Carl Nielsen: Complete Piano Works - Christina Bjørkøe

Carl Nielsen: Complete Piano Works

Christina Bjørkøe

[CPO 777 413-2]

... Here on two discs is Nielsen’s complete output for the instrument, spanning a period of four decades from 1890 to 1931, the year of his death...

The collection is arranged in chronological order, so that most of the material on disc 1—up through the Dream of a Merry Christmas of 1905, or approximately the halfway point in Nielsen’s 40-year output of piano pieces—will be of a familiarity to you even if you’ve never heard it before, because it seems to have been strongly influenced by Schumann, with perhaps a bit of Chopin thrown in for good measure. Between 1905 and 1916, there was a hiatus. What comes next, the Chaconne, op. 32, represents a tectonic shift. Beginning with a Bach-like aria reminiscent of the Goldberg Variations , Nielsen quickly departs on a phantasmagoric journey of strange harmonies and even stranger sonorities that run the gamut from Beethoven’s late piano sonatas to Alkan and Busoni. Much the same can be said of the 1917 Theme and Variations, op. 40, and the 1919/20 Suite, op. 45, that follow it.

Another hiatus of seven years follows. Then, between 1927 and 1931, come Nielsen’s last three works in the medium, the Three Pieces , op. 59, the Piano Music for Young and Old , and a 34-second etude titled simply Piano Piece . In these late works, Nielsen has synthesized his Romantic impulses with his modernist leanings. Bach again comes to the fore in the 20th movement of the Piano Music for Young and Old in a piece appropriately titled “Alla Bach.” Echoes of Couperin, Scarlatti, Handel, and others are heard, too, throughout this cycle, but with unexpected twists and turns that are Nielsen’s unique stamp.

This is a wonderful set that has enlarged my knowledge of Nielsen and increased my already considerable appreciation of his music. There’s not a piece in this collection that I did not enjoy listening to, some of them multiple times. Having already admitted that Nielsen’s piano music has been largely terra incognita to me, I’m not able to tell you how Christina Bjørkøe’s performances stack up to competing versions, of which I’m sure Martin Roscoe’s on Hyperion and Elisabeth Westenholz’s on BIS—two well-known artists I would expect to excel in this repertoire—are equally fine. However, Bjørkøe is fully up to the task technically, and she plays with a great deal of finesse and genuine feeling for the content and style of Nielsen’s music. Recorded between July and August 2007 in Copenhagen’s The Black Diamond studio, Bjørkøe’s unidentified piano is beautifully captured in full detail and pristine clarity. Strongly recommended.

Christina Bjørkøe (b.1970) began learning the piano at the age of five from her mother. In 1978 she became a pupil of Therese Koppel, who taught her until 1990, then she studied with Seymour Lipkin at the Juilliard School in New York and with Anne Øland at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where she made her debut as a soloist in 1997. She has been awarded several prestigious prizes and grants, among them Victor Borges Musikpris in 1994, Victor Schiølers Legat in 1999, and Merete og Helge Finsens Hæderpris for 1999.

Christina Bjørkøe is associate professor at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music Odense. She has made various acclaimed recordings of piano music from her homeland for CPO and Dacapo, including the works of Knudåge Riisager, Carl Nielsen, Herman D Koppel and Niels Viggo Bentzon.