International Piano (UK)
Nielsen – The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection - Complete Piano Works
Rikke Sandberg, piano
OUR Recordings 8.226939–41 (3 CDs)
Any release titled The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection might easily fall foul of hyperbole, but Rikke Sandberg’s Nielsen is now the most extensive and builds on the favourable impression of her reading (OUR Recordings, 2024) with Kristoffer Hyldig of the duo take on Sinfonia espansiva.
While never without its admirers, Nielsen’s piano output made little headway in the UK until John Ogdon’s 1968–69 anthology (RCA); its dynamism and virtuosity was complemented by John McCabe’s 1973–74 survey (Decca, later Somm), whose lucidity and insight remain undimmed. Female pianists feature prominently, with ‘complete’ traversals from Elisabeth Westenholz in 1979 (BIS), Mina Miller in 1986 (Hyperion, later Danacord) and Christina Bjørkøe in 2007 (CPO), with Sandberg the latest addition to what has evolved into a notable lineage.

Rather than present these works chronologically, each disc unfolds a sequence that can be enjoyed as its own programme. The first opens in an affectionate greeting to Nielsen’s wife, heading to the Chaconne (1916), where the composer’s piano-writing moved on to another level, Sandberg emphasising its formal inevitability and expressive power. She points up the Schumannesque poise of the Five Pieces, Op 3 (1891), brings real pathos to the inner movements of the Symphonic Suite (1894) without mitigating the Brahmsian overkill of those either side, and convincingly dispatches a diverse group of 11 miniatures. That he brought a lifetime’s experience to the five-finger exercises of Piano Music for Young and Old (1930) is not their only virtue, and Sandberg has their measure throughout.

Starting the second disc with the bathetic Prelude to the New Century, then continuing with the Three Pieces, among the most disconcerting of Nielsen’s exploratory late works, is a deft provocation. Sandberg draws the widest range of timbral and textural nuance from the offhand virtuosity of the Theme and Variations (1917), and keen insouciance from the Piano Piece in C that is likely his last finished work. The understated evocations of the six Humoresque-Bagatelles (1897), notably those depicting a spinning top and musical clock, complement the disarming brace of Character Pieces from the composer’s formative years. Most ambitious of Nielsen’s piano output and surely his most perfectly realised, the Suite, Op 45 (1919), is a marvel of stylistic unity drawn from the emotional diversity of its six movements: others might instil greater cohesion to the whole, but the searching ambivalence of its opening Allegretto un pochettino, sombre rumination of its Molto adagio e patetico and cumulative affirmation of its final Allegro non troppo ma vigoroso is undeniable. The Dream about ‘Silent Night’ (1905) makes for a suitably touching envoi.
The third disc features arrangements of incidental music. Those from The Mother (1920) have an affecting elegance, notably ‘The Mist is Lifting’ and the Preludes to Scenes 4 and 7, that belies the text’s blandishments; while the imperious ‘Oriental Festival March’ and five dances from his lavish score to Aladdin (1918) make for a succession of scintillating encores.

This is an absorbing and often enlightening journey through some of the earlier 20th century’s most resourceful and rewarding music for piano. There are detailed notes on the music and its interpretation, and full-bodied sound that lacks a final degree of definition in the most intricate or demonstrative passages.
From a Danish vantage, Sandberg continues a trail blazed (in recorded terms at least) by Arne Skjold Rasmussen seven decades earlier. This is essential listening for anyone devoted to Nielsen or the piano. Richard Whitehouse, International Piano, Autumn 2026