Article published in Manchester Evening News 5 June 2015

THE BBC Philharmonic begins a set of concerts including all six symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen on June 9, with principal guest conductor John Storgårds. 

That’s not particularly surprising – it’s Nielsen’s 150^th anniversary on the 9th, and Nielsen ‘cycles’ are on the agenda of a number of orchestras this year. The Phil’s series, though, includes another complete bag: Mahler’s song set entitled Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Guest singers are Roderick Williams, Florian Boesch, Gillian Keith and Hanno Müller-Brachman. 

Des Knaben Wunderhorn was a book of folk songs and poems first published in the early 19^th century. Its verses about love, war, childhood and wandering became a foundation document of Romanticism. 

Mahler was one of several composers to put the songs to music, and among his settings around a dozen for voice with orchestra date from 1899. 

But why put them alongside Nielsen’s symphonies? I asked BBC Philharmonic general manager Simon Webb. 

“What we’re trying to do with Nielsen is to put him in context as a great 20^th century symphonist,” he said. “He doesn’t have that status in public consciousness, and in my view he should have. 

“We’re putting him alongside Mahler, as there are profound synergies between them. Mahler wasn’t seen as a great symphonic composer by many until the 1960s, which was a period of personal exploration and experience.  

“Then his music came to be appreciated in a new way – to my mind that has rarely happened with Nielsen.” 

He pointed out that the settings of these folk (or folk-like) songs made their way into Mahler’s symphonies (nos. 2, 3 and 4), and Nielsen’s symphonies are also rooted in folk music and the traditions of his country.  

“Both looked at the natural world for inspiration and imagery. Both challenged conventional ideas about the symphony – Mahler obviously, but Nielsen, too, for instance by writing a two-movement symphony, adding extra instruments to the conventional line-up, or including a wordless vocal line.

 “And in the Mahler songs you have tragedy, frustration, joy and comedy – it’s as if ‘music is life’ … which is actually something Nielsen said.” 

The Philharmonic and John Storgårds have already completed the Sibelius symphonies on CD – this month they bring out the full Nielsen set, too, on the Chandos label.