In the early 1920s Nielsen heard the Copenhagen Wind Quintet rehearsing some Mozart and was moved to compose his enchanting Wind Quintet. He subsequently planned to write each of its members a concerto but only lived long enough to compose the two recorded here – the Flute Concerto of 1926 and the Clarinet Concerto of two years later. The soloist at the former’s premiere was Holger Gilbert-Jespersen and it was he who made its first recording over a quarter of a century later. Gilbert-Jespersen was by all accounts an artist of refined taste and strong Gallic sympathies, and much of the piece was inspired by his temperament. The burlesque gestures of the trombone at the end are a joke at his expense. As the authors of The Record Guide (Collins: 1955) put it, “unless it is discreetly handled, the affectionate little jest can itself sound crude; but here all is perfection”. And indeed it is, particularly in such a superb CD transfer as this.
Dutton Laboratories have already given us Jensen’s recordings of Nielsen’s First and Fifth Symphonies (7/95). These concertos and the four excepts from Maskarade were all recorded in April 1954, albeit with Mogens Woldike conducting the Clarinet Concerto. Aage Oxenvad, the original dedicatee, was to have recorded it but died before the sessions were due to take place. Louis Cahuzac replaced him (Clarinet Classics, 3/93). At the time, Ib Erikson was Principal Clarinet of the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra, which throughout the 1950s was without question the finest in Scandinavia. This version conveys better than so many modern ones the Concerto’s unearthly quality; its rarefied and bracing air. These performances carry a special authority and cannot be too strongly recommended.'