Carl Nielsen - Complete Works for Violin Solo & Violin and Piano (Hasse Borup; Andrew Staupe)

Information

Composer: Carl Nielsen

• Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 9
• Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 35
• Prelude, Theme and Variations, Op. 48
• Preludio e Presto, Op. 52
• Violin Sonata in G major
• Romance in D major
• Romance in G major
• Polka in A major
• Grüss (fragment)

Hasse Borup, violin

Andrew Staupe, piano

Date: 2020

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.573870

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Review

The violin was with Nielsen from the beginning. His father was an accomplished amateur, who showed him the way around the instrument from an early age; for many years his composing career was subsidised by his post as second violinist in the orchestra of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen; and in 1913 he met the Hungarian virtuoso Emil Telmányi, who became his son-in-law and faithful devotee.

Yet with the exception of the Concerto, Nielsen’s music for the violin always prioritises substance over flashiness. The two solo works, for instance, both written for Telmányi, are ferociously demanding, but not in the way that courts applause or would make them suitable fodder for competitions or encores (contrast their more obviously violinistic close contemporaries, Ysaÿe’s six Solo Sonatas). For Telmányi, it was the First Sonata for violin and piano that first alerted him to Nielsen’s genius, and he became a staunch advocate for this and its rather more elusive successor, producing fine recordings in 1936 and 1954 (available as part of the wonderful 30-CD set of historic Nielsen recordings on Danacord, or otherwise as downloads).

To this core repertoire, Hasse Borup and Andrew Staupe add five items from Nielsen’s childhood and student years. Of these, the charming three-movement G major Sonata has certainly been recorded before, as has the Polka, which Nielsen remembered playing as a child in his father’s village band, and which he notated in his memoirs. The two Romances and the four-bar Greeting (found in a friend’s autograph book) aren’t claimed as first recordings but I don’t recall hearing them before. All these works were published in 2009 in the ‘Juvenilia et Addenda’ volume of The Carl Nielsen Edition.

Borup and Staupe are robust, reliable advocates and their complete coverage of the repertoire makes this CD obviously collectable. If it is hard to couch the recommendation any more enthusiastically, that is mainly because of the rather pinched, unvaried quality of the violin tone. I wondered momentarily whether the minimal vibrato might be some kind of attempt to recapture performance practice of the time. But it is certainly not a characteristic of Telmányi’s playing. No such reservations about the piano-playing, although the less than glowing acoustic does it no favours.

-- David Fanning, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2020/08/17/nielsens-violin-music-recorded-complete/

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.573870&languageid=EN

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Carl Nielsen (9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish musician, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Although his symphonies, concertos and choral music are now internationally acclaimed, Nielsen's career and personal life were marked by many difficulties, often reflected in his music. Nielsen maintained the reputation of an outsider during his lifetime, both in his own country and internationally. It was only later that his works firmly entered the international repertoire, accelerating in popularity from the 1960s through Leonard Bernstein and others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Nielsen

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Hasse Borup is Professor, Artist Teacher of violin and Head of String and Chamber Music Studies at the University of Utah School of Music in Salt Lake City. Previous appointments include positions at The George Washington University and University of Virginia. Borup's main teachers were David Takeno, Roland and Almita Vamos, Philip Setzer, Hartt School, David Salness and Arnold Steinhardt. His recordings was released on Centaur Records, Naxos, and Innova Label. Borup plays a 1992 copy of the ‘Plowden’ Guarneri del Gesu by Samuel Zygmuntowicz, New York and a 2008 copy of the 'Soil' Stradivarius by Ryan Soltis.
http://www.hasseborup.com/

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Pianist Andrew Staupe has appeared as soloist with many of the top orchestras throughout the United States and in Europe, and is an avid chamber musician. A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S., he earned his Doctorate at Rice University with Jon Kimura Parker, and also studied at the University of Minnesota with Lydia Artymiw. Staupe is Artistic Director of the Young Artist World Piano Festival in Minnesota, and gives frequent master classes and lectures around the United States. He is an Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Houston, and formerly taught at the University of Utah.

https://uh.edu/kgmca/music/about-us/faculty-staff/andrew-staupe/

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