An interview til Rikke Sandberg in Klassisk Bureau
By Rachel Einarsson

There is no room for a diplomatic compromise. She wants to record everything.
And it is all about Nielsen. Carl Nielsen and every one of his works for solo piano.
All of them performed, interpreted, and brought together by pianist Rikke Sandberg.

Rikke Sandberg knows Carl Nielsen’s complete solo piano output like the back of her hand.
Carl Nielsen – The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection will be released on 5 June 2026 by OUR Recordings. On this occasion, Klassisk Bureau spoke with Rikke Sandberg about what it means to go all in on this side of Carl Nielsen. We also gained insight into the extensive research that forms the solid foundation of the release.

“Isn’t this a bit excessive? Is there really an audience for something like this?”

Rikke Sandberg has to endure a couple of rather direct, mildly sceptical questions at the beginning of our conversation. She takes them in stride.
“Yes, I’ve thought that myself,” she almost admits. “It has been quite a wild journey. We’re editing the recordings now, and the worst, or perhaps at the same time the best, part is nearly over,” she says. And this on an ordinary weekday in February.
She appears to be comfortably ahead of schedule before the project is sent out into the world on 5 June 2026: a complete recording of every solo piano work composed by Carl Nielsen. At least, as far as the currently known catalogue extends.
For from time to time, new works continue to emerge from unexpected places: private collections, family archives, libraries, and institutions. The most up-to-date overview of Nielsen’s piano music will soon be available to listeners through OUR Recordings.
Rikke Sandberg has worked with the label before. In September 2024, together with Kristoffer Hyldig, she released Espansiva, featuring Carl Nielsen’s own four-hand piano arrangement of his Third Symphony, Sinfonia Espansiva. The story behind the new release began in 2019, when this particular work first came to her attention. Since then, the Danish composer has become a central figure in Sandberg’s artistic life. So much so that the forthcoming release is, in many ways, research transformed into music.
The seed of the present album was planted around five years ago when Sandberg was preparing a four-hand recital at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie with her former duo partner, Tanja Zapolski.
“We wanted to play Nielsen, but he hadn’t written any original four-hand piano music,” Sandberg recalls. A simple Google search led her to an article on the Seismograf website describing how Carl Nielsen had occasionally performed one of his orchestral works in his own arrangement for piano four hands at private gatherings. She eventually located the arrangement at the Royal Danish Library: Nielsen’s Third Symphony in a four-hand piano version. Since then, she has performed the work on several occasions.
Yet it was not love at first touch.
“I went from thinking it was almost overly pompous in this version to absolutely loving it,” she says, confirming that discovering Carl Nielsen can require patience. Really discovering his music and allowing it to make its impact.
Nevertheless, she continued her search for forgotten and overlooked piano works by Nielsen, a search that led her down many different paths.
“Over time, works have been found or released by friends and family members,” she explains. “New things keep appearing. At one point I asked myself: Is this really everything? I kept looking, with invaluable help from the Nielsen scholar Bo Foltmann, who had an overview of the various volumes of the Carl Nielsen Edition. And then I found more than an hour of additional music, for example, excerpts from the play The Mother, which had never been recorded before. I thought: I have to include everything. I played through all these pieces and felt they were absolutely worth preserving on record.”
The challenge was to keep her other activities, concert performances and teaching at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, running alongside this pioneering work in Nielsen’s musical universe.
The result is more than three hours of music on the release. Three hours that, taken together, required many months to fully embrace.
“I know the music can seem cryptic the first time you hear it,” she says. “It can come across as angular and difficult. But I’ve experienced a journey from not quite understanding it to truly loving it. New moods, characters, and possibilities for phrasing keep revealing themselves to me, and it is wonderful to experience music in that way, from something difficult to grasp into something fascinating and beautiful.”
This version is adapted for publication in a booklet, magazine, or press feature, while retaining the conversational tone and narrative flow of the original Danish text.
Rikke Sandberg appears on the cover of her latest album.
It has not only been scores and compositions that Rikke Sandberg has been searching for, but also biographical material on Carl Nielsen in all its forms. Her goal has been to understand the composer, his background, and ultimately his music more deeply.
“I have read all eleven volumes of The Carl Nielsen Letters. It has been fascinating to discover who he really was. He was incredibly alive and genuinely interested in life, art, and people, a deeply humane human being,” she concludes.
That humanity is reflected in his music, which, according to Sandberg, contains a remarkable wealth of elements.
“It’s because he had so many ideas and moods, so many characters he wanted to include. At first, it can seem overwhelmingly complex,” she explains.
She speaks about her subject in an unpretentious manner, despite having undertaken what is essentially a musicological research project. So down-to-earth, in fact, that she readily acknowledges that Carl Nielsen can also be challenging for audiences.
“I completely understand why people don’t understand him the first time they hear him. For me, his music has eventually touched so many things within me,” she says of her own journey toward understanding.
Perhaps, she suggests, our relationship to time has something to do with how we receive Nielsen today. And here she offers a gentle critique of the social-media age.
“Time is an absolutely crucial factor. Repetition and immersion are not particularly fashionable today. Everything is expected to be understood quickly. Patience is no longer highly valued,” she says. “Back then, deep engagement was essential to a meaningful life. It was a way of entering another universe, becoming so absorbed that time and place almost disappeared. That is what 2025 has been like for me.”
The months of study and recording were intense. Artistically, they were not without challenges.
“There were moments when I felt deeply frustrated and thought: How am I ever going to learn all of this? But the moment when the phrases and the music suddenly come together and begin to make sense is an extraordinary gift.”
“What is special about Carl Nielsen’s piano music that makes you want to record all of it? Is it immediately accessible?” I ask.
“For some people, yes; perhaps not for others,” she replies. “But his gift for writing unforgettable melodies was immense.” She points out that virtually everyone knows Jens Vejmand or The Sun Is So Red, Mother. In reality, everyone knows Carl Nielsen, and his music possesses a genuine popular appeal.
He was highly successful in his own time and produced works across many genres. Some were commissioned, while many others were written simply out of creative desire.
“He wrote music that challenged Romanticism. He stepped into the Romantic era, opened the windows, and began airing out the room,” Sandberg says, returning to the importance of repetition.
“Sometimes his music was performed twice at the same concert so audiences could grasp it. You could say that if you don’t understand Carl Nielsen, you simply haven’t heard enough of him yet. And that is another reason for making recordings.”
Sandberg knows exactly what she wants her work of musical archaeology to achieve: to preserve the music in a permanent form, giving listeners the opportunity for repeated encounters.
I ask whether all this research, including her exploration of Nielsen the person, has changed her perception of the famous Danish composer.
“Yes, absolutely,” she begins, reflecting on her study of his correspondence. “It is a bit like rummaging through someone else’s underwear drawer.”
She was particularly struck by Nielsen’s turbulent relationship with his wife, the sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen: her determination to pursue her own artistic career, her extensive travels, his infidelities during her absences, her wish for a divorce, and ultimately her decision to return. The sorrow they both experienced left a strong impression on her.
Sandberg observes that Nielsen’s piano music acquired greater depth and emotional weight during the periods when his wife had left him.
The letters also shed considerable light on the works he wrote on commission.
“There is a great deal of correspondence about his commissioned works, why he made certain choices and approached things in a particular way. It is different with the works he wrote for himself; he wrote much less about those. Family members occasionally mention them in letters, saying things like, ‘Father is writing something very beautiful,’ referring, for example, to the Three Piano Pieces, Op. 59. But that is often all you learn.”
“He left very few dogmatic instructions about exactly how his music should be performed,” Sandberg notes.
It is especially through the letters to family and close friends that she has gained an intimate view of Nielsen as a person.
“Here you see his vulnerability, but also his selfishness and, more broadly, his entire private humanity.”
Reading thousands of pages of correspondence was not always enjoyable.
“Sometimes it was incredibly boring!” she laughs. “But just when I felt that way, it would become fascinating, enlightening, and entertaining again, and I wanted to keep going until I had read everything.”
It is yet another testament to her determination and ambition to understand her subject as thoroughly as possible.
Through her exploration of all the surviving piano works, Sandberg has also confirmed a long-standing observation about Nielsen.
“His music is sometimes described as not lying particularly well under the hands. I can certainly understand why people say that,” she admits. “But the more time you spend with it, the more naturally it begins to fit. You learn how to shape it so that it feels wonderfully pianistic. It has definitely been a challenge to make the body cooperate, and to find my own intuitive path through his musical landscape.”
There are countless possible routes, voices, and interpretative choices. The music can seem like a bottomless treasure chest.
“Performing musicians are creative artists too. We interpret the music we play, and without performers and interpretation, music on the page would not amount to very much.”
As our conversation draws to a close, we discuss whether Carl Nielsen receives the attention he deserves today.
“No, I don’t think he does,” she says thoughtfully. “I hope I can help reopen the door to his piano music and inspire others to play it. His piano works used to be performed much more often.”
That observation leads her to reflect on a broader tendency in contemporary culture.
“Perhaps it is characteristic of our age that we like things to be easily accessible. But if we only read crime novels, we never become wiser. It is healthy to be challenged.”
“We need to challenge our minds and our powers of concentration. That is another reason to listen to Carl Nielsen. Listen many times.”
She quickly adds that listeners do not have to begin with the most difficult works.
“You can start with just one piece. Begin with the more accessible music and gradually work your way forward.”
It is advice from a pianist who can finally see the end of many months of intense work—a process that, in retrospect, is almost dizzying to contemplate.
Even so, letting go has not been easy.
“I felt genuinely sad when I recorded the final piece in December,” she says. “Fortunately, it is music I will continue to perform in concerts for years to come, and music I will keep exploring more deeply.”
But what if even more piano music by Carl Nielsen should come to light?
Perhaps we have not yet heard the final note in this story

Original Danish Text

Der er ikke plads til et diplomatisk kompromis.
Hun vil indspille det hele.
Og det handler om Nielsen.
Carl Nielsen og alle hans værker for soloklaver.
Alle sammen udført, fortolket og samlet af pianist Rikke Sandberg

Rikke Sandberg kan alle soloklaverværker af Carl Nielsen til fingerspidserne.

'Carl Nielsen – The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection' udgives den 5. juni 2026 på forlaget OUR Recordings. I den anledning har Klassisk bureau bl.a. spurgt Rikke Sandberg om, hvordan man kan gå all in på denne side af Carl Nielsen. Vi fik også et indblik i det omfattende forskningsarbejde, hun har støbt som solidt fundament for udgivelsen.
Er det ikke lidt voldsomt? Er der publikum til det her?
Rikke Sandberg må finde sig i et par ret direkte, lettere kritiske spørgsmål som indledning til vores samtale. Hun tager det ret roligt.
“Jo, det har jeg også tænkt“, nærmest indrømmer hun. “Det har været virkelig vildt. Nu er vi ved at redigere, og det værste – eller måske samtidig det bedste – er ved at være overstået“, siger hun. Og det på en almindelig hverdag i februar.
Hun virker til at være i god tid med sit projekt, inden det sendes ud i verden den 5. juni 2026: En samlet indspilning af samtlige soloklaverværker skrevet af Carl Nielsen. Så vidt, som man kender til den samlede mængde for nuværende.


For somme tider dukker der løbende værker op fra alverdens gemmer: Private samlere, familiemedlemmer, arkiver eller biblioteker. Nu ligger det nyligst opdaterede overblik snart til lytning fra OUR Recordings. Et forlag som Rikke Sandberg i øvrigt også tidligere har udgivet for, nemlig i september 2024, da hun sammen med Kristoffer Hyldig udgav albummet 'Espansiva', der rummer det firhændige klaverarrangement, som Carl Nielsen selv har skrevet over sin tredje symfoni 'Sinfonia Espansiva'. Denne historie begyndte i 2019, da netop dette særlige værk kom Rikke Sandberg for øre. Siden har den danske komponist været en central figur i Rikke Sandbergs virke som pianist. Så meget, at den kommende udgivelse bliver en slags forskningsmateriale omsat i musik.


Kimen til nærværende album ligger nok ca. fem år tilbage i tiden, da Rikke Sandberg skulle spille en firhændig koncert i Elbphilharmonien i Hamborg med sin tidligere duopartner, Tanja Zapolski.
”Vi skulle spille Carl Nielsen, men han havde ikke skrevet noget firhændigt”, fortæller Rikke Sandberg om de første skridt i forskningen. En simpel googling førte hende på sporet af en artikel på hjemmesiden Seismograf, der beskrev, at Carl Nielsen ved få private lejligheder havde spillet et orkesterværk i eget arrangement for firhændigt klaver, fortæller hun videre. Hun fandt arrangementet på Det Kgl. Bibliotek: Hans tredje symfoni for firhændigt klaver. Siden har hun opført værket ved flere lejligheder. Men det var umiddelbart ikke kærlighed ved første fingerberøring.
”Jeg gik fra at synes, at den var lige lovlig pompøs i denne udgave til at knuselske den“, fortæller hun og bekræfter dermed, at det kan kræve tålmodighed at opdage Carl Nielsen. Sådan, virkelig opdage hans musik og lade den gøre indtryk.


Ikke desto mindre fortsatte hun jagten på hengemte og oversete klaverværker fra hans hånd, og det førte hende ad forskellige stier.
“Værkerne er fundet eller frigivet med tiden af venner eller familie“, erfarer hun. “Der dukker hele tiden noget nyt op. Er det nu det hele, spurgte jeg på et tidspunkt? Jeg ledte videre, med god hjælp fra Nielsen-forskeren Bo Foltmann, som havde overblik over de forskellige bind i den store CNU, Carl Nielsen Udgaven. Og så fandt jeg over en times ekstra musik – f.eks. uddrag af skuespillet 'Moderen', som aldrig er indspillet før. Jeg tænkte: Jeg skal have det hele med. Og jeg spillede de forskellige ting igennem og syntes, de absolut var værd at få foreviget på lyd“, slår hun krøllen på dén historie.

Udfordringen blev at holde sine øvrige aktiviteter – koncerter og undervisning på Det Kgl. Musikkonservatorium – i gang samtidig med pionerarbejdet i Carl Nielsens univers.

Det er således endt med over tre timers musik på udgivelsen. Tre timer, som sammenlagt har taget mange måneder at komme til at holde af.


“Jeg ved, at musikken kan forekomme kryptisk første gang“, fortæller hun. “Den kan virke kantet. Men jeg har oplevet, at det er gået fra, at jeg ikke helt forstod den til at jeg elsker den. Der dukker hele tiden nye stemninger, karakterer og fraseringsveje op for mig, og det er fantastisk at opleve det den vej: fra svært forståeligt til interessant og smukt“.

Rikke Sandberg er på coveret til sit nyeste album.
Ikke kun noderne og værkerne har Rikke Sandberg været på jagt efter, men også biografisk materiale om Carl Nielsen – i forskellige former. For at forstå ham og hans baggrund og i sidste ende hans musik bedre. “Jeg har læst alle 11 bind af 'Carl Nielsen Brevudgaven'. Det har været givende at finde ud af, hvem han egentlig var. Han var utroligt levende og oprigtigt interesseret i livet, kunsten og mennesker – et medmenneskeligt menneske”, konkluderer hun.
Det præger også hans musik, der i Rikke Sandbergs forklaring rummer mange elementer.
“Det er fordi, han har så mange idéer og stemninger – karakterer, han gerne vil have med. I begyndelsen kan det virke svært uoverskueligt“, fortæller hun.


Hun forholder sig jordnært til sit emne i telefonen, selvom hun vel nærmest har lavet lidt af et musikhistorisk forskningsprojekt i udgivelsen; så jordnært, at hun godt tør vedkende sig, at Carl Nielsen kan være svær også for publikum at indtage.
”Jeg forstår godt, at folk ikke forstår ham første gang. For mig har det til sidst rørt så mange ting inde i mig“, siger hun om sin egen vej til at forstå. For måske har forvaltningen af tid en betydning for, hvordan vi forstår Carl Nielsen i dag, ifølge Rikke Sandberg. Og her får SOME-universet et lille dask med pegepinden.
“Tiden er en altafgørende faktor. Det er ikke moderne, det med gentagelse og fordybelse i dag. Alt i dag skal helst kunne forstås hurtigt. Tålmodighed er ikke i højsædet“, siger hun. “Dengang var fordybelse afgørende for indhold i livet. En flugt ind i et andet univers og det, at man ryger ind i noget, så tid og sted fortaber sig lidt. Sådan har 2025 været for mig“, fortæller Rikke Sandberg om den intense tid med indstudering og indspilning. Dog, udfordringer er hun også stødt på rent kunstnerisk. “Jeg har også været dybt frustreret og tænkt: Hvordan skal jeg nogensinde lære alt det her? Men det øjeblik, fraserne og musikken samler sig og begynder at give mening, er en utrolig gave”.


“Hvad er der særligt ved Carl Nielsens værker, siden du ønsker at indspille det hele? Er musikken umiddelbar?“, spørger jeg hende.
“Jo, for nogen, måske ikke for andre. Hans evne til at lave ørehængere var stor“, vurderer hun, og henviser til, at alle kender 'Solen er så rød mor'. At alle i virkeligheden kender Carl Nielsen og at han har folkelig appel.


Han var populær i sin samtid og leverede mange former for værker i forskellige genrer. Ofte var det på bestilling, men også meget var skrevet af ren lyst.
“Han skrev musik, som udfordrede romantikken. “Han trådte ind i romantikken og åbnede vinduerne og begyndte at lufte ud“, siger Rikke Sandberg og vender tilbage til det med den nødvendige gentagelse. “Somme tider blev hans musik spillet to gange til en koncert, for at folk skulle kunne forstå det. Hvis du ikke forstår C. Nielsen, så har du ikke hørt det nok, kan man sige. Og det er endnu en grund til at indspille“.
Rikke Sandberg ved, hvad hun vil med sit graver arbejde. Det skal på fast form, så gentagelsen får gode vilkår.


Jeg spørger hende, om al denne research, også i personen Carl Nielsen, har ændret hendes opfattelse af den kendte, danske komponist.
“Ja, det synes jeg“, indleder hun sin oplevelse af at studere hans brevskrivning. “Det er lidt som at gå i en andens undertøjsskuffe. Komponistens stormfulde forhold til ægtefællen, Anne Marie Carl Nielsen, har gjort indtryk; det, at hun prioriterede sin egen rolle som billedhugger, udlevede sin drøm og rejste meget, og at han bedrog hende i de perioder, hun var væk, og at hun ville skilles – men endte med at vende tilbage til sin mand - den sorg, de begge gennemgår.”

Rikke Sandberg registrerer, at C. Nielsens klavermusik i den periode, da hustruen har forladt ham, får mere dybde, mere tyngde.
Noget andet man også får god besked om, er de værker, som han skrev på bestilling.

Rikke Sandberg fæstner også blikket på publikum.

“Hans bestillingsværker er der meget brevveksling om - hvorfor han gør sådan eller sådan. Det er noget andet med de værker, han skriver for sin egen skyld, dem brevveksler han ikke så meget om. Familien brevveksler lidt om hans musik og skriver f.eks.: “Far skriver på noget meget smukt” (om hans 3 klaverstykker opus 59). ”Så får man ikke så meget mere at vide. Han har ikke så mange dogmer om, hvordan præcist man skal udføre hans musik”, konstaterer Rikke Sandberg.
Især brevene til familien og de allernærmeste venner har givet hende et nært blik på personen C. Nielsen. „Her får man lov at se ham i hans sårbarhed, men selvfølgelig også hans egoisme og i det hele taget hele hans private menneskelighed “, fortæller hun.


Helt rosenrødt har det dog ikke været at stave sig igennem den store mængde breve.
“Det var også utrolig kedelig læsning nogle gange! Men bedst som jeg syntes det, blev det spændende, oplysende og underholdende igen, og jeg ville gerne igennem dem alle“, siger hun. Igen et udtryk for hendes vedholdenhed og ambition om at favne så grundigt som muligt.
I sin gennemspilning af alle de foreliggende klaverværker har Rikke Sandberg også fået bekræftet en antagelse om C. Nielsen.


“Hans musik er nogle gange beskrevet som noget, der ikke ligger så godt til instrumentet. Det er ikke fordi, jeg ikke kan genkende det“, siger hun. Men jo mere tid man bruger på det, jo bedre kan man tilrettelægge det og forme det, så det alligevel ligger utroligt fint. Det HAR været en udfordring at få kroppen til at gå med. Og at skulle finde min egen intuitive vej i hans landskab“, fortæller hun. Der er mange veje at gå og stemmer at forholde sig til og måder at spille det på. Det kan synes lidt som en bundløs skatkiste. “Udøvende musikere er vel også en slags skabende kunstnere. Vi fortolker den musik, vi spiller, og uden fortolkningen og musikerne ville musikken ikke være så meget i sig selv, på papiret“ siger hun.

Til slut taler vi om, hvorvidt Carl Nielsen får den opmærksomhed, han fortjener i vores tid.
“Nej, det synes jeg ikke“, siger hun lidt eftertænksomt. “Jeg håber, at jeg er med til at åbne hans klavermusik igen og få andre til at spille det. Hans klavermusik har været mere spillet førhen“, fortæller hun.
Det bringer hende til at overveje en tendens i vores tid. “Måske ligger det i tiden, at vi godt kan lide, at tingene er let tilgængelige. Men hvis vi kun læser kriminalromaner, så bliver vi ikke klogere. Det er sundt at lade sig udfordre“, siger hun. “Vi skal også udfordre vores hjerner og vores koncentration. Og også af den grund skal man lytte til Carl Nielsen. Lytte mange gange“, lyder hendes opfordring.
“Man kan også vælge ét stykke. Man kan starte med det let tilgængelige og arbejde sig fremad“, lyder rådet fra en pianist, der kan se enden på mange måneders intenst arbejde – et forløb, der set i bakspejlet kan gøre én lettere svimmel.

Alligevel er det nu lidt af en opgave at give slip på det.
“Jeg blev helt sørgmodig, da jeg indspillede det sidste værk i december“, siger hun. ”Men heldigvis er det jo musik, som jeg fortsætter med at spille ved koncerter de næste år og til stadighed dykker dybere ned i“, lover hun.

Men hvad nu, hvis der dukker mere klavermateriale fra Carl Nielsens op?
Måske vi ikke har hørt den sidste tone i denne sag. Rachel Einarsson