Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 unfolds as a musical conversation among a cast of instrumental characters.
Composed in 1922 immediately following the Fifth Symphony, the Quintet is scored for flute, oboe (English horn), clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Nielsen was inspired to write the work after a brief telephone conversation with a fellow musician in which he heard, in the background, members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet rehearsing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds, K. 297b. “Nielsen’s fondness of wind instruments is closely related to his love of nature, his fascination for living, breathing things,” wrote biographer Robert Simpson. “He was also intensely interested in human character, and in the Wind Quintet composed deliberately for five friends, each part is cunningly made to suit the individuality of each player.”
In his program note, Nielsen provided the following description:
The quintet for winds is one of the composer’s latest works, in which he has attempted to render the characters of the various instruments. At one moment they are all talking at once, at another they are quite alone. The work consists of three movements: a) Allegro, b) Minuet and c) Prelude – Theme with Variations. The theme for these variations is the melody for one of C.N.’s spiritual songs, which has here been made the basis of a set of variations, now merry and quirky, now elegiac and serious, ending with the theme in all its simplicity and very quietly expressed.
The first movement (Allegro ben moderato) begins with a flowing E major theme played by the bassoon. Fragments of the theme form the spirited, sometimes humorous instrumental conversation that ensues.
Moving to A major, the second movement (Menuet) takes a neoclassical turn. It is sunny and pastoral, beginning with a duet between the clarinet and bassoon. In the second theme, the flute and oboe take centerstage. The trio section is a dialogue of imitative counterpoint.
The final movement (Praeludium – Theme with Variations) begins with raw, primal open fifths, played by the horn and bassoon. The oboe is replaced by the deeper English horn. The oboist for whom the part was written, Svend C. Felumb, had performed the English horn solo of Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique under Nielsen’s baton in Bremen. Perhaps the inclusion of this new reed voice was the composer’s homage to Felumb. Soon, the dissonances of the Praeludium are swept away by Nielsen’s hymn melody, Min Jesus, lad min Hjerte faa en saaden Smag paa dig (“My Jesus, make my heart to love thee”). Eleven elaborate variations on the theme follow, concluding with a final statement of the majestic theme.
This performance, recorded in 2012 at the Samobor Music Festival in Croatia, features the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet:
Min Jesus lad mit hjerte faa
Here is the theme that inspired the Wind Quintet’s final movement. It is Nielsen’s hymn, Min Jesus, lad min Hjerte faa, performed by Paul Hillier and Ars Nova Copenhagen:
Recordings
- Nielsen: Wind Quintet, Op.43, Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet Amazon
- Nielsen: Min Jesus, lad min Hjerte faa, Paul Hillier, Ars Nova Copenhagen Naxos
Featured Image: “Kongens Nytorv” (1926), Svend Johansen