Thomas Jensen (conductor)
Legacy - Volume 7
Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra
rec. 1940-57
DANACORD DACOCD917 [79:17 + 79:54]
Much of the Jensen Legacy thus far has focused, and rightly so, on the things he did so well: the nineteenth and twentieth century symphonic repertoire with an obvious focus on Scandinavian music. Here, though, we can take our foot off the pedal and luxuriate in avowedly lighter music, most of which was recorded between 1942 and ’47 but which also includes a live broadcast from the Tivoli Gardens on 24 August 1957.
Much of the first disc is given over to the galops, waltzes, polkas and other dance music of Hans Christian Lumbye. Brought up on the music of Lanner and the Strauss family, he was only 33 when invited to run musical entertainment at the newly opened Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen. The sixteen Lumbye pieces on the first disc show the variety and wit of his music, with a ripe number of effects, tempi and character. A master of the ‘Polka Mazurka’, he was also a master craftsman of the waltz. Sample the slow, lilting Hesperus Vals or the way he injects a subtle variation of mood painting in Sophie Vals or the affectionate warmth in Amélie Vals. Dream Visions is rather different, an orchestral fantasy, beautifully orchestrated – there’s a fine role for the harp – that shows him operating on a somewhat wider canvas than the usual Tivoli favourites. The Copenhagen Railway Steam Galop, complete with whistle, is a vitalising expression of musical locomotion and shows that Vienna had a serious rival in the form of Copenhagen’s Lumbye.
All the Lumbye discs were sourced from the local Odeon label. In the case of the popular selection of light classics, they come from Tonos. In many ways the wartime Odeons fare better than the post-war Tonos, which suffered from endemic shellac limitations. It’s not desperately noticeable but you will encounter more muffled sound in these discs. The majority of the Tonos date from the immediate post-war years of 1946-47. The well-played sequence of favourites – waltzes from Tchaikovsky, Hungarian Dances courtesy of Brahms, a Czardas from Delibes – also includes Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 (recorded in 1942 in a possible spirit of wartime defiance) and Paul Lacombe’s clever and much rarer Aubade printanière.
The remainder of the two-disc release (priced as for one), the live Tivoli broadcast, rather reprises this kind of ingratiating and charming repertoire – Bizet (two pieces from Carmen), Sibelius’s Nocturne from King Kristian II, as well as Delibes and Carl Frederick Emil Horneman, whose Aladdin overture offers some stirring, stormy music making.
The booklet notes are by Martin Granau and Peter Quantrill and cover the musical and geographic ground very attractively. The transfers are good, too.
The light muse is well attended to here and the aura of the Tivoli spreads welcomingly over the whole programme.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
CD1
Hans Christian LUMBYE (1810-1874)
Bouquet Royal Galop [2:35]
Queen Louise Waltz [4:15]
Columbine Polka Mazurka [3:08]
Salut for August Bournonville Galop [2:58]
Hesperus Vals [4:23]
Amager Polka [2:26]
Sophie Vals [4:03]
Danish-Swedish Blood Brothers, Galop [2:23]
The Sound of Kroll’s Ball, Waltz [7:02]
Hunters of Amager, final galop [2:58]
Amélie Vals [4:17]
Britta Polka [2:09]
Champagne Polka [1:57]
Dream Visions, orchestral fantasy [8:05]
Goodnight Polka [4:00]
Copenhagen Railway Steam Galop [3:36]
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826]
Invitation to the Dance, Op 65 orch. Berlioz [7:52]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin: Waltz from Act II, Op 24 [3:46]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dance No 5 in G minor [2:31]
Hungarian Dance No 6 in D-flat major [2:51]
CD2
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Rosamunde, Entr’acte, D797 [4:21]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
The Nutcracker; Waltz of the Flowers, Op 71 [5:59]: Russian Dance; Trepak [1:03]
Eugene Onegin: Polonaise from Act III, Op 24 [3:45]
Amilcare PONCHIELLI (1834-1886)
La Gioconda: Danza delle ore, Dance of the Hours [7:49]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899)
Emperor Waltz, Op 437 [7:36]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Danse macabre, Op 40 [6:46]
Anton RUBINSTEIN (1829-1894)
Bal costume: Toréador et Andalouse, Op 103 [3:12]
Paul LACOMBE (1837-1927)
Aubade printanière, Op 37 [3:37]
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, Op 39 [4:12]
Léo DELIBES (1836-1891)
Coppélia: Czardas [3:16]
Georges BIZET (1838-1875)
Carmen; Prelude [2:08]
Carl Frederik Emil HORNEMAN (1840-1906)
Aladdin: Overture [9:16]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
King Kristian II: Nocturne, Op 27 [6:24]
Georges BIZET
Carmen: Danse bohème [4:30]
Léo DELIBES
Coppélia: Mazurka [4:46]
