Let me start by saying I am very much a novice when it comes to classical music. The fact that I have a degree (primary teaching from Denmark) has not "forced" me to become a specialist in the classical field. I am a musician in the sense I play guitar and have done so from the age of 12 - but without actually learning a huge amount of theory.
I have chosen Carl Nielsen for the fact that he grew up a few miles outside my hometown of Odense and as such has been an ever-present influence on culture where I grew up. "Lets have a little one of Carl Nielsens" is a commonly heard saying when requests are made to anyone to sing or play a song.
I am going to start out with some brief historic facts that I have borrowed from the net:
The Fifth Symphony has a non-customary structure, comprising two movements instead of the common three or four. Written in a modern musical language, it draws on the theme of contrast and opposition. The post-World War I composition is also described to contain elements of war.
The reason for choosing this piece was that I thought it would be interesting to discover one of his more difficult and modern pieces. In Denmark the Helios Overture is very widely known - it is the first audio heard in the new year on Danish Radio - and also widely taught as part of the music curriculum in collages etc.A Swedish performance on 20 January 1924, under the baton of Georg Schnéevoigt, caused quite a scandal; the Berlingske Tidende reported that some in the audience could not take the modernism of the work:
Midway through the first part with its rattling drums and 'cacophonous' effects a genuine panic broke out. Around a quarter of the audience rushed for the exits with confusion and anger written over their faces, and those who remained tried to hiss down the 'spectacle', while the conductor Georg Schnéevoigt drove the orchestra to extremes of volume. This whole intermezzo underlined the humoristic-burlesque element in the symphony in such a way that Carl Nielsen could certainly never have dreamed of. His representation of modern life with its confusion, brutality and struggle, all the uncontrolled shouts of pain and ignorance—and behind it all the side drum's harsh rhythm as the only disciplining force—as the public fled, made a touch of almost diabolic humour.[41]
I hope the next month will prove interesting for everyone and I hope you will contribute with whatever you feel to this thread as we go along.
I will be using the following two recordings.
