Romantic Discoveries Recordings

Emil Hartmann (1836-98): Skandinavisk Folkemusik
Viser og danser, op 30.
Volume 1 (nos. 1-37)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD61

Total time: 79 mins 52 secs

1. Mellem Fjeldene (Between the mountains) (2’18”) 2. Amagerdans (Amager Dance) (1’17”) 3. „Go Kvel, mi Mari!” (Vexelsang) (2’20”) 4. Springdans (Spring Dance) (2’13”) 5. Agnete (1’34”) 6. Polska (Mazurka) (2’23”) 7. Nattergalen (Nightingales) (2’46”) 8. Halling (2’24”) 9. Edmund og Benedict (1’38”) 10. Domara-Dansen (2’01”) 11. Norsk Bondedans (Norwegian Leaping Dance) (1’44”) 12. Den første Kjaerlighed (The first love) (2’25”) 13. I Dansen (In the dance) (3’04”) 14. Hymne (1’27”) 15. Polska (2’12”) 16. I Morgenstunden (In the morning) (2’25”) 17. Dans og Skjæmtevise (Dance and Skjæmtevise) (1’42”) 18. En Sommerdag (One summer) (2’47”) 19. Dans i Borgegaard (Dance in the castle keep) (2’35”) 20. I Kvæld (At eve) (2’35”) 21. „Allt under himmelens fäste” (All under heavens fixed) (2’58”) 22. Ved Arnen (By Arnen) (1’45”) 23. „En yndig og frydefuld Sommertid” (A sweet and delightful summertime) (2’09”) 24. Norsk Folkedans (Norwegian folkdance) (1’58”) 25. Reel (1’24”) 26. Til Sæters (On the set) (3’05”) 27. Sjællandsk Bondedans (Sjællandish Leaping Dance) (1’38”) 28. Paa Fjorden (On the fjord) (3’11”) 29. Dans og Vise (Dance and scene) (2’05”) 30. Polska (1’36”) 31. Gangerpilten (Noble boy) (1’18”) 32. Elverskud (The elves’ shoot) (1’22”) 33. Polska (1’34”) 34. Svend Vonved (1’47”) 35. Halling og Vise (1’40”) 36. Kulldansen (2’25”) 37. Klagesang (Song of complaint) (2’35”)

We are grateful to Dr. Denis Waelbroeck for supplying copies of scores for use in this recording.

Notes on the music
Emil Hartmann’s work was eclipsed in his lifetime by the fame of his father, J.P.E. Hartmann, and his brothers-in-law Niels Gade and August Winding. He composed music before he could talk, and developed into a confident master of the Danish expressive style of the mid-nineteenth-century.

Hartmann worked as a church musician, but this forms only one aspect of his musical output, which is extremely varied. The piano music explores a number of styles ranging from nationalistic folksongs and dances to virtuoso display-pieces such as the Caprice op 16 no 2, and balances an extrovert sensibility with a fine command of melody and expressive shading.

The set of fifty dances and scenes that forms the extended set of Scandinavian Folkmusic, op 30, represents a conscious evangelism on Hartmann’s part towards the folk tradition that was at the heart of emergent Scandinavian nationalism. Most familiar from Grieg’s work, this trend was also taken up by Hartmann with a wider reach to encompass the music of Denmark as well as that of Norway and Sweden.

Hartmann describes his work as “freely arranged” and in most cases what he has done is to present the material concerned as sympathetically as possible, without extraneous development or over-elaboration. This is not the approach, for example, of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, but rather that of his settings of Hungarian folksongs in a deliberately intimate and minimalist style, allowing the original music to speak clearly rather than attempting to transform it into the orthodox virtuoso tradition.

This is not to say that Hartmann’s work is not pianistic – the numerous mazurkas, for example, prompt obvious comparison with Chopin. However, the emphasis is on clarity, simplicity and the creation of a vibrant and distinct atmosphere within a structure that rarely extends much beyond a couple of minutes. Such aphorisms are a mark of compositional skill as much in what they exclude as what they include; the art is a distillation of what in less capable hands would appear over-extended or out of proportion. To journey through Scandinavia with Hartmann as guide is to experience a gentle art, and to understand the social function of such music as the expression not merely of community identity but also of a burgeoning nationalist school in composition.