"...Friedel
gives the Nielsenian sun its proper arc across the sky...laudable attention to
accents and phrasing...Friedel brings the visual image to musical life...Friedel
is consistently nuanced...Friedel is alive to these matters, and his Aarhus
musicians ...enthusiastic to the task...[a] superior performance by Friedel and
the Aarhus SO...a strong recommendation is a foregone conclusion."
Fanfare -
January/February 2006
"...the
Nielsen disc from MSR is a prize, not only as recorded in the Fricksparken at
Aarhus...but as conducted by young Lance Friedel in interpretations that quite
surpass Thomas Dausgaard, current PC of the Danish State Radio Orchestra. It’s
the most complete collection of Nielsen’s non-symphonic music for orchestra
since the ‘60s, on a par ...with Herbert Blomstedt’s
San Francisco
recordings for Decca, and even more sonorously recorded. It’s been too long
since we’ve heard...performances of this caliber...there is a vivacious
Maskarade Overture, and the best Aladdin Suite – yes, with the essential
chorus in fifth and final movements – since Blomstedt’s in SF, and at
moments even more ebullient. Bravo MSR Classics – more, more!"
Roger Dettmer,
ClassicalCDReview.com, December 2005
"American
Lance Friedel, conducting an excellent Aarhus Symphony Orchestra from Denmark,
makes an impressive debut...the performances are so beautifully paced by Friedel
and so smoothly played by the orchestra, time seems to pass deceptively quickly.
At the end the listener is ready to encore the program. The string sound...is
rich and lush in the present recording. A nicely detailed recording..."
Atlanta
Audio Society - November 2005
Artistic
Quality: 8 / Sound Quality: 9
"This
disc offers a convenient way to collect almost all of Carl Nielsen's shorter
orchestral works--a touch more than 80 minutes' worth, in what for the most part
are very good performances. Certainly the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra knows the
music, as does conductor Lance Friedel. His approach is always musical, lively,
and intelligent, especially in the Aladdin Suite (here with its wordless
chorus), which has plenty of freshness married to a vivid recording that
captures the winds and percussion particularly well. The Rhapsodic Overture--An
Imaginary Journey to the
Faroe Islands
also stands out as particularly characterful. ...you really can't go wrong
with this generously filled collection."
David
Hurwitz, Classics Today - October 2005
"It
does indeed fill a much-needed gap, but it's considerably more than that: terrific
music, superbly recorded and thrillingly played. ...it's a wonderful debut
album; I eagerly look forward to more."
Jim
Svejda, KUSC-FM - November 2005
*
* *
Debut
recording of American conductor Lance Friedel, at the helm of one of Denmark's
finest orchestras. More than 80 minutes in length, this disc is an excellent
introduction to some of Nielsen’s most colorful music. The brilliant,
authoritative performances are presented in stunning digital sound.
*
* *
American
Conductor Lance Friedel is currently
enjoying an active career in
Europe
and the USA
. He has served as Music Director
of the Providence Chamber Orchestra in Rhode Island
and as a frequent guest conductor of numerous orchestras throughout the world.
Mr.
Friedel was awarded first prize at the 2001 Mario Gusella International
Conductors Competition in Pescara,
Italy. As a result of this prestigious prize,
he has been engaged to conduct concerts with orchestras throughout
Italy, as well as in Hungary. In 1994 Mr. Friedel was the first-prize
winner at the Czech Music Workshop, and was invited to conduct the Hradec Králové
Philharmonic Orchestra the following season. In
1995 and 1996, Mr. Friedel was awarded first prize at the Marienbad Conducting
Workshop, and was invited to conduct concerts with the West Bohemian Symphony
Orchestra.
Mr.
Friedel has attended master classes under such esteemed maestros as Leonard
Slatkin, Andre Previn, and Lorin Maazel, and has attended numerous workshops and
seminars, including the Mozarteum
Summer
Academy
in
Salzburg, the Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood. His
conducting teachers have included Gustav Meier, Michael Charry, and Georg
Tintner. A graduate of Boston
University, Mr. Friedel has also studied at Peabody Conservatory in
Baltimore, the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, and the Mannes College of Music in New York.
The Aarhus Symphony
Orchestra was founded in 1935, and performs the whole classical repertoire,
including choral works, while also enthusiastically supporting contemporary
music and has commissioned works by Danish composers.
It has co-operated with The Royal Danish Ballet, the MBT Dance Theatre
and the Leipzig Ballet. The ASO has a
permanent co-operation with The Danish National Opera (Den Jyske Opera), and has
since 1983 attracted international acclaim at the annual Festival in
Aarhus
, which has included
Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, and Strauss’ Elektra.
The orchestra’s first Chief Conductor was Thomas Jensen.
Ole Schmidt was Chief Conductor 1978-85, Norman Del Mar 1985-88, Eri Klas
1991-96 and James Loughran 1996-2003. Giancarlo Andretta was appointed Chief
Conductor in 2003.
*
* *
Carl
Nielsen has become a standard bearer for Danish art
and culture throughout the world. His
music is intensely personal, extremely well crafted, and boldly colorful.
Nielsen’s shorter works for orchestra have not attained the notoriety
of his symphonies, but are nonetheless rewarding pieces.
They perhaps show a more subjective side of the composer, highlighting
his ability to create individual tone-pictures of great beauty and atmosphere.
The
rollicking overture to his comic opera Maskarade
(1906) has become Nielsen’s best-known work.
Its bubbling high spirits are in the tradition of curtain-raisers from
Mozart’s Figaro to Bernstein’s Candide.
The
brief Andante lamentoso (1910),
titled At the Bier of a Young Artist,
is a moving elegy for strings, remarkable for its restraint and depth of
emotion.
The
Helios Overture (1903) is a vividly
picturesque symphonic poem in the manner of Mendelssohn’s
Hebrides
. The composer provided the following
description: “Silence and darkness—then the sun rises with a joyous song of
praise—it wanders its golden way—and sinks quietly into the sea.”
The
tone poem Saga-Drøm (1908), based
on a story from the Nordic epic Njal’s
Saga, is dark and majestic, shrouded in Northern mists.
The central section is gorgeously evocative nature music, with rippling
streams and bird calls. The chorale
returns, leading to a climax before gradually dying away.
Pan
and Syrinx (1918) is based on a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses:
“The goat-footed sylvan deity Pan happens to spy the nymph Syrinx among the
satyrs and dryads in the hilly Arcadian forests; he persecutes her with his
dances and bleating homage. She,
terrified by this fierce wooer, flees to the edge of a forest lake.
From here there is no escape open to her, and the gods, taking pity on
her, transform her into a reed.”
The
Rhapsodic Overture (1927) gives us a
picture of An Imaginary Journey to the
Faroe Islands. It begins with
hushed intensity and mystery, punctuated by the sound of distant fanfares and
shrieking sea birds. Finally the
music erupts into a happy and brilliantly orchestrated folk dance.
The
Bohemian-Danish Folk Tune (1928)
makes use of an old Danish folk song, first played by a solo quartet, which then
alternates with the full string orchestra. The
work ends with a tremendous richness of sound.
The
Aladdin
Suite (1919) is one of Nielsen’s most colorful and exciting works.
It consists of an imposing Oriental March, followed by an ethereal Dance
of the Morning Mists, a sensuous Hindu Dance, a delicate Chinese Dance, a
starkly menacing Dance of the Prisoners, and a wildly orgiastic concluding
Negroes’ Dance. The most
remarkable movement, though, is The Marketplace at Ispahan, where the lively
confusion of an Arabian bazaar is represented by the orchestra, divided into
four separate groups, playing music in different keys and tempos simultaneously.
Throughout
the suite Nielsen evokes the exotic sound world of the
Middle East
by the use of modal harmonies, unusual melodic intervals, and short, repetitive
rhythmic phrases. The orchestration
projects the kaleidoscopic brilliance of the music through the addition of
“Turkish” percussion instruments, and, in two of the movements, a wordless
chorus.
