The Launy Grøndahl Legacy, Vol. 7

Review: FonoForum

Review: MusicWebInternational

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
1. I. Allegro ma non troppo
2. II. Larghetto
3. III. Rondo. Allegro

Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov
Mozart and Salieri, Op. 48
4. Scene 1
5. Scene 2

CD 2

Carl Nielsen
1. Overture to the opera Maskarade

Piotr Iyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
2. I. Allegro non troppe e molto maestoso Allegro con spirito
3. II. Andantino semplice – Prestissimo Tempo 1
4. III. Allegro con fuoco

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 ‘The Great’ (incomplete)
5. I. Andante – Allegro ma non troppo
6. II. Andante con moto

Launy Grøndahl Legacy, Vol. 7 ©
By Martin Granau/Peter Quantrill

From the opening drum-taps onwards, there are distinct French influences on the Violin Concerto which come into even clearer focus when soloists play the cadenza written by the composer for a later piano transcription, with its popular, military character. At the same time, the key of D major became for Beethoven a sanctuary for some of his most spiritually devoted music, and the Violin Concerto is remarkable (like the F major ‘Pastoral’ Symphony) for its placid tonal structure, which is not so much disturbed as deepened in the expansive first movement by a profound G minor episode. It was not long after Mozart’s death in 1791 that scurrilous rumours began to spread of Antonio Salieri’s hand in his demise. Our best modern guess attributes cause of death to rheumatic fever, but the possibility of a malign actor doing away with one of humanity’s great geniuses out of envy and spite has continued to grip fertile imaginations. Six years after Salieri’s own death in 1830, Pushkin produced a little verse tragedy on the subject, which Rimsky-Korsakov adapted for the lyric stage in 1897.

For this Danish radio broadcast of Mozart and Salieri, a local-language text was made by the singer Thyge Thygesen, who produced several operas for radio and television. The two roles are taken by the baritone Henry Skjær (1899-1991, a company member of the Royal Chapel), and the tenor Christian Blanke (1914-97) as Mozart.

Rimsky-Korsakov did not call Mozart and Salieri an opera but ‘dramatic scenes’. There are just two of them, opening with Salieri alone, troubled by Mozart’s genius. Resolving to do away with him, he invites Mozart to dinner. They meet (in Scene 2) at a tavern, where Salieri poisons the wine. Mozart inquiries about Salieri’s work, the opera Tarare, written to a libretto by Beaumarchais, and Mozart asks if it is true that Beaumarchais once poisoned someone; something that Mozart finds hard to believe, as genius and crime are incompatible. Beginning to feel the effects of the poison, Mozart departs and leaves Salieri alone with his thoughts once more.

The style is an individual synthesis of neoclassical and Romantic idiom, cast in melodic recitative without expanding into arias. The declamation of the protagonists is embellished by naturalistic touches in the orchestra: when Salieri speaks of ‘a simple scale’, a scale is duly heard; when he mentions an organ, a pedal point is introduced into the accompaniment. The harmonic language belongs to the 18th century, and Rimsky rivals Tchaikovsky for Mozartian pastiche when the younger man plays the piano to his deadly rival. There are also direct quotations from the Requiem and Don Giovanni which make ironic comment on the unwitting proximity of the composer’s demise.

CD2 opens with a legendary performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, given on the occasion of the DRSO’s London debut in 1951, a year after Fritz Busch had conducted its landmark debut at the Edinburgh International Festival. Busch was again booked to conduct in London, but died ten days before the concert. Despite being in poor health himself, Grøndahl agreed to take over. The day of the concert found both soloist and orchestra on edge, according to Schiøler, who had an observer thrown out of the morning rehearsal for reading a newspaper. Just before the concert in the evening, Grøndahl was pacing around nervously, observed by the orchestra’s tuba player, Erik Åkerwall. In his tuba case he had tucked away two beers, which each DRSO member had received from the Tuborg brewery before leaving for London. He gave one to Grøndahl, who downed it and then went on stage to make his own, belated but eventually triumphant, UK debut.

According to the Musical Times: ‘The excellent impression made by the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra at last year’s Edinburgh Festival was confirmed by its first visit to London. Its playing at the Festival Hall on 21 and 24 September was lively, sensitive, and luminous in tone… Mr. Grøndahl, a newcomer to Britain, opened the second concert with an enchanting performance of Weber’s Oberon Overture, and managed skilfully the accompaniment to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, in which the Danish pianist Victor Schiøler was a commanding though not entirely accurate soloist. After the interval Mr. Grøndahl performed Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony. This was the climax of the two concerts, and a reminder of Britain’s loss in its general unfamiliarity with this Danish composer. It was enthusiastically received, and the conductor added as encore Nielsen’s light-hearted Maskarade overture.’

The source of the present recording was a Danish-made tape of the BBC transmission. The performance of the overture appended here derives not from that London concert but from a concert given by Grøndahl and the DRSO at an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of Danish Radio, which took place at the Forum exhibition hall, opposite the Radiohuset.

RELEASE DATE: July 2020

CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 887

EAN: 5709499887004