Ole Schmidt’s Forgotten Legacy: A Conversation with Jesper Sivebæk
BY ROBERT SCHULSLAPER

I’ve spoken with Danish guitarist Jesper Sivebæk twice before, once about an album of his arrangements of songs by Danish pop-rock legend Kim Larsen (Fanfare 45:1), and a second time to announce a recording celebrating the 30th anniversary of his collaboration with his friend Per Pålsson in the Scandinavian Guitar Duo (Fanfare 47:1). This time around he’s here to tell us about the Forgotten Legacy project that he and fellow Royal Danish Academy of Music accordion professor Bjarke Mortensen undertook to research and record some of the many compositions of their compatriot Ole Schmidt. Forgotten Legacy, the revelatory CD, presents four diverse works—the Guitar Concerto, Echoes for Two Accordions and Strings, Toccata No.1, and the Double Concerto for Accordion and Violin—that are sure to spark further interest in Schmidt’s intriguing and highly accessible music.

Welcome, Jesper. Let’s begin by looking back to the events that planted the seed for the Forgotten Legacy project. When did you first become aware of Ole Schmidt?
The first time I met him in person was back in 1986 when I was a student attending a scholarship award event at which he officiated. After receiving the scholarship, I played a little solo piece by the Spanish composer Federico Mompou for him and the Foundation. We had a little talk afterwards, but I did not speak with him again until around the year 2000, when he told me about his Guitar Concerto. As the years went by, I experienced him many times as a conductor and also quite often participated with him in musical/artistic debate programs on national television, where his strong personality shone through. He was not only a composer, but a conductor, jazz pianist, educator, and Carl Nielsen expert. Schmidt received a degree in piano, composition, and conducting from The Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1952 and debuted as a composer and conductor in 1955. It is very difficult to put him into a box, and it is truly impressive what he managed to create. His production of music ranges from orchestral, chamber, and choir music to theater, ballet, and film scores. Sadly for me, the only other work where he uses the guitar is in his 1983 music for Carl Theodore Dreyer’s 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc.
He had an enormous knowledge of what we call the “classical music” repertoire. He conducted the great Romantic symphonies and operas, but also premiered countless works by fellow composers. Perhaps the knowledge and passion of so much different music contributed to his writing being so varied. I think his many musical ideas were almost waiting in line to come out. I think he composed from intuition and inspiration, not according to a plan. And don’t forget his skills as an outstanding improviser. His works are still programed today. Especially The Passion of Joan of Arc and his instrumental concertos, which have attracted international attention: his recording of the Flute Concerto with Danish Radio, conducted by himself and with Ulla Millman as soloist, received a Grammy Award. In the accordion world his music is very often performed. His solo accordion work Toccata No. 1 is a must-play and very famous. A fun thing about his many works for accordion is that he used to say, “I disliked the accordion immensely, but when I met Mogens Ellegaard, my opinion of the instrument completely changed in less than an hour.” (Mogens Ellegaard premiered many of his accordion works.) He was a towering personality, and his music is original and devil-may-care, full of vitality and power, and moving in many musical directions.
Do you hear any jazz in his classical compositions?
Yes, I clearly hear both jazz and other genres in his compositions. I don’t think he was bound to write in a specific musical style. I experience him more as a “no strings attached” personality. He writes as he feels or is inspired to. As an internationally recognized conductor, his knowledge of the large-orchestral repertoire was enormous. He was very intelligent and fast. You had to get up early to keep up.
Does his music bear any resemblance to that of his composition teacher Vagn Holmboe?
I am sure he learned a lot from Vagn Holmboe, but I think their music is very different.
What were his hopes for the concerto?
He was upset that it was just gathering dust at the publisher. He was happy with the concerto overall, but was determined that we should do something about the guitar part, which he was not entirely satisfied with due to his lack of knowledge of the intricacies of the guitar. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to work on it before Ole Schmidt fell ill and passed away. The years went by, but a couple of years ago I rediscovered the score, studied it closely, and became genuinely excited and inspired. We do not have many Danish guitar concertos, and I really wanted to immerse myself in the music and bring the guitar part to life, to bring the concerto into the light. The score shows that the concerto was completed in September 1976, with the world premiere taking place a couple of months later, on November 16, 1976, with Ole Schmidt himself conducting the Zealand Symphony orchestra and guitarist Ingolf Olsen as soloist. I had the opportunity to speak with Ingolf Olsen about the concerto, and while he did not remember much, he did recall that Ole Schmidt, in the final movement—the electric guitar movement—was very enthusiastic about the idea of “shaking things up a bit with the effects” by using various guitar pedals. I really like the concerto, and the three movements are very different in style and expression. It’s like a perfect day, with a joyful first movement, filled with sunshine, a second movement bringing time for a little reflection, and an energetic third movement, which I characterize as party time.
I enjoyed listening to the concerto very much, but I did wonder about the second movement’s sparse orchestral accompaniment. Any idea why he chose to orchestrate it that way?
I know he conducted Joaquín Rodrigo’s famous Concerto de Aranjuez several times back in the 1970s, and I think you can hear the inspiration from Rodrigo’s second movement. I feel he was just inspired by it but did not quote from it. The only other instrument in this movement is the harp, and it begins and ends as a duo with the guitar, interspersed with a large cadenza. I think the second movement creates an atmosphere that is very warm.
The third movement also has some unusual features.
Yes, because the soloist switches to a Gibson electric guitar, stands up, and drives a persistent rhythmic energy forward, which is gradually varied and intensified. The strings (pizzicato) and percussion begin with an ostinato rhythm while the winds contribute various rhythmic riffs that become increasingly insistent. The movement unfolds in changing meters and grows ever more intense. One can truly hear Ole Schmidt’s love of jazz while he remains faithful to his own distinctive musical language.
What would Ole Schmidt have done if he had had a better knowledge of the guitar?
I have asked myself this question countless times. My goal has not merely been to reduce the guitar part and make it more playable, but also to find solutions that are true to the artistic core of the work.
What we as classical musicians normally do when studying a new work is to try, with great diligence, to play exactly what is written without tampering with the notes. I have of course done this as well, but in places the part is written so awkwardly for the instrument that, regardless of hours of practice, the music will sound clumsy. In such passages, I have worked on rearranging or recomposing material to make it flow and resonate better, also bearing in mind that the
composer himself was open to correction and collaboration.
Should I follow my gut feeling or intuition? Are our ears most open at the beginning of learning a new piece? When I began working on the guitar part, I often thought, this passage is very awkward, or it sounds thin and not optimal; it won’t work in terms of flow. Then I practice it, and as with all music, it grows on you. I become accustomed to it and think, well, this is what the composer wrote. After countless hours of practice, I sometimes realize that it actually works with fewer alterations than I initially thought. This is ultimately how the first movement turned out. I had many sketches that were probably more me than Ole Schmidt. I had to grit my teeth and just practice. Most of the corrections have been made in the second movement/cadenza, which I have co-composed, embellished, and actually expanded. In the toccata, the third movement, I have also tried to make the solo electric guitar part more spectacular through various pedal effects and sonic quirks. As mentioned earlier, Ole Schmidt loved the idea of shaking things up with effects.
As a closet rock and roller, or perhaps more accurately a pop kid, I am absolutely thrilled by the final movement, which almost just drives straight ahead in 4/4 time. You can practically headbang to it. To my ears, the atmosphere in this movement is both James Bond and Jaws,
with a small detour into something resembling country rock.
How do you get an electric guitarist to stop playing? You hand him a sheet of music. And I might add: if you want to make a classical guitarist panic, you hand him a pedalboard.
It’s a stressful beast, and what one might not immediately think about is that effects need to be activated; before you can add a new one, the old one has to be switched off. And this pedalboard is designed for a right-handed guitarist, while I’m left-handed. When I started searching for effects, I looked into which ones were popular in the 1970s, and they turned out to be the same ones that are popular today: distortion, overdrive, and wah-wah.
How much of Ole Schmidt’s music had you heard before becoming acquainted with the Guitar Concerto?
Mostly his Flute Concerto and The Passion of Joan of Arc that I heard live together with the movie.
Have you performed the concerto in public?
Yes, and I hope the concerto in the future will find a place. There are not that many guitar concertos and this one really works, together with the delicate balance with the orchestra.
It’s sad that he wrote so little for the guitar.
Unfortunately, he has not written anything for solo guitar or used the guitar in chamber music contexts, but I am sure that if our collaboration had started before he became ill, there would have been a few more works. As I mentioned earlier, the only time he uses the guitar is in his 1983 music for Carl Theodore Dreyer’s 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Why does his music appeal to you?
I like that it’s so musical and goes in so many musical directions, from the more avant-garde to crossover, and I always feel it’s music that comes from the heart.
Your partner in the Forgotten Legacy project is accordionist Bjarke Mogensen; how long have you known him?
I’ve known Bjarke for a long time, actually since he was a student. We have never performed together. No, that’s not true. We both played one time in Hans Zenders’s arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise for ensemble. We also talked about performing Piazzolla’s Double Concerto for Bandoneon, Guitar, and Strings together.
One of the many things that make this such an enjoyable album is the high standard of the student chamber orchestra.
The level of the young students from The Royal Danish Academy of Music is indeed impressively high and it’s wonderful to work with them and feel their enthusiasm.
What can you tell us about conductor Max Artved?
Max Artved is our oboe professor and my colleague at the RDAM. We actually have a duo together. He is just a brilliant musician and conductor and the way he works with young musicians is just fantastic. He was the principal oboist in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for many years, so he’s totally in sync with the collaborative energy that drives an orchestra.
When will Forgotten Legacy be introduced to the public?
The release will take place at the Royal Danish Academy of Music on the 29th of May.
I was surprised to learn that OUR Records is issuing Forgotten Legacy on vinyl.
Vinyl recording is relatively rare, but it’s getting more and more common in Denmark. Maybe they will publish a CD in the future.
Now that you’ve completed the Forgotten Legacy project, what’s next on your agenda?
My future plans include a solo guitar Christmas album with 24 old-school classic Christmas songs arranged by Østen Ore, an oboe and guitar album of music mainly from South America, and an album by the Scandinavian Guitar Duo of contemporary Danish pieces by Poul Ruders, Erik Højsgaard, Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen, and Benjamin de Murashkin, all written for us.