LANGE-MU LLER, Perrn Ennsnnus (t8so-tgz6) Fro m D en VAR E N GAN G, Op. zs (withetnHansen, copenhasen) 43'27 (Or,rce upoN attme) fexts: HolgerDrachmonn E Nr.t. Forspil(Pretude) 3'79 E Nr.3.Zigeunermusik (cypsy Music) zr) E Nr.6.Serenade tenorsolo,choir ) L5 E Nr.7. Aria Pastorale soprano solo, choir 3',38 E Nr.a. Jagermusik (Hunting Music) 7'48 El tttr.9.Jagersang (Hunting Song) boritone solo, choir 3'75 E Nr.to. Markedsmusik(Market Music) 4'00 E Nr.rr. Menuet(Minuet) 3'00 E Nr.tz. Vals(wattz) zzo @ Nr.t3. Sigojnerdans(Gypsy Dance) 2'07 E Nr.t6. Krigsmandensvise (The Soldier's SonS baritone soto 7'59 E Nr.ts. Skumringsmusik(Twitight Music) 4'27 E Nr.zo. Kokkenmusik (Kitchen Music) 2'07 E Nr.24.Midsommervise (Midsummer Son$ tenorsolo, choir 3'29 From RENAf SSANCE, Op. 59 Text: HotgerDrachmonn (NodiskMusikranos,copenhosen)9'16 E Overture.A llegro risoluto, me non troppopresto 3'54 E Serenadercnorsolo.choir 5'18 FromSANGE vro Hnvet, op.54 1,**-,,0 5'77 (Soncs ev rHe SEe)Texts: Holger Drochmann E Snarter de tyseNatters Tid forbi baritonesolo 2'26 (Soonthe time of the white nights is past)Allegretto @ Og da ieg sejleddit Husforbi boritonesoto 2'46 (AndAs I SaitedPast Your House) Moderoto sostenuto tr Stloe VED NAT HIN KOLDEbaritonesolo @-*uipn 7'57 (Lnre oH A NTGHT50 CoLD)Text: Flemish fotk-song tronslated byThor Lange Op.64, Book lll No.8. Allegrocon molto tnoto wontopnTMIERE REcoRDtNG FromVtf trucgBLOD(VtKtNG BLooo), Op.5o rext; Einarchristiansen 8'01 E Overture.A llegro risoluto woRLDIREMIERE RECIRDING 5'24 E SokongenssangtilHavet (TheSongoftheSea King) baritonesolo 2'33 Moderato TT:69'01 ARLeoncSvtupnonv ORcH esrnR MosnEArznnoru conductor SusntnEEumnnr soprano MtcHAELKRlstEttsEN tenor JoneuRrurEn boritone ConoMtsro, chorus-master: 50nEt BtncH BIS-CD-1216 Lange-Mül 5/24/05 2:59 PM Page 4 A Glowing Halo in the Twilight things. From this moment, Lange-Müller acquired, to me, his very own strangely glowing halo, which Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller (1850-1926) was will remain for as long as I live.’ more or less self-taught as a composer, and conse- Contributing to the enormous success of the quently at times received criticism for poor orches- play was not only the music of Lange-Müller but tration and a lack of command of larger-scale mu- also the lavish stage setting that the Royal Theatre sical forms. Thanks to his financially comfortable had provided for it. Of the two creators of the piece background – he was the son of a Supreme Court it was, however, the writer who reaped the greater assessor and the grandchild of a bishop – he could financial rewards: after the 35 performances of the nevertheless dedicate himself to the writing of mu- first season, Drachmann received 9,390 Danish sic, and enjoyed considerable respect among his crowns, whilst Lange-Müller had to content him- colleagues. self with a single payment of 1,500 crowns. This In a tribute published in the newspaper Natio- fact seems to have caused the theatre’s manage- naltidende on the occasion of Lange-Müller’s 75th ment a certain unease, however, and after the fif- birthday, Carl Nielsen – 15 years his junior and in- tieth performance the composer was paid another disputably Denmark’s leading composer at the time 500 crowns as a kind of bonus. – described his first encounter with Lange-Müller’s The Royal Theatre’s leading lights, operatic as greatest work, the incidental music to the fairy-tale well as dramatic, were mobilized for the venture. play Der var engang (Once upon a time) by the The Prince was played by the actor Emil Poulsen, Danish poet Holger Drachmann (1846-1908). As a the Princess by the actress Betty Hennings, and as 22-year-old substitute violinist in the Royal Danish the Prince’s Hunter the audience saw – and heard – Orchestra, Carl Nielsen had participated at the pre- the opera singer Niels Juel Simonsen, later on the mière of the play on 23rd January 1887 at the first King Saul in Nielsen’s Saul and David. At the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen: time it was difficult to find a good tenor in the ‘Already at the first orchestra rehearsals there opera company, and the rôle of the Prince’s Singer was excitement in the air, since we all felt that was performed by the actor Peter Jerndorff. something important was taking place. There was Throughout decades of numerous perfor- plenty to discuss, as the instruments often were mances of Der var engang, the two most distinctly employed in an unconventional manner, many operatic parts – the Hunter and the Singer – would times very awkwardly in view of the individual be taken up by great Wagner singers-to-be such as instrument: imaginative and lively (Markedsmu- Peter Cornelius and Lauritz Melchior. The celebra- sikken) or seasoned with unusual sonic combina- tion of the above-mentioned 75th birthday included tions (Kedelmusikken). The Prelude, the rococo the 315th performance at the Royal Theatre but, aria [Aria Pastorale], the Serenade and much else long before that, the play had reached not only the made such a strong impression that I would often Danish provincial theatres but also theatres in Ger- sit down at the piano trying to reproduce these many and even Austria. In fact, a production in 4 BIS-CD-1216 Lange-Mül 5/24/05 2:59 PM Page 5 Vienna inspired Alexander Zemlinsky to write his ladies in waiting, who are supposed to stay awake own opera, based on an adaptation of a German by singing a pastoral air, fall asleep by the bed. translation of Drachmann’s play. This gives the disguised Prince the opportunity to In fact Nielsen not only played in Der var summon the Princess’s father to her bedroom. The engang but also conducted it for a total of 22 per- scandalized King of Illyria banishes his daughter formances at the Royal Theatre between 1908 and from the country. She now has no choice but to 1912. The first of these took place on 15th Novem- accompany the Gypsy to Denmark, undergoing all ber 1908, without any previous rehearsal, but later, sorts of hardships, and meanwhile slowly growing at the beginning of the 1911-12 season, he was to love him. There is a terrifying meeting with the given the musical responsibility for a revival (using Prince’s Hunters, and in one scene the Prince, the old sets and costumes) which he conducted disguised as a Soldier, destroys some pots that he, as throughout the season, but from which he then the Gypsy, had forced her to sell at the market place. made a clean break. Apparently the halo which But everything comes to a happy end on Midsum- Nielsen mentions in connection with the music of mer’s Eve. Lange-Müller did not always glow brightly. The Midsummer Song, composed by Lange- Drachmann’s play is a clever amalgam of an Müller for the final scene, would in time become old folk tale, known in Denmark under the title part of the Danish cultural heritage. It is sung at the Gråben, and motifs from Shakespeare’s The Tam- traditional midsummer bonfires across the country, ing of the Shrew and Hans Christian Andersen’s although its changing metres make it less than The Swineherd (Svinedrengen). It was submitted to ideally suited to for group singing. In this record- the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1885, but was ing, the solo part is taken by the tenor soloist, even revised several times before finally being accepted, though in Drachmann’s original play it rightfully as the censor at the theatre found Drachmann’s belongs to the Hunter, a baritone. The reason for florid style unsuited to the fairy-tale atmosphere. this is a tradition, established with great force by The Prince of Denmark falls in love with a pic- the legendary Danish tenor Aksel Schiøtz (1906- ture of a Princess from the fairy-tale country of 75), who combined the Serenade and the Midsum- Illyria. He travels there in order to propose to her, mer Song on record on two occasions, in 1938 and but is scornfully rejected: she would rather marry a in 1941. These 78s contributed to the singer’s tre- beggar prince. He now disguises himself as a mendous popularity during the German occupation young Gypsy, selling the Princess a toy in return (1940-45), when the patriotic message of the Mid- for a kiss. He then lets her have a copper kettle summer Song in particular had a great impact. with the particular quality that with it one can hear In fact it was an almost equally popular 1940s everything that is said about oneself, in return for recording by Aksel Schiøtz, of the Serenade from her permission to spend one night next to her bed. Renaissance, which revived parts of another col- This nocturnal scene begins with a serenade, per- laboration between Drachmann and Lange-Müller, formed by the Prince’s Singer off-stage, but the giving it renewed popularity. This play, about the 5 BIS-CD-1216 Lange-Mül 5/24/05 2:59 PM Page 6 painter Tintoretto and his life in Renaissance songs, translated into Danish by Thor Lange. Venice, was not only the last project that Drach- His love for the sea was also the background to mann and Lange-Müller shared, but also the com- Lange-Müller’s opera Vikingeblod (Viking Blood), poser’s last work for the stage. the plot of which the composer himself noted down The première on 9th November 1901 at Dag- in great detail, before Einar Christiansen (1861- marteatret, Copenhagen’s second most important 1939, later the librettist of Carl Nielsen’s Saul and theatre at the time, was a tremendous success, and David) cast it in verse.