Piano Works by Louis Glass, Vol. 2

Review: MusicWebInternational

Louis Glass

Piano Sonata No. 1 in E Major, op. 6
1. I. Allegro con moto
2. II. Adagio
3. III. Scherzo. Allegro – Poco vivo
4. IV. Allegro assai – Andante maestoso

Skitser, op. 21
5. I. Roligt og med ynde
6. II. Blidt og roligt
7. III. Friskt og klangfuldt
8. IV. Livligt og muntert
9. V. Med fast Rytme og ikke for hurtigt
10. VI. Med skælmsk Ynde
11. VII. Langsomt og sørgmodigt
12. VIII. Med Lune
13. IX. I langsomt Vals-Tempo

Landlige Billeder, op. 48
14. I. Hos Landsbysmeden. Allegro
15. II. I Bedstefaders Have. Andante
16. III. Ænder paa Vej til Dammen. Moderato
17. IV. I Kostalden. Allegro
18. V. Igennem den mørke Skov. Poco con moto
19. VI. I Hønsegaarden. Presto

Sommerminder (Lyse Nætter), op. 53, No. 2
20. Tempo di valse, ma molto tranquillo

Mazurka, op. 53, No. 3
21. Poco vivace

Aquareller, op. 58
22. I. Vandmøllen. Moderato con moto
23. II. Visesangeren. Poco vivace
24. III. Hyrdinden og Skorstensfejeren – Hyrdinden. Tempo di Valse
25. IV. Hyrdinden og Skorstensfejeren – Vekselsang og Flugt. Commodo, e con espressione.Poco vivace
26. V. Processionen. Tempo di Marcia

27. Vort Bal. Moderato

Jakob Alsgaard Bahr, piano

Piano Works Vol. 2 ©

By Claus Røllum-Larsen

Louis Glass was born in 1864. His childhood home was full of music. His father, Christian Henrik Glass, was a prominent and highly recognised music educator whose primary instrument was the piano, though he was also an organist. In 1877, he founded his own music conservatory, which focused on piano playing and soon gained a good reputation. In addition to teaching, C.H. Glass was an industrious composer, and his output includes a long list of piano pieces of which many were intended to be used in piano education.

Louis Glass showed signs of musicality from an early age, and soon there was no doubt that music would be his path. In an autobiographical sketch, Glass described his childhood where music was almost everything: “When I, as the sole child of a marriage of several years, came into this world (on March 23, 1864), I was destined from birth to become a musician, and my hands were the first thing my father examined. Though, I have to admit that his plans for me ended up coinciding with my own. Thus, in my first year of school, I only wished to learn to write sheet music. Letters, I did not care about.” This one-sided influence during his upbringing had a big impact on Glass: “I lived a dream life, and if I could get away with it, I would spend most of the night fantasizing and composing.” Glass’ association with peers was limited: “I had very few friends among my schoolmates whose crudeness often offended me, and my feelings towards school and the brutality I so often witnessed and was subjected to there, were of such a nature that I can say without hesitation that I hated school with all my soul and all my heart.”

After receiving piano lessons from his father, Glass became a cello student of Albert Rüdinger and as a child he also started playing the organ and substituting for his father in the Reformed Church. At the age of five, Glass was performing as a pianist, and in 1882, at the age of 18, he debuted at two concerts at The Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, playing the cello and the piano. At the latter concert, he played Robert Schumann’s piano concerto.

By the mid-1880s, Glass was already well into composing and had already written a four-movement suite for orchestra. In 1884, Glass travelled to Brussels where he had been accepted into the music conservatory. Here, he studied the piano and the cello. However, his experience was cut short when he and a fellow student, violinist Knud Juel, decided to discontinue their studies due to dissatisfaction with the teaching. After his return to Copenhagen, Glass became a student of Niels W. Gade and Franz Neruda, and he resumed his cello playing in the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra. At the end of 1888, he was awarded the prestigious grant, Det Anckerske Legat, which he spent traveling Europe and visiting Bayreuth, among other places. Here, he attended performances of Richard Wagner’s ”Tristan and Iseult” and ”Parsifal”. In 1889, Glass co-founded the chamber music association Symphonia where young composers had their works played.

After his father died, Glass took over the management of his conservatory. In the almost 43 years, up to and including 1934, in which Glass was its manager, the conservatory was expanded and consolidated which resulted in several prominent students being educated there. The intense work with music education led to Glass co-founding Musikpædagogisk Forening (Association for Music Education) alongside Hortense Panum in 1898. The association still exists today under the name Dansk Musikpædagogisk Forening. Although Glass was often perceived as distant and pensive, in his years as the chairman of Dansk Tonekunstnerforening (Danish Music Artist Association) 1909-1913, he voiced his opinion with great commitment on topics regarding members of the association and their conditions.

During the 1890s, Glass had composed two symphonies which, however, did not stay on the repertoire. On the other hand, his third symphony, Skovsymfonien (Forest Symphony) from 1900-1901, became a great success. Presumably around 1912, Glass became captivated by the sectarian movement theosophy the way it was practised by Madame Blavatsky and further developed by Annie Besant, among others. The movement was based on hinduism and buddhism among others, and in the years around and after 1900, it attracted many artists, including composers. Only few of Glass’ works have clearly been influenced by theosophy, however, especially his major work Sinfonia svastika from 1920 clearly reflects his connection to the movement. During the 1920s, Glass made his mark as a strong opponent of the new music, including that of Stravinsky, and the decade offered many discussions of aesthetics and thus many clashes between Glass and representatives of the young generation of composers. His persistent defence of a romantic work aesthetic was especially reflected in his criticism of Carl Nielsen’s book “Levende Musik” (Living Music). Glass was active as a composer until shortly before his death in January 1936.

RELEASE DATE: May 2024

CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 981

EAN: 5709499981009