Niels Gade; Asger Hamerik - Novelletter; Symphony No. 6 (Johannes Goritzki)

Information

Composer: Niels Gade; Asger Hamerik

• (01) Hamerik - Symphony No. 6 in G major, Op. 38 'Symphonie spirituelle'
• (05) Gade - Noveletter in F major, Op. 53
• (09) Gade - Noveletter in E major, Op. 58

Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss
Johannes Goritzki, conductor

Date: 1998
Label: cpo

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

Danish symphonists other than Gade and Nielsen are a closed book to most people, though Asger Hamerik’s Sixth for strings, the Symphonie spirituelle (1897) was recorded by Boyd Neel in the days of 78s. He was a pupil of Berlioz but spent the greater part of his life in Baltimore where he was director of the Peabody Institute. The Symphonie spirituelle inhabits much the same world as Schumann and Gade, two of whose sets of Novellettes are accommodated on the same disc. Not strongly individual but well crafted, it is civilised music, impeccably played as one would expect from the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss under their cellist-conductor, Johannes Goritzki. It produces a fine tonal blend and every phrase breathes. First-rate sound, too.

Hakon Børresen and Ludolf Nielsen were both 11 years younger than Carl Nielsen and both outlived him. Børresen studied with Svendsen who actually conducted the premiere of his First Symphony (as, for that matter, he had Carl Nielsen’s). His Second Symphony (1904) is well-schooled with a delightful scherzo scored with the lightness and transparency of a Mendelssohn. The symphony as a whole has a Dvorákian sense of space. The Third (1928), the only one of his symphonies to be published in his lifetime, is fluent and beautifully crafted, though the ideas are not particularly individual. (Børresen was sufficiently famous in his lifetime for the then King of Denmark to cycle over to his home unannounced to consult him about his son’s preoccupation with music!) Ole Schmidt gets excellent playing from the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra and this is much better played and recorded than Ludolf Nielsen’s First Symphony (1903). The latter is less expertly fashioned than the Børresen though he has the breadth of a symphonist and possesses the more original mind. There are touches of Bruckner and even of his famous namesake. If none of these are masterpieces they are all worth investigating.

-- Robert Layton, BBC Music Magazine

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Niels Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer and teacher. Gade began his career as a violinist with the Royal Danish Orchestra. After his 1st symphony was positively received and conducted by Felix Mendelssohn, Gade himself moved to Leipzig and befriending Mendelssohn, who had an important influence on his music. He returned to Copenhagen in 1848 and became director of the Copenhagen Musical Society and Copenhagen Conservatory. Among Gade's works are 8 symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music and a number of large-scale cantatas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Gade

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Asger Hamerik (Hammerich) (April 8, 1843 – July 13, 1923), was a Danish composer of classical music. Hamerik studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade in Denmark, then with Hans von Bülow in Berlin and Hector Berlioz in Paris. In 1871 he was offered the post of director of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, a position he held until 1898. Hamerik composed 41 opus numbers, including 7 symphonies, chamber music, 4 operas, 5 orchestral suites and popular orchestral music, much of it based on Scandinavian folk tunes. During his lifetime he was considered the best-known Danish composer after Gade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asger_Hamerik

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Johannes Goritzki was born in Tübingen, Germany and studied cello with such musical legends as Gaspar Cassadò, André Navarra and Pablo Casals. He has released over 40 CDs. One highlight in his discography is Othmar Schoeck’s cello concerto, which was awarded with the "Grand Prix du Disque – Discobole de L’Europe". Goritzki has also enjoyed an extensive career as a conductor. From 1980 to 2003 Johannes Goritzki was principal conductor of the "Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein". As a soloist and conductor with this orchestra he performed and toured internationally.

http://www.goritzki.com/en/index.php

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