The photo of Christina Bjørkøe in the booklet for this release
has been placed next to one of Carl Nielsen at the piano – not
by chance, I feel, since they both share the same impish grin
and impression of lively curiosity and creativity. Having recently
looked into the same music played by Martin
Roscoe on the Hyperion label, I still felt quite in tune with
Nielsen’s piano work when approaching this new release from CPO.
I very much liked
Roscoe’s recording, and set it above Hyperion’s earlier outing
in this repertoire with Mina Miller, but only by an increasingly
dwindling margin when I started re-adjusting to Miller’s sense
of drama and contrast. Having placed Roscoe as top dog mere
months ago, I now however find myself faced with a new release
which seems to push the boundaries even further.
Christina Bjørkøe
takes a good 15 minutes longer than Roscoe over the entire programme,
and takes a consistently broader view of much of the music.
This is often not so much the result of significantly slower
tempi, but a willingness to allow light and breathing space
through at certain moments or for extended passages, at other
times building up monumental strength, in a similar way to that
notable recording of Nielsen’s 5th Symphony conducted
by Rafael
Kubelik. Bjørkøe has poetry and lightness of touch in the
Five Piano Pieces Op.3, throwing more rubato than
Roscoe in movements such as the Humoreske. I’m not always
a guaranteed fan of pulling music around in this way, but Bjørkøe
does it in such a winning and stylish way that I was sold immediately.
There is a ‘way’ with this kind of music which feels right,
and while there might be dances which take on a different meaning
with this kind of playing one can sense the spirit of Grieg
and other Nordic composers nodding in sage approval.
Unlike both Hyperion
artists, Bjørkøe does play these pieces in chronological
order, the booklet notes pointing out that in the span of Nielsen’s
career he was able to present his first symphony to Brahms,
and was working on his sixth as Shostakovich was on his first.
The Symphonic Suite Op.8 followed on from Nielsen’s
successful first symphony, but while sharing some thematic relations
with that work it also inhabits a closer-knit and more intense,
nervy world. Bjørkøe does linger over some moments more than
other players, but does maintain a natural, narrative feel to
the music, bringing out themes and lyrical lines and often giving
the piece greater appeal than I had previously given it credit.
Listening to the penultimate Andante and final Allegro
you get a feel for the orchestral nature of the music –
Nielsen’s ears still ringing with the sound of his symphony
and reluctant to leave it behind entirely. Bjørkøe allows the
music to develop in much the same way you can imagine a conductor
handling and orchestral score – taking and giving back, reinforcing
tension and scattering resolved tonalities like seeds on a ploughed
field.
Bjørkøe’s view of
the Humoresque-Bagatelles is that they are hardly bagatelles
at all, throwing in technical fireworks and emphasising the
emotive extremes in even the most simple sounding of pieces.
The Dukke-Marsch is arguably taken too slow to be a proper
march, but if you can imagine this as the over-emphatic, preening
walk of a highly decorated martinet on full public view then
this can work as well as any other interpretation. There’s not
much you can do with the Festival Prelude for the New Century
than blast it out like an orchestral tutti, and that’s what
Bjørkøe does. Paired with the Dream about ‘Silent Night’,
it heightens the gentle poetry of the latter.
The remarkable Chaconne
Op.32 sees Nielsen at first having fun with the ideas, and
then as the span of the work becomes more serious, getting more
and more involved in the working out of solutions both pianistic
and compositionally technical. Bjørkøe hears all of this, and
gives the music all of the space it deserves, layering textures,
presenting thematic relationships without labouring the point,
and urging us to see the humour in the piece as well as its
wild excesses and magnificent single span. The upward runs towards
the end create a quite magical effect.
The Theme and
variations Op.40 followed closely on the heels of the Chaconne
in terms of its creation, and after its Brahmsian opening
takes off almost immediately into improbable realms. Weaving
though the twists and turns of this labyrinth of a piece is
once again a joy of intense contrast and verdant wonder under
Bjørkøe’s fingers. It’s hard work, as the music is constantly
demanding out attention, never letting us relax and feel we
can ‘switch off’ for a few moments. I love Bjørkøe’s contrasting
articulation in this piece, and while she can give the most
penetrating staccato her touch is always controlled – the all
important dynamic outer limits held for just a very few significant
notes. The depths of funereal gloom in the central variations
really are deep – dark through understatement, the notes being
allowed to say it all and in their own good time. Without wanting
to labour the point, this is a magnificent recording and certainly
the best performance of this piece I’ve ever heard, right up
to the carefully weighed final notes and chords.
Disc 2 opens with
the Suite Op.45. Bjørkøe takes seriously Nielsen’s own
description of the first movement, that it should be “cold and
brittle in tone and in a peacefully flowing tempo...” The alliance
of cold and warmth, even that of leaping flames, can be traced
to an original sketch which is headed ‘Ild og Vand’, or ‘Fire
and Water.’ The second movement is taken at a slower pace than
I’ve heard it done elsewhere, but the mixture of colours and
sonorities works equally well; played “with the tenderest tone
and subtlest pedalling, as though listening.” The Molto adagio
e patetico opens and continues very molto, stretching some
of the rhythmic relationships to the limit – but it works, and
keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is one movement where
timings are of interest, with Roscoe coming in at 4:45 and Bjørkøe
at 7:17. Make of this what you will, but I find she makes this
one of Nielsen’s most memorable movements, certainly in terms
of the piano works. Bjørkøe’s touch in the restrained fourth
and fifth movements is marvellous, and demonic and moving in
the final Allegro non troppo ma vigoroso, though never
losing that attractive transparency of touch which makes me
want to hear her in all kinds of other repertoire.
The Three Piano
Pieces Op.59 are in places more overtly pianistic than many
of Nielsen’s other piano pieces, and Bjørkøe takes the opportunity
to flex her chops while keeping true to her fellow countryman’s
style and idiom. The mixture of Debussy-esque colour, quasi
traditional piano writing and temptingly avant-garde moments
are a heady mixture which Bjørkøe relishes. This is a potent
work hiding under the cover of a very innocent title, and this
pianist brings out the best of it from start to finish.
The Piano Pieces
for Young and Old are as much part of Nielsen’s own self
declared credo of ‘clarity, simplicity and strength’ as any
of his other works. Again, Bjørkøe takes each miniature as a
jewel in its own right, not imposing artificial significance
on straightforward exercises, but nonetheless imbuing each with
its own musical power and expressive weight in an unfussy, unmannered,
but entirely compelling fashion. The same goes for the little
Piano Piece, a minor flourish, but genuine Nielsen for
all that.
For those interested,
the cover art for this release is a painting from around 1898/1902
by Vilhelm Hammershøi, whose atmospheric, silent interiors are
most certainly worth further investigation. As if you hadn’t
guessed already, I am entirely sold on this new set of Nielsen’s
piano music, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to explore
beyond the symphonies. The recording is rich and full, the piano
sound of demonstration quality, and captured close enough to
reveal a whiff the felt dampers rising with the pedal, but also
with a sympathetic spaciousness and a pleasant, non-intrusive
resonance. I would also recommend this recording to anyone who
has tried Nielsen’s piano works and found them ‘hard going’.
No, they are not always the easiest of works, but listeners
should find they get out of the pieces as much as they invest
in terms of their own efforts, and Christina Bjørkøe rewards
us at every turn. Do I prefer this to Martin Roscoe’s Hyperion
set? Yes, but, as I found Mina Miller’s set to be complimentary
to Roscoe’s, I also find Roscoe’s complimentary to Bjørkøe’s
in many ways and certainly won’t want to be without it in the
future. You may not always want the real extremes which Bjørkøe
gives to the music, and some may not find these aspects of her
playing entirely convincing. I do however, and find going back
to other players that I miss the intensity and variety of expression
Bjørkøe finds in the music. She has Nielsen under her skin in
a way I’ve never heard before, and it’s been a real revelation.
Sorry guys – but I urge you, buy Danish.
Dominy Clements
Christina
Bjørkøe (piano) 
