Nielsen - Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia Semplice"

In August 1924 Danish composer Carl Nielsen began working on a Sixth Symphony, which turned out to be his last. The first movement was finished at the end of November while he was in Copenhagen, and the second movement was composed during Christmas. At the end of January 1925 he traveled to the French Riviera with his wife. While he had been in Copenhagen, Nielsen had composed the third movement, but he now had to put the symphony aside to work on a commission for incidental music to Ebbe Skammelsen, which was to be performed at the Open Air Theatre in the deer park. He completed the score immediately before his sixtieth birthday on June 9. When going to Damgaard in the middle of July, Nielsen was able to continue work on his symphony. The last movement was finally completed on December 5, 1925. The first performance was given by the Chapel Royal Orchestra on December 11. The work is divided into four movements: 1. Tempo giusto 2. Humoreske: Allegretto 3. Proposta seria: Adagio 4. Tema con variazioni: Allegro In the first movement, beginning with G major, the opening features bell sounds followed by a "simple" and peaceful melody with strings; followed in turn, by active and very characteristic figures in the winds. As in the fifth symphony there is an early hint of the key B-flat in which we will eventually close, since the wind response hits that B-flat as an on-and-off note in an otherwise G major passage. The mood of the opening gives way to fugal unrest and, eventually, two chaotic and disturbing outbursts before again quieting, to a lightly scored but unsettled close in A-flat. The Humoreske, the 2nd movement, is for winds and percussion alone, almost athematic/tuneless and depending on rhythm. The composer, in notes he wrote for the first performance of the work, said of this movement that the wind and percussion "quarrel, each sticking to his own tastes and inclinations"; Nielsen went on to liken this to the musical world of the time. In the third movement, several passages in this movement circle around as though snakes chasing for-the-moment lost tails. Fanfare, theme and variations, fanfare-reprise and coda, on a fairly unstable theme in B-flat. The ninth variation, just before the fanfare-reprise and coda, has a sound and affect like that of the Humoreske; it is preceded by a minore variation before that, as in many variations sets (a variation in the parallel minor), but one that is so protracted that when its last minor cadence arrives it is difficult to grasp as one whole variation. Layton describes it as a lament and that is a closer description. Herbert Blomstedt & San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

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Carl Nielsen Symphony no. 6 "Sinfonia semplice" - Humoreske: Allegretto

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Carl Nielsen - Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia semplice", FS 116