Program Notes for Ludolf Nielsen Symphony No. 3, Mvt. I

November 11, 2011

Outside of Denmark, Ludolf Nielsen is hardly a household name, though a series of audio recordings in recent years has been instrumental in making his music known to us. Ludolf lived about the same time as his famous Danish namesake Carl Nielsen, but is not related to him. And unlike Carl, Ludolf did not find a famous champion to keep his music alive. Of Ludolf’s three symphonies, only his second was ever published.

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Bernstein helped put Carl Nielsen on the classical music map with his recording of his third symphony, but it was a student of Ludolf’s, Launy Grondahl, that attempted to keep Ludolf Nielsen’s third symphony in the public eye, with only limited success, and only within the confines of Denmark. Ludolf’s third received three performances from 1914 to 1923, after which, with the composer’s blessing, Grondahl edited his third symphony to both shorten it and reduce its instrumental demands in order to make it more likely to be played.

It was performed this way another three times, and the first movement, which we are playing tonight, was also performed (though in its edited form) on Ludolf’s 60th birthday and at the occasion of his death. The currently available recording of the complete and unedited third symphony was done by the Bamberg Symphony under Frank Cramer as a studio recording in 1999. It has never been played at a public concert outside of Denmark, so the performance you are hearing tonight is an “outside of Denmark world premiere.”

The work is being published for the first time, and in its full original orchestration with no cuts, by our music director Herb Gellis, who was able to finish the first movement in time for tonight’s performance.

Ludolf’s third carries a motto from a poem which ends “...Know joy requires a stormy night.” Although it applies to the entire symphony, the motto also applies to the first movement in miniature. The movement opens very quietly, slowly adding instruments, and builds to an early magnificent climax, as if depicting the celebration of a new day, the sun slowly rising until it bursts full and majestic. But along the way there are doubts and hints of storm to come. Measure by measure the intensity of the themes build, and play out against each other. Although there are a few moments of repose within, in general the storm continues to build and whips up powerful emotions. Finally, as the coda of the movement is reached, the storm is conquered and we conclude in grand resolution, “knowing joy” in full.

-- Herb Gellis