Evening star., 1953-07-05
News of Music

Very few of the European
music festivals have any con-
nection with Washington's
music life except for the name
of a participating artist or
group favorably known here
in concert performances. Most
of the stay-at-homeS have
some intellectual curiosity re-
garding the programs and may
scan them with a faint regret
at not being among the fortu-
nate ones able to spend the
summer travelling from one
event to another.
The Carl Nielsen Music
Festival to be held in Copen-
hagen from August 81 to Sep
tember 4 is another matter.
Not only is Denmark's great
composer, thus to be honored,
now well known, locally but
the remembrance is still bright
of the visit Of the Danish
National Orchestra of the
State Radio and it's conductors,
Eric Tuxen and Thomas Jen-
sen. It was Mr.. Tuxen who in
troduced Nelson to this coun-
try when, as guest conductor of
part of the National Sym
phony's program on January
3. 1851, he gave the first
American performance of
Nielsen's symphony No. S."
He did the same service in
other guest appearances with
orchestras throughout the
country during his visit.
When the Danish Orchestra,
on its first tour Of this coun-
try, played in Constitution
Hall last October 10, Mr..
Tuxen shared the conducting
honors withsMr. Jensen. Back
in February, 1851, the Hun
garian-Danish violiniSt, Emil
Telmanyi, was soloist with the
Philadelphia Orchestra in the
Sibelius concerto. No one, at
that time, made mention of
the fact that Telmanyi'S fa-
ther-in-law was the famous
Danish composer, Carl Mel
sen.
SubtitIes Own Works
All these artists will par
ticipate in the festival in Mel
sens honor, which will be de-
voted entirely to the perform
ances of his works. Strangely
enough, the Symphony No.
f." which Mr.. Jensen con-
Quoted in October, will not be
included in the programs
which feature Nielsen's First,
Third, Fifth, and Sixth Sym
phonies. There may be a rea-
son for it since the Fourth
Symphony. known as 1.-THE
Inextinguishable," may be too
full of portent to fit well into
a celebration program.
The subtitle of this SYM
phony shows a characteristic
facet of Nielsen'S musical
thinking. Whereas other COM
posers' works received some
romantic title by later day
enthusiasts. Nielsen gave a
scecial designation to many
hf his compositions. Thus the
Second Symphony bears the
name of The Four Tempera-
mentS." the Third. that of
"ESpanslva." while the Sixth
has the uncomplicated title,
"Sinfonia senplice."
The deeply poetic strain in
Nielsen's writing has a coun-
terpart in his great conscious
ness of the humanities. He has
been called "The Danish
Brahms" in contrast to the
first great Danish composer,
NielS Gade, who as a friend
of Mendelssohn and because
of his musical affinity with
him, was referred to often as
"The Danish MendelsSohn."
1t was through Gade that
Nielsen received a scholarship
to the conservatory after the
older composer had seen some
of the 18-year-old's works.
NielSen'S father was a house
painter in Noerre Lyndelse on
the Island of Funen and there,
in a cottage not far from the
castle of Hans Christian An
dersen, Carl Nielsen was born.
His father, who played the
violin at rustic feteS, founded
a musical society and perma-
nent string quartet in his viii
lage, taught his son the rudi-
ments of music. He allowed
him to join the groups as a
violinist and it was as a violin
ist that he became a member
OF the Royal Chapel Orchestra
after his graduation from the
conservatory - and later it's
conductor. In 1914, he took
over the dictatorship Of the
conservatory where he had
been a student 80 years previ-
ously.
Composers Proteqe
The artists appearing in the
festival are closely knit in
their reverence for Nielsen's
genius. Mr.. Jensen, who con-
ducts the symphony No. l."
on September 2, was a protege
of the composer. While study
ing organ and cello in the
Royal Danish Academy, he met
Nielsen, who taught him COM
position and helped him to be-
come a conductor. On the same
evening, TuXen will conduct