Victor Bendix
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra G minor, op. 17 (1884)
1. Allegro moderato
2. Intermezzo, allegretto con moto
3. Allegro vivace
Rudolph Simonsen
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra F minor (1915)
4. Allegro non troppo
5. Lento
6. Allegro con brio
Danish Piano Concertos Vol 4 ©
Victor Bendix grew up in comfortable circumstances. His two elder brothers were both musicians, Otto, an oboist and for a time a member of the Royal Danish Orchestra until emigrating to USA, where he made his way as a pianist and teacher. Fritz, a cellist and for most of his adult life likervise a member of The Royal Danish Orchestra. Victor began composing at an early age and with the assistance of his brothers performed these compositions o fhis boyhood at home.
He entercd the conservatoire, trained as a pianist and made a name for himself as the leading Danish piano virtuoso o fhis generation. As a composer he soon attracted attention, also in Germany, where he met Franz Liszt and together with him played his first symphony as a piano duet in Liszt’s home at Weimar. The symphony was perfomed several times in Gcrmany, and the second symphony, inspired by travels in Russia, was for many years included in the standard orchestral concert repertoire in Copenhagen.
Bendix was also active as a conductor, and in this capacity he promoted the young Carl Nielsen, besides being influential in furthering the appreciation of’Verdi’s operas in a number of performances of”Don Carlos” at Det Nye Teater (The New Theatre), where he himself conducted. Thus Victor Bendix enjoyed a notable career, but not in the long run the recognition as a composer in Denmark he most certainly deserved. There were several reasons for this. One of these was Carl Nielsen – or rather Carl Nielsen’s devotees. For when the fourteenyear-younger Nielsen came on to the Danish musical scene and swept romanticism away, Bendix was forgottcn. He was himsell fully aware of his musical destiny, since he largely ceascd to compose some years after the tum of the century. Carl Nielsen’s “modern” nusic – and his indisputable stature as a composer – came to dominate Danish music, and there was not really room for latter-day romantics and late romantics. Important names such as Louis Glass and Ludolf Nielsen were neglected during their lifetime, and a similar fate was accorded Bendix. Nevertheless he retained his admiration for Carl Niclsen’s talent to the end even though he did not sympathize with the younger composer’s musical outlook.
The other reason for Bcndix’s neglect was his private life. He was a man surrounded by scandals: infidelity, seductions, the suicide of one of his mistresses (she was married to Bendix’ cousin Edvard Brandes), an illegitimate son by one of his piano pupils – the son was to become the famous piano virtuoso Victor Schiøler – and this pupil’s attempt to murder the child’s father all caused polite society to keep the once so popular composer, pianist and conductor at a distance
Of all Danish composers, Rudolph Simonsen is hardly a name that many people are aware of. He already gave up composing about the mid-1930s in order to concentrate on his work as principal of The Royal Danish Academy of Music and his activities as a music propagator at the highest level, and his music was quickly forgotten, also perhaps because he himself made little effort to get it performed.
He read law because his father did not approve of the idea of having a son pursuing a musical career but he also studied the piano and became a professional pianist. The Royal Danish Academy of Music became the next institutc of higher education he attendcd, and he later supplemented his studies in Berlin, where he met his future wife, Käthe.
Simonsen was a passionate music lover with high moral and ethical aims in his production. For him music was sacred and he considered it to be an important mission to bring great music out to the people. This took place at lectures at the conservatoire and in assembly halls all over the country, where in a lively and inspircd manner and with considcrablc pedagogical talent he talked about the composers whom he thought to be the most importart: Bach and Handel, Beethoven, Schubert and Carl Nielsen, who throughout his life were his great ideals. He also made use of his pedagogical abilities in literature on music, especially in the book “Sub specie aeternitatis” – under the perspective of eternity – where his analysis o fthe first movement of Carl Nielsen’s 5th symphony is both a delighted musician’s and a learned musical scholar’s inspired commcntary of the structure and content of a major Danish work.
As a composer Rudolph Simonsen began to attract serious attention around 1920. His production comprises chamber music, in particular a piano trio, a piano quartet, a piano quintet, two string quartets and a clarinet quintet, somc songs and part-songs, among which four Sapphic songs deserve special mention, choral works with orchestra, in particular “Winter” and “Festal Music for the Synagogue’s 100th Anniversary 1933” and four symphonies, which at the time were considcrcd to be an extremely vital contribution to Danish symphonic production alongsidc
and as a continuation of Carl Nielsen’s achievements in this sphere. They all have a title: No. 1 “Sion”, no.2 “Hellas”, no.3 “Roma” and no. 4 “Denmark”, by means of which Simonsen was able to lay emphasis on his Jewish ancestry and cultural roots. The symphonies were composed in the years 1921 -25.
RELEASE DATE: JULY 2005
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 641
EAN: 5709499641002