Gade

During the mid-19th century, the Danish composer Niels. W. Gade was one of Europe's most well-known composers, conducting his own works all over the continent. Starting out as a protégé of Mendelssohn's, he later became his successor as music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and made the acquaintance of Robert and Clara Schumann, and of Liszt and Wagner. Initially known as a composer of symphonies, Gade mastered the German musical idiom to perfection, while adding a Nordic accent to it, particularly noticeable in his best works. His eight symphonies were composed between 1841 and 1871, and although Gade remained active as a composer until his death in 1890, he wrote no more symphonies. When questioned, he is said to have stated that 'there is but one Ninth Symphony!'

During the mid-19th century, the Danish composer Niels. W. Gade was one of Europe's most well-known composers, conducting his own works all over the continent. Starting out as a protégé of Mendelssohn's, he later became his successor as music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and made the acquaintance of Robert and Clara Schumann, and of Liszt and Wagner. Initially known as a composer of symphonies, Gade mastered the German musical idiom to perfection, while adding a Nordic accent to it, particularly noticeable in his best works. His eight symphonies were composed between 1841 and 1871, and although Gade remained active as a composer until his death in 1890, he wrote no more symphonies. When questioned, he is said to have stated that 'there is but one Ninth Symphony!'

This immensely satisfying release features two of Gade's most likeable symphonies coupled with an overture of exuberant warmth and vitality. Hogwood's clinically recorded performances are a joy to listen to and, in my opinion, he comfortably supersedes earlier versions such as those on DaCapo and other obscure labels.

Niels Gade was deeply admired in his own time, not least by such luminaries as Robert Schumann. He was for a time assistant conductor to Mendelssohn (and briefly, following Mendelssohn's death in 1847, chief conductor) at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Small wonder, then, that his music should show the influences of those two giants. The Second Symphony (premiered at the Gewandhaus in 1844) radiates the same spirited freshness one finds in Schumann's Spring Symphony, for instance - though the scherzo has a galloping open-air joy about it which seems closer to Mendelssohn.

During the mid-19th century, the Danish composer Niels. W. Gade was one of Europe's most well-known composers, conducting his own works all over the continent. Starting out as a protégé of Mendelssohn's, he later became his successor as music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and made the acquaintance of Robert and Clara Schumann, and of Liszt and Wagner. Initially known as a composer of symphonies, Gade mastered the German musical idiom to perfection, while adding a Nordic accent to it, particularly noticeable in his best works. His eight symphonies were composed between 1841 and 1871, and although Gade remained active as a composer until his death in 1890, he wrote no more symphonies. When questioned, he is said to have stated that 'there is but one Ninth Symphony!'

If not the most adventurous of composers, and in his later years over-conservative, Gade in his youth certainly had his moments. his inventiveness is evident in all four symphonies presented here, albeit in very different ways. The Sixth (1856-7) is perhaps the most perfect, Classical in design although with a minatory feel suggestive at times of middle-period Haydn. If it stays within its own clearly defined harmonic and stylistic limits, the First, Third and Fifth do not.

Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade is the sole composer on this album by the Århus Chamber Orchestra (Århus Kammerorkester), conducted by Ove Vedsten Larsen. Just two pieces are featured on the album: the Novellette No. 1 in F, Op. 53, and the Novellette No. 2 in E, Op. 58, yet each is a charming work, made of four movements, unto itself. Novellette No. 1 commences with lush strings performing richly textured music. While all of the instruments are unarguably strong, the sweeping cellos truly stand out.

Niels Gade's three violin sonatas are spread across his entire career, the early A major dating from 1842 before his period of study in Leipzig, while the late B flat major was written in 1885, just five years before his death. Like Sibelius later Gade in his younger years entertained notions of becoming a violin virtuoso and the First and Second Sonatas (the latter composed in 1849 shortly after his return to Copenhagen) are products of this active interest in and familiarity with the instrument. T

The influence of Mendelssohn (and Schumann) on the music of Gade is well-attested to and it is readily apparent in the works presented here; indeed, one would hardly imagine Gade turning to the rarely found genre of the string octet without the relatively recent precedent of Mendelssohn's own youthful masterpiece. It is a work of Gade's youth too - albeit not the product of an artistic prodigy - and dates from the period when the Danish composer's inspiration was still fired by the Early Romantic movement.

There is, of course, no shortage of Romantic-era violin concertos in the instrument's standard repertoire. None of them found with any regularity on the concert stage, however, hail from Denmark. This DaCapo album demonstrates that there are indeed examples that come to us from the Scandinavian country, and even that some of them are inexplicably excluded from the modern canon.