Gade Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Niels (Wilhelm) Gade
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 3/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 61
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9422
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 1 |
Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer |
| Hamlet Overture |
Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer |
| Echoes from Ossian (Ekterlange af Ossian) |
Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Niels (Wilhelm) Gade, Composer |
Author: Robert Layton
Gade’s First Symphony, which was turned down by the Copenhagen Music Society but accepted and championed in Leipzig by Mendelssohn, launched him on his long and successful career. Its subtitle, On Sjoland’s fair plains (“Paa Sjolands fagre sletter”), alludes to one of the folk-songs collected and published by his teacher Andreas Peter Berggreen though it is not the only folk-song to figure in the score. The First Symphony comes from 1842 and is exactly contemporaneous with the Sinfonia serieuse of Berwald. Although it may not have as individual a profile, it is eminently civilized, well-schooled music which deserves a place in the repertory.
There are two current rivals – Neeme Jarvi’s BIS recording with the Stockholm Sinfonietta, coupled with the Eighth Symphony, and another by Michael Schonwandt and the Copenhagen Collegium Musicum coupled with the Second, but handicapped by a brightly lit, rather congested recording. This newcomer under Dmitri Kitaienko is to be preferred to either. The performance is both vital and sensitive and the recording is splendidly natural, with a good perspective and front-to-back depth and no want of detail or presence. The Echoes from Ossian Overture is Gade’s first opus, which he composed two years earlier. Like the symphony it is one of his most often recorded pieces, and its second group has a charm that is difficult to resist. This performance, incidentally, dates from January 1992 and has appeared before on the Chandos issue ofThe Elf-king’s daughter (“Elverskud”). The Hamlet Overture was written 21 years later under the influence of what Jens Cornelius calls “Leipzig-inspired ideals”. It is beautifully crafted, fresh in its inspiration and well worth its place in the catalogue. The Jarvi is excellent and those who have it need not feel they are in any way short-changed but readers beginning a Gade collection might well start here. Recommended.
'
There are two current rivals – Neeme Jarvi’s BIS recording with the Stockholm Sinfonietta, coupled with the Eighth Symphony, and another by Michael Schonwandt and the Copenhagen Collegium Musicum coupled with the Second, but handicapped by a brightly lit, rather congested recording. This newcomer under Dmitri Kitaienko is to be preferred to either. The performance is both vital and sensitive and the recording is splendidly natural, with a good perspective and front-to-back depth and no want of detail or presence. The Echoes from Ossian Overture is Gade’s first opus, which he composed two years earlier. Like the symphony it is one of his most often recorded pieces, and its second group has a charm that is difficult to resist. This performance, incidentally, dates from January 1992 and has appeared before on the Chandos issue of
'
Gade Orchestral Works
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