Music and Vinyl: Nielsen

Carl Nielsen was one of the greatest symphonists of the 20th Century, and of his six life-affirming symphonies No.4 "The Inextinguishable" is probably the most well known.

I came across Nielsen's music by chance almost. Many years ago I bought a budget priced RCA Victrola LP of Symphony No.4 without knowing the music - a quick look of the sleeve notes suggested I might like it. I loved it! That performance (Jean Martinon with the Chicago Symphony) was almost a permanent fixture on my turntable. And when some years later, Unicorn released a boxed set of all six symphonies with Nielsen's Danish compatriot Ole Schmidt conducting I knew I had to save up for it.

So this is the performance in this video. Dating from 1974, the recording was made in the church of St Giles, Cripplegate in London. There are better orchestral recordings, as far as sound quality is concerned, but the performance is first rate.

Score preface - click to enlarge

Nielsen wrote in 1914:

"I have an idea for a new composition, which has no programme but will express what we understand by the spirit of life or manifestations of life, that is: everything that moves, that wants to live ... just life and motion, though varied – very varied – yet connected, and as if constantly on the move, in one big movement or stream. I must have a word or a short title to express this; that will be enough. I cannot quite explain what I want, but what I want is good."

The phrase he came up with to express this idea was "Det Uudslukkelige" (The Inextinguishable). A note in the score's preface explains this further.

The four movements in the symphony are continuous, and thematically and tonally the music is a further development on Nielsen's dramatic use of tension between keys. The Unicorn set came with an additional record of spoken commentaries on the symphonies by Nielsen scholar and composer Robert Simpson, and I've done a separate video of his talk about No.4.

The symphony is noted for having two set of tympani, which have a battle royale in the finale trying to establish "their" key while the orchestra try, and eventually succeed, in dragging the tympani along with them. Also notable is Nielsen's scoring, and one particularly telling instance is at the start of the 3td movement; a long passionate melody in the violins subsides only to have the cellos enter above them - another string melody but in the highest range of the cellos giving it an anguished sound totally different from violins at the same pitch.

For Nielsen. "Music is the sound of life" . . .

A guide to the symphony is available here.