REPORTS REPORTS The Carl Nielsen Edition – The three concertos The scholarly critical Edition of Nielsen’s – The choral works Hymnus Amoris, Complete Works, based at The Royal Li- Sleep and Springtime on Funen brary in Copenhagen, began in 1994, –Four small orchestral works: Andante thanks to an annual grant from the Min- Tranquillo and Scherzo, Symphonic Rhap- istry of Culture, supplemented by money sody, Suite for Strings, and Helios. from private foundations for the produc- tion costs of individual volumes. Several of these are printed for the first The immediate occasion for the time, notably the two operas (full scores), establishment of the Edition was an invi- the Andante Tranquillo, the Symphonic Rhap- tation from the then Minister of Culture, sody and the complete Aladdin. Jytte Hilden, following recognition of the The revised editions have been ex- poor state of the performance materials tensively used in recent years, both for in connection with a performance of Mas- concert performance and CD recording, karade in Innsbruck. notably the symphonies by the Danish The Edition embraces all Niel- Radio Symphony Orchestra under Michael sen’s completed works and individual Schønwandt (Dacapo Records), the Royal movements, published on a music-philo- Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under logical basis, and is designed both for Douglas Bostock (Classico), and the Scot- practical music-making and for research tish National Orchestra under Osmo purposes. Vänskä (BIS), and the complete Maskarade The Edition is now at the halfway conducted by Ulf Schirmer (Decca). stage and comprises the following works: In June 2003 Maskarade was per- formed in English by the Guildhall School – The six symphonies of Music and Drama, conducted by Clive – The operas Maskarade and Saul and Timms, using the new edition. This was David (orchestral and vocal scores apparently the first ever London per- with Danish/English and Danish/Ger- formance of the work. man librettos) In 2003/04 the following volumes – The incidental music to Oehlenschlä- are planned for publication: ger’s play Aladdin 165 CN Studies indmad vol I 165 28/10/03, 12:26 REPORTS – II/11, Chamber Music 2, works with forbidden until 2001, and a single folder woodwind and works with piano with family letters remains not for con- – II/10, Chamber Music 1, works for sultation until 2026. strings Up to now no one has had a full – II/8, Orchestral works, including Saga- overview of this comprehensive corre- Dream, Pan and Syrinx, At the Bier of a spondence. From 2002 onwards a process Young Artist etc. of systematic collation has been under – Piano scores of the three concertos way, with a view to a complete annotated edition in more than 10 volumes, headed The editorial team consists of: by John Fellow and planned for publica- tion between 2004 and 2010. The edition Niels Bo Foltmann will cover all letters from Nielsen and a Peter Hauge selection to him. Lisbeth Ahlgreen Jensen The decisive breakthrough for the Elly Bruunshuus Petersen funding of the project came with the Kirsten Flensborg Petersen Gewandhaus artistic director Herbert David Fanning (corresponding editor) Blomstedt’s offer to donate his fee for Niels Krabbe (editor-in-chief) three Nielsen concerts at the end of 2002 to the edition. On this basis, a number of Website: http://www.kb.dk/kb/dept/nbo/ private foundations have contributed ma/cn/index-en.htm further funds. E-mail: [email protected] The project is based at The Royal Library, with a steering group consisting Niels Krabbe of library board consultant Anette Faa- borg, head of the Research Department John T. Lauridsen, barrister Niels Gang- Carl Nielsen’s Letters sted-Rasmussen and the compiler and It is well known that Nielsen wrote many editor of the edition, John Fellow. letters (in total more than 3000), which are almost all extremely interesting. Niels Krabbe They cover biographical, musical, aes- thetic, societal, and existential matters. The large majority are preserved in The Carl Nielsen at the piano Royal Library in Copenhagen, but there Among the more than 6000 phonograph are also letters to and from Nielsen in cylinders in the National Sound Archive many private and other public collec- at the Aarhus State Library a number tions both in Denmark and abroad. Ac- turned up a few years ago with the in- cess to a small part of the material was scription ‘Carl Nielsen’. These are three 166 CN Studies indmad vol I 166 28/10/03, 12:26 REPORTS Edison cylinders, each approx. three min- is played through twice, the second time utes in duration. Following a complicated with an improvised alternative ending, technical laser-treatment of the brittle presumably to use up the cylinder’s full cylinders at the Institute for Information playing time. Recording in Kyiv (Ukraine) a rather un- clear sound-signal was successfully digi- Although no one dares to claim with tally transferred, making possible a closer complete certainty, there is unanimity analysis of the contents of the cylinders. among Danish Nielsen scholars that it is It seems that there was an anima- indeed Carl Nielsen playing. Whether it ted gathering at the home of Nielsen’s ad- is his voice is less sure. During the au- mirers, Vera and Carl Johan Michaelsen. tumn of 2003 the State Library will pub- At some point – perhaps after dinner – lish a booklet about the three cylinders, some of those present were asked to record including a CD with the words and the something on the three cylinders (there music of the cylinders. may originally have been more). Accord- ingly there is some conversation on each Niels Krabbe of the cylinders (some of which cannot be made out) and music played by Emil Telmányi and supposedly Carl Nielsen. Man and musician A new book on Carl Nielsen The contents are: The purpose of this Nielsen-biography is Cylinder 1: in the first place to describe Carl Niel- Words from Emil Telmányi sen’s personality and career from a more Telmányi plays the Prelude from Bach’s thorough examination of the available solo Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001 material including as much as possible of the very extensive correspondence and Cylinder 2: documentary records held in both Dan- Words (Carl Nielsen?) ish and foreign institutions. Words (Carl Nielsen’s daughter, Søs) The project began in 1997 in con- Telmányi plays the Prelude from Bach’s nection with my work as chief editor and solo Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 co-author of a CD-ROM about Carl Niel- sen’s music. It was painfully clear that Cylinder 3: there were great holes in our knowledge Words (Carl Nielsen?) of Nielsen, and the objective became to Carl Nielsen (?) plays the Puppet March fill at least a number of these holes. from the Humoresque-Bagatelles, opus 11 The Royal Library has been the Carl Nielsen (?) plays Som en rejselysten host institution for this work, which has Flaade from the play The Mother. The song proceeded on a part-time basis, and 167 CN Studies 2003/1 indmad 167 27/10/03, 23:24 REPORTS which is estimated for completion with an account that earlier biographers have the publication of a biography by the tended to take at face value without any publisher Gyldendal in Autumn 2005. kind of critical examination. The backbone of the work among other Other material that has already things is the establishment, as far as pos- been examined includes Nielsen’s rela- sible, of a complete survey of Carl Niel- tionship with great Danish institutions sen’s activities and performances of his such as Tivoli, the Royal Theatre, and the music during his lifetime. Danish State Radio. At present, the au- At the current time, a specially- thor is working on Nielsen’s sometimes designed database has registered more strained relationship with his principal than 4,500 performances, and many publisher, Wilhelm Hansen. Some of the more will turn up. Comprehensive re- newly-found research results are pub- search has also been undertaken into lished in various articles in Danish jour- Nielsen’s family background and his nals and a single English periodical. childhood and youth, such as he himself described in ‘My Childhood on Funen’, Knud Ketting 168 CN Studies 2003/1 indmad 168 27/10/03, 23:24.