Thomas Jensen (conductor)
Legacy - Volume 12
Danish Radio Choir
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra (Riisager – Marche Tartare only)
rec. 1938-62
No texts
DANACORD DACOCD922 [79 + 75]
The latest in Danacord’s twofer-the-price-of-one releases devoted to the art of Thomas Jensen offers an operatic rarity. It’s Frederik Rung’s The Three-Cornered Hat, heard here in the arrangement for radio by Thyge Thygesen. Rung was a student of Gade and Hartmann and eventually became a conductor at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen where he directed the first Danish performance of Das Rheingold. Composed in 1893, and therefore much earlier than works on the same theme by Wolf and Falla, the booklet notes are right to call it ‘catchy’ but after its initial run in 1894 and this radio performance in 1953 it seems to have comprehensively sunk.
It's a charmer, features a strong cast, and is delightfully orchestrated, a three-act comic opera with strong lyrical and buffo elements that also features a strong, energising role for the chorus. That said, Thygesen exercised his scissors as the work lasts little more than an hour – the second act lasts 27 minutes and is by some way the longest of the three – and only one of the arias or cues lasts longer than three minutes. However on closer inspection, he seems only to have excised some verses and not complete numbers and this gives a sense of continuity and flow without any great loss in comic narrative. Some of the country’s best and most distinctive singers take part including tenor Christen Blanke, soprano Kate Møller and baritone Henry Skjaer. You’ll note too that Einar Nørby is one of the supporting cast members.
The remainder of the programme is devoted to more things operatic: preludes, overtures and scenes. Hakon Børrensen is represented by the Prelude to The Royal Guest, confident and Mastersingers-like whilst C.F.E. Horneman evinces the more Mendelssohnian vein in Danish composition in his overture to Aladdin. There’s also his forceful and impressively constructed Gurre-Suite from 1899. Gurre is a castle in North Zealand. There’s especially fine love music, lyrical melancholy for a death scene and a floral, forestry finale, with decoratively lovely wind writing.
The value in a twofer such as this is the variety of styles and imperatives in the works. For example, we go right back to Eduard DuPuy (born in 1770) for his 1806 overture to Youth and Folly, a dramatic opera propelled by the sinewy strings of the Danish Radio Symphony. Fini Henriques is always good to hear whether in operatic music, as here, or in his violin works. The prelude to Voelund the Smith exudes pomposo grandeur and is littered with scurrying strings and big cymbal crashes complete with a violin romance section. A more extensive example comes with the Church Scene from Wieth-Knudsen’s Death and the Mother, exuding Old School verities in music making of the 1920s. Le jazz hot is definitely off the menu here.
With the final three pieces we arrive at more recent music. Sven Schulz’s Three Danish Dances date from 1960 and offer, by turn, rumbustious excitement, very deftly scored light lyricism that turns brassy, and finally a country fiddle dance. Talking of rumbustious excitement, there’s Riisager with his fascinating Toccata of 1952, neo-classical but laced with his trademark caprice and vitality, and also with the earliest recorded piece here, the Marche Tartare, recorded in 1938 and one of Jensen’s earliest discs. It’s the only work not performed by the Danish Radio Symphony. It’s played by the Copenhagen Philharmonic and is the only commercial, studio recording (an HMV Z) in this twofer which is otherwise exclusively derived from broadcasts. Finally, Tage Nielsen is represented by his vigorous seven-minute Intermezzo Gaio from a January 1962 concert.
Jensen can be heard here in a raft of operatic material or in music that aspires to the theatrical condition. He seldom fell below a certain standard and maintains discipline and energy throughout a long and engrossing programme. Fine notes and transfers as per usual from this source.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
CD1
Frederik Rung (1854-1914)
The Three-Cornered Hat, opera in three acts (1893)
Henry Skjaer, Ida Roholm, Christen Blanke, Kate Møller, André Bech Nielsen, Eskild Rask Nielsen, Einar Nørby, Holger Nørgaard, Volmer Holbøll, Kirsten Thrane Petersen, Georg Leicht
Birgit Bastian
Hakon Børrensen (1876-1954)
The Royal Guest; Prelude (1919)
C.F.E. Horneman (1840-1906)
Aladdin: Overture (1888/1902)
CD2
Eduard DuPuy (1770-1822)
Youth and Folly: overture (1806)
Fini Henriques (1867-1940)
Voelund the Smith (1896)
K.A. Wieth-Knudsen (1878-1962)
Death and the Mother: Church Scene (1922-31)
Birgit Bastian (soprano): Hans Christian Andersen (bass)/Danish Radio Choir (male voices)
C.F.E. Horneman
Gurre-Suite (1899)
Svend S. Schulz (1913-1998)
Three Danish Dances (1960)
Knudåge Riisager (1897-1974)
Toccata (1952)
Marche Tartare
Tage Nielsen (1929-2003)
Intermezzo Gaio, Op 5
Published: October 11, 2022
