Carl Nielsen's first and only concert in London in 1923, featuring his Violin Concerto and Fourth Symphony, received a negative review from Ernest Newman of The Guardian, who felt the music lacked "a genuine connective tissue."
Composer's Artistic Vision
Carl Nielsen believed that music in his time needed to be "brisk, abrupt, emphatic" to compensate for the loss of traditional homogeneity, allowing for a diversity of references from different epochs and sources.
Performer Biography
Violinist James Ehnes, who performs on this album, plays the 'Marsick' Stradivarius, an instrument made in 1715.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Carl Nielsen gave his Fourth Symphony the motto 'Music is Life, and, like it, inextinguishable' before its premiere in Copenhagen on February 1, 1916.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Carl Nielsen intended his Fourth Symphony to express "the spirit of life or manifestations of life," describing it as "everything that moves, that wants to live... just life and motion."
Recording & Production
This album was recorded in 24-bit / 96 kHz, a high-resolution format that offers a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Composition History
Carl Nielsen composed his Fourth Symphony, subtitled 'The Inextinguishable,' between 1914 and 1916, a period marked by the outbreak of World War I and strains in his marriage.
