Nielsen: Espansiva – works for 4 hand piano Rikke Sandberg, Kristoffer Hyldig (OUR Recordings)
Hearing big orchestral works transcribed for piano is a reminder that keyboard arrangements were, for centuries, the easiest way for audiences to get to know new pieces. And useful for composers too: Carl Nielsen made this piano duet transcription of his Sinfonia Espansiva so that he could promote the symphony to conductors, publishers and colleagues. It worked – Nielsen signed a contract with Leipzig’s C.F. Kahnt in 1913 to print the orchestral score, and the four-hand piano version was included in the catalogue. Mysteriously, it never materialized. Until Danish pianist Rikke Sandberg heard about the transcription and managed to track down the manuscript in Copenhagen’s Royal Library. Sandberg and duet-partner Kristoffer Hyldig have tinkered with the score (“…we have taken certain liberties…”) but rightly argue that any minor alterations sympathetic to Nielsen’s intentions. They also use two pianos, a Steinway and a Fazioli, meaning that both players can pedal individually, each instrument’s character suited to the register deployed. The results are spectacular, both in terms of performance and engineering, Nielsen described the symphony’s first movement as “a gust of energy and life affirmation blown out into the wide world”, and we really sense that here. The pounding unison A’s which open the work are thrilling; rarely has this music sounded more dance-like, an affirmative counterblast to the nihilism of Ravel’s La Valse. Listen to how Sandberg and Hyldig ease into the loopy waltz just before the six-minute mark, and how they build the tension before the movement’s assertive close.
Nielsen’s “Andante pastorale” becomes more intimate and personal here, the unison string writing balder on two pianos. At the movement’s close we lose the wordless vocals but the twinkling, gamelan-like coda is magical, Nielsen achieving miracles over a sustained E flat chord. The third movement’s witty counterpoint is crisp and sharp, and the finale’s unpretentious hymn tune sings out, the tempo here ideal. We get three couplings: two extracts from Nielsen’s opera Saul and David arranged by the composer, and the jaunty Højby Rifle Club March, originally composed by Nielsen’s father Niels Jørgensen. It’s heard here in an edition partially arranged by the composer’s son and completed by Hyldig. A life-affirming release brilliantly played. OUR label co-founder Lars Hannibal rightly points out that we need this music in these dark times, Nielsen capable of exuding “a sense of optimism all too rare for us denizens of the 21st century.” He’s right. Buy, download or stream this disc forthwith and the world will seem a brighter place. Graham Rickson, August 31th 2024