Search - Morten Ernst Lassen, Carl Nielsen, Ulrich Staerk :: Carl Nielsen: Songs

A really, truly fabulous release

G.D. | Norway | 12/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, this was something of a surprise - and a glorious one. I snapped it up as an afterthought from a box of discounted items, and it quickly turned into one of the most delightful discoveries I've made in a long time. Carl Nielsen isn't exactly best known - and outside Denmark probably hardly known at all - for his songs, but based on this disc I would deem him worthy of a place up there with Brahms and Schumann as a song composer. And perhaps the most surprising thing about his songs is how few traces there are of either composer - or indeed anyone else - in them. Perhaps a very, very distant kinship can be traced to Grieg or Loewe, but even that would be rather misleading. Carl Nielsen's songs do simply not really sound like anyone else's.



The program spans Nielsen's whole songwriting career, and the level of originality and invention is consistently high, even if the style develops. Among the early songs, there are the exquisite and colorful `Silkesko over gylden læst' and the wonderful op. 4 songs (ok, there are some traces of Schumann and Brahms in these). The op. 10 songs are more mature, and real masterpieces of spirit and lighter colors. But throughout the whole very varied programme there is hardly a moment where invention and imagination flags.



The performances sound more or less perfect to my ears. Both Dam-Jensen and Lassen have lovely tones (perhaps in particular Dam Jensen), and sing sensitively and with beautiful control and coloration. They are also wonderfully and sensitively accompanied by Ulrich Stærk. Perhaps the sound could have been slightly better balanced, but no matter - this is an urgently recommended disc of superb performances of absolutely wonderful music."