Cantatas (GADE NIELS WILHELM)

Couverture Rigide. Par GADE NIELS WILHELM. The four works presented in this volume – 'Frühlings-Phantasie” op. 23, 'Frühlings-Botschaft” op. 35, 'Die heilige Nacht' op. 40 and „ Beim Sonnenuntergang' op. 46 – were composed between 1852 and 1870. All of these works belong to the 'concert piece” genre, as the title pages of the respective first editions suggest. The works' instrumentation is varied: While „ Frühlings-Botschaft ' and „ Beim Sonnenuntergang' are composed for mixed choir and orchestra, 'Die heilige Nacht” calls for an additional solo alto. 'Frühlings-Phantasie” is not scored for choir at all, juxtaposing the orchestra with four solo voices and piano. Gade based his texts on poems by Edmund Lobedanz (op. 23), Emanuel Geibel (op. 35), August von Platen (op. 40), and Andreas Munch (op. 46)./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Ballad On Danish Folk Legends-With ?Elverskud? (?The Erl-Kings Daughter?) Gade presented his second ?secular cantata for soloists choir and orchestra? the first having been his successful ?Comala? Op. 12 (1845/46). The genre was quite popular among his contemporaries. This time Gade planned to base the work on the text of a folk song. Originally he had approached Hans Christian Andersen for a text but a collaboration did not materialize. The text Gade ultimately chose for his music was that of a ballad most likely penned by Emil Erslev and Gade himself. A German translation by Edmund Lobedanz was added at a later time.The composition started in 1851 and finished in March of 1854 soon became aninternational success and one of Gade?s most-performed works. In 1864 the composer made a number of changes to the instrumentation. While the new version was subsequently used for all performances conducted by Gade the changes were never incorporated into the printed edition of the score. This edition is the first to present this 1864 version.