Carl Nielsen Defended
SIR,—Mr. Martin Cooper's reference to Carl Nielsen's music in the Spectator of the 12th September calls for comment. " I suspect," he writes, " that the Nielsen movement is the work of crypto-reactionaries or right-wing deviationists; and that exaggerated importance is attached to his music "; and, " If the Prom programmes are to include such music, let us have Saint-Saens himself, and not a Scandinavian poor relation."
Carl Nielsen's music, played by the Danish Radio Orchestra, was one of the outstanding musical events, at both the Edinburgh and British Festivals last year, being hailed by, among others, such promi- nent personalities in the musical world as Sir Malcolm Sargent and Ernest Newman, as a result of which a Carl Nielsen week in London is being arranged. Eugene Ormandy, the famous conductor of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra, who has been here as a guest, conductor of the Radio Orchestra before it sails for a prolonged tour in the States, is a great admirer of Carl Nielsen, and is doing everything possible to put him in his rightful place in the galaxy of international composers. Yehudi Menuhin has just made a H.M.V. recording of Carl Nielsen's Violin Concerto with the Radio Orchestra, and was so impressed that he has offered to conduct without fee some of the con- certs on the orchestra's tour of the U.S.A., in order to stimulate world interest in Danish music, which he considers it deserves. Perhaps, Mr. Cooper classes these diverse musical experts among the " crypto- reactionaries." Whatever one's opinion of Carl Nielsen's music, he is certainly not anyone's " poor relation."—Yours faithfully, W. J. L. Copenhagen.
Previous page
