Danish Piano Concertos, Vol.

The three composers represented here do not stand at the forefront of the history of Danish music, but all three of them have in at least one respect secured themselves a position for which they will be remembered. As the first and only Dane, Otto Malling wrote a textbook on orchestration (1894), Ludvig Schytte published the collection ì45 Sonatinas and Execution Piecesî, which has been a sine qua non for anybody learning to play the piano in Denmark, and Siegfried Salomon wrote the opera Leonara Christina (1926), which includes one of the greatest hits in Danish opera, ìThere are Three Cornerstonesî, for many years a regular feature of Radio Denmarkís request programs, sung by Tenna Kraft. The romantic virtuoso concerto has never been highly thought of in Denmark.

August Winding was the son of a musical clergyman whose great interest was in collecting folk-songs. He was his son's first music teacher. Later, he studied in Hamburg, Vienna and Paris where he became acquainted with Chopin and Kalkbrenner. The composer Carl Reinecke, who was court composer in Copenhagen in 1846-48, also taught Winding. He was very close to Niels W. Gade and also studied with him. He established himself as a formidable pianist especially in the works of Mozart and Beethoven. He taught at the Conservatory in Copenhagen and through his marriage to Clara, the daughter of J.P.E. Hartmann, he became a member of this musical family. In fact, the other composer on this CD, Emil Hartmann was his brother-in-law.

Bendix's concerto is quite simply one of the great piano concertos of the 19th century yet it is hardly known, probably for two reasons: Bendix does not have a particularly distinctive style and this work, most unusually for its period, is not a display concerto and so would not appeal to all pianists. However, the concerto's ideas are first-rate and the whole piece is superbly constructed and very tautly argued. Although Bendix's symphonies are clearly influenced by the Russian school, this concerto is more Germanic in style so, if you like Brahms, give it a try. It will take a few hearings to find your way around but the rewards will be enormous.