Nielsen, Shakespeare and the Flute Concerto: From Character to Archetype

In June 1916 Nielsen supplied incidental music for the tercentenary Shakespeare celebrations in Hamlet’s castle of Kronborg, Helsingør (Elsinore). The three choruses and two songs he composed constitute one of his least-known works. But they had a legacy, and not only in the final choral number, which, to other words, subsequently became a candidate for Danish national anthem. Shortly after the event, Nielsen confided that he found Ariel and Caliban (for each of whom he had composed a sharply characterful song) so fascinating that he was considering writing an instrumental work based on their contrasting temperaments. This he never did, at least not overtly. However, ten years later the drastic instrumental contrasts in his Flute Concerto invite a reading based on the Ariel/Caliban duality. The distinctiveness of the concerto’s confrontation between the flute solo and the orchestral bass trombone has long been recognised. However, this duality takes on a more focused and at the same time broader significance when viewed in the light of Nielsen’s life-long, albeit mainly indirect, engagement with Shakespeare. Suggesting how a composer’s occasional character-music may re-emerge in their concert work in the guise of archetypes, our article seeks to contribute to a growing field of investigation into the relationship between ‘applied’ and concert music.

BBC Proms 2013: Diana Burrell, Harrison Birtwistle, Param Vir and Charlotte Seither

As in previous Proms seasons, Cadogan Hall's 2013 chamber concerts series presented some of the most interesting repertoire. On 5 August, Tine Thing Helseth and her all-female brass ensemble tenThing gave the world premiere of a new piece by Diana Burrell. She has already written a substantial work for brass ensemble, Gold, dating from 2001 (which also requires 3 gongs and a piano), and her new BBC commission has a similarly punchy title capturing the bright and burnished qualities of its instrumentation – Blaze. Scored for three trumpets, flugelhorn, horn, three tenor trombones, bass trombone and tuba, this virtuosic, 10-minute showcase grabbed the audience's attention from the start with a striking, fanfare-like idea that recurred in extended form as unison chords during the closing bars, providing an incandescent coda. In a brief pre-performance talk, the composer spoke of the often-untapped technical capabilities of brass instruments, and her demanding piece successfully tapped into this potential, as she gave each performer a chance to shine within its teeming textures. In addition to these challenging solo episodes, the score was memorable for its inventive deployment of various combinations of instruments, denoting a genuinely chamber-oriented work. Blaze provided a strong focal point for a programme that otherwise consisted solely of arrangements, nearly all by guitarist Jarle Storløkken, of repertoire originally conceived for other forces, such as piano pieces by Grieg and excerpts from Carmen and The Threepenny Opera.