Concert
Reveries
Feb. 19, 8 p.m.
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo,
Cultural Center of the Philippines,
Roxas Blvd., Pasay City
LIKE MANY GENIUSES whose ideas come way before their time, Danish composer Carl Nielsen had to live without people understanding and appreciating his work — except for a select few. Today he is considered the greatest composer of his country.
Filipinos will have a chance to understand why this is when the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), together with the Embassy of Denmark in Manila, presents a concert featuring his music.
Tonight’s performance at the CCP features the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) under the baton of Olivier Ochanine (a self-professed Nielsen fan). Joining them on the stage are Danish opera singers, soprano Denise Beck and baritone Thomas Storm.
Carl Nielsen was born in 1865 in the island of Funen, Denmark, to a poor but musically talented family. Like his parents, he displayed his musical abilities at a young age and soon enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Copenhagen in 1884.
Four years later he premiered his Op. 1, Little Suite for Strings and worked as a second violinist for the Royal Danish Orchestra while composing his own works.
His career as a composer never really took off until after his death — much like fellow artistic geniuses Van Gogh and Bach — as many would describe his music as “complex and hard to understand” and “was way ahead of his time.”
International acclaim for his works started well after the Second World War when American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein recorded his Fifth Symphony in 1962 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for the local CBS network.
The Encyclopedia Britannica described his works as being influenced by Romanticism in its early days but he has developed a later style which became a “powerful fusion of chromatic and often dissonant harmony, solid contrapuntal structure, concentrated motivic treatment and bold extensions of tonality with frequent polytonal passages.”
“His six symphonies, written between 1890 and 1925, are forceful works that feature decisively articulated tonal progressions,” said the encyclopedia.
While many might view his major works as a challenges, Danish children often encounter him in an easier way, through the children’s songs and folk songs he composed.
“Carl Nielsen also wrote songs for children. So the first meeting [I had] with Carl Nielsen was without knowing who he is, because you’re singing these children’s songs a lot,” said Mr. Storm during a welcome reception on Feb. 17 in Makati City.
“He did [the folk songs] on purpose, he wanted it to be a simple melody that everyone can sing because he wanted the Danish people to be able to sing… for all to have the joy of singing songs,” said Ms. Beck during the same reception.
Aside from symphonies, folk songs and children’s songs, Nielsen also created operas, including Maskarade (Masquerade), a three-act comic opera which debuted in 1906, that has become Denmark’s national opera.
He died of a heart attack at the age of 66 in 1931.
Now, the CCP is paying homage to the Great Dane via tonight’s show which is the sixth concert of the PPO’s 33rd season.
The concert is part of the Carl Nielsen Project, which celebrates Nielsen’s 150th birth anniversary through a series of performances by Ms. Beck and Mr. Storm around the world which started in 2015.
Ticket prices for the concert start at P300. For inquiries, call the CCP box office at 832-3704 or TicketWorld at 891-9999. For more information visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph. — Z. B. Chua
