I like this. There is a lot to be said for Nordic charm and Drot og Marsk (''King and Marshall''), despite its tragic plot, possesses this in abundance. As with so much Scandinavian painting of the period, suffused by that crystal-clear light so redolent of Northern Europe, this opera (completed in 1877) breathes that special air made familiar by the scores of Grieg, Svendsen and Nielsen.
Peter Heise (1830-79) is an important figure in Danish music, forming the essential link between Niels Gade and Carl Nielsen (despite the fact that Gade outlived Heise by 11 years). Listening to Drot og Marsk one can hear in many passages the manner from which sprang the Nielsen of Maskarade and Springtime in Funen (though towards the end of Heise's final act there is one brief, astonishing pre-echo of the Hindemith of Mathis der Maler). Heise remained relatively free of Wagner's influence, learning rather from Verdi and his conflation of song-like lyricism within large-scale structures is most impressive. If Heise's music does not possess quite the punch of a Verdi, Wagner or Mussorgsky, it nonetheless has its moments—quite a few in fact—and unsurprisingly has come to be seen as something of a watershed in Danish opera. Its status is not unakin to that in Finland of Leevi Madetoja's The Ostrobothnians.
The plot of Drot og Marsk concerns the events leading up to the murder (not assassination; there was no political motive) in 1286 of the Danish king, Erik V Glipping. As with Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri though, the libretto's machinations are fanciful and the central role of the Marshall, Stig Andersen, as main protagonist in the King's murder (allegedly in revenge for his wife's seduction and eventual suicide) is historically without foundation—although he was banished for the crime.
Chandos are to be congratulated on their enterprise in producing Drot og Marsk, their version superseding that conducted by John Frandsen available ten years ago on Unicorn-Kanchana (5/82—nla). The present all-Danish cast all distinguish themselves, particularly Poul Elming and Bent Norup in the title-roles (despite one or two raw patches in Elming's upper range) and conductor Michael Schonwandt proves to be in complete command of this wonderful score.
The death in 1890 of Heise's mentor Niels Gade was widely mourned in Denmark but that of Heise himself, somewhat untimely aged 49 and with his best work still to come, was I think the greater loss. Not until Nielsen arrived on the scene was a comparable figure active and I raise my glass to his memory.'