing their nationalistic methods of with a gentle, swaying side theme – Hamlet 1990 Kitajenko has been Chief Conductor Neumann, Eugene Ormandy and Leopold expression. Nordic audiences retained their and Ophelia, perhaps. Finally the march and Artistic Director of the Radio Symphony Stokowski. Other important conductors who love of the national romantic style into the motif from the beginning is repeated, but Orchestra of the Hesse Broadcasting Service appear regularly with the orchestra include twentieth century. now at a slower tempo, indicated in the score in Frankfurt/Main and is Principal Guest Neeme Järvi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kurt Hamlet, Gade’s concert overture written in as a death march, corresponding to the tragic Conductor of the Danish National Radio Sanderling, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Evgeni 1861, is an example of his later, Leipzig- conclusion of the play. Symphony Orchestra. He has made guest Svetlanov, and Yuri Temirkanov. appearances in virtually every European In 1988 the dynamic Finnish conductor © 1996 Jens Cornelius country and has also visited the USA and Leif Segerstam took up the position of Chief Translation: Jonathan Sydenham Japan. Conductor, the German conductor Ulf Schirmer succeeding him in August 1995. Founded in 1925, The Danish National Two Principal Guest Conductors have also Radio Symphony Orchestra is regarded as been appointed: the Russian Dmitri Denmark’s leading symphony orchestra. Kitajenko, and the prominent Danish From its home in Copenhagen it undertakes conductor Michael Schønwandt. Following extensive concert, recording and touring the reorganization of Danish Radio in activities. The orchestra has undertaken 1988–89 Per Erik Veng has been appointed regular visits to the United States and all artistic director and manager of The Danish European countries. National Radio Symphony Orchestra and In the orchestra’s early years, two Choir. The Sparekassen Bikuben A/S (savings conductors, Fritz Busch and Nicolai Malko, bank) is sponsor of the DNRSO and Choir. 6 7 CHAN 9422 BOOK.qxd 28/1/08 4:23 pm Page 8 1807–09 wurden sie von dem Gade verwendet sein “künstlerisches Niels Wilhelm Gade: Symphonie Nr. 1 usw. hochangesehenen dänischen Dichter Steen Volkslied” als Basis für den ersten Satz und Steensen Blicher übersetzt. setzt den Anfang der Melodie später zur Gades Ouvertüre hat eine langsame Verbindung der Sätze ein. Die Weise Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) war die Gade begann sein musiktheoretisches Einleitung, einen dramatischen erscheint vollständig als das Motto der einflußreichste Gestalt in der dänischen Studium bei Berggreen 1833, im Alter von Mittelabschnitt in Sonatenform und Symphonie, und Variationen ihres Beginns Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts. Als Komponist, 16 Jahren. Berggreen nannte seinen jungen schließlich eine Reprise des Anfangsmaterials.

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