Klarinet Archive - Posting 000297.txt from 1997/02

From: Eric Nelson <esnelson@-----.NET>
Subj: Oxenvad, lots of info
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 01:03:06 -0500

About two weeks ago, there were some questions about Aage Oxenvad on the
list. Having studied Nielsen and clarinet at the Royal Conservatory in
Copenhagen [in 1979], I would like to pass on some first-hand information
on Oxenvad.

There are two major obstacles to acquiring accurate information about
Danish music. First, much of the info exists only in the Danish language;
not exactly a familiar language to most. Second, the Danes are not
inclined to value the sharing of such information. To quote Tage Scharff,
the clarinet professor with whom I studied: "You Americans [and English as
well] love to get together and give lectures, deliver papers, and hold
conferences. Here in Denmark, *vi spiller*! [we PLAY]". He was quite
amused that I, a performing clarinetist, would be so interested in such
material.

On a posting on this list, Jarle Brosveet wrote:

"In the first place Oxenvad did not inspire Nielsen to write the
concerto, although he was the first to perform it. It was written at the
request of Nielsen's benefactor and one-time student Carl Johan Michaelsen.
Second, Oxenvad, who is described as a choleric, made this unflattering
remark about Nielsen and the concerto: "He must be able to play the clarinet
himself, otherwise the would hardly have been able to find the worst notes
to play." Oxenvad performed it on several occasions with no apparent success
although he reportedly did all he could, whatever that is supposed to mean.
I am quoting partly from the liner notes written by a Danish authority for
BIS CD-321. Of course we shall never know how well Oxenvad performed the
concerto, because he never made a recording of it."

Actually, Oxenvad *did* inspire Nielsen to write the Concerto. Nielsen had
become intrigued by the playing of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, and
composed his famous Kvintet in 1922. He promised each of the 5 musicians a
Concerto. The bassoonist, Knud Lassen, knowing the difficulty of N's music,
said "you go ahead and do that, but *I* won't play it!" The flute concerto
was composed in 1926, but Nielsen procrastinated writing the others. Carl
Johan Michaelsen, mentioned in Brosveet's post, only reminded Nielsen of
his promise to Oxenvad; this reminder was the incentive Nielsen needed to
get busy w/ it in 1928. The first performance of the Concerto [a private
performance] took place on 14 september 28 at the summer villa of the
wealthy Michaelsen in Humlebaek, with an orchestra of 22. Oxenvad's
comment: "he must be able to play the clarinet himself, otherwise he would
hardly have been able to find the most difficult notes to play!" was not an
angry, unflattering comment at all...the two men were very close, and this
comment was most certainly a bit of dry Danish humor, as was the
bassoonist's comment cited above. Oxenvad indeed never recorded the
Concerto. According to some of his pupils, [Scharff, mentioned above, was
a pupil] Oxenvad professed an accuracy rate of approximately 80 percent in
the concerto. Again, probably dry Danish wit and exaggeration, but most
certainly he never felt confident enough technically to record it. Those
wishing to hear a recording of Oxenvad's playing, however, can find it on a
CD recently released by:

Clarinet Classics, 77 St. Albans Ave., London E6 4HH. The disc is titled:
Nielsen, The Historic Recordings. catalog # CC 0002.

Included are Cahuzac's recording of the Concerto, and Oxenvad playing on
the Wind Quintet and Serenata in Vano. It is interesting to hear the vast
difference between the playing of Cahuzac and that of Oxenvad. The Danes
regard Cahuzac's interpretation [and that of Stanley Drucker, by the way]
as completely ignorant of the Danish spirit. Too light, entirely devoid of
passion.

Now some biographical information on Oxenvad. This comes from several
newspaper interviews, the Danish Biographical Lexicon, and personal
interviews with people who knew the man.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I don't believe this
information is to be had elsewhere, at least not in English.

Aage [pronounced Oh-wuh] Oxenvad was born in the small village of Gettrup
in Jutland, 16 January 1884. His father was a sharecropper, and the
village *spillemand* [town musician]. Aage played the flute for dances
with his father and brothers until, at age 12, he decided that it was
"boring...with such a cool, uninteresting tone..." and therefore switched
to clarinet. During his teen years he travelled every two weeks to
Copenhagen to study with Carl Skjerne, the solo clarinetist with the Royal
Chapel Orchestra, himself formerly a student of Richard Muhlfeld.

Oxenvad studied at the Royal Conservatory from 1903-1905 and thereafter
studied briefly in Paris. He was, however, primarily homegrown. Scharff
[prof. at the Conservatory in 1979] noted Oxenvad's distrust of foreign
clarinetistry. When Cahuzac performed in Copenhagen, Oxenvad's pupils were
eager to hear the famous man play. Oxenvad told them to go ahead and go
hear him, "but don't listen too closely!"

Oxenvad joined the Royal Chapel Orchestra in 1909. He was the first in
that group to use the Boehm clarinet; his teacher and colleague, Skjerne,
played a boxwood Oehler clarinet. Oxenvad became solo clarinetist in 1919
and held that post until his death 13 April 1944.

Oxenvad achieved a measure of international notice; Willem Mengelberg
invited him to join the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, but he
declined. When Stravinsky brought his new L'histoire du soldat [trio
version] to Copenhagen for its Scandinavian premiere, Oxenvad was the
clarinetist, Stravinsky the pianist.

But in spite of his fame and achievements, Oxenvad carefully clung to his
rural heritage throughout his life. A newspaper interview published on the
occasion of his 60th birtday revealed much about his personality and
priorities. The interviewer noted the clarinetist's pronounced Jutlander
dialect, a dialect regarded with haughty disdain in cosmopolitan
Copenhagen. Oxenvad preferred living in a small house on the city's
outskirts to a flat nearer his employment, and enjoyed gardening and
discussions of livestock and the weather with his agrarian neighbors.

He considered himself a "frightful curmudgeon" when things were contrary,
and was always obstinate. Oxenvad considered the clarinet a masculine
instrument and strongly disapproved of women playing it. His own
cameo-portrait of the instrument, though blatantly chauvinistic by today's
standards, is revealing: "...it is a living being, and must be treated
like a woman, with a gentle yet firm hand...also unpredictable, like a
woman...the clarinet is somber and expressive, and it possesses passion..."

Oxenvad felt great adoration for Carl Nielsen: "I loved Carl Nielsen above
all...he is Denmark's greatest composer." The two were bonded by common
roots. Nielsen's music constantly harkens back to a childhood that Oxenvad
also knew, with its ignorantly blissful poverty, its fairy tales, and its
innocent dependence upon the earth. Oxenvad in his playing, though lacking
the technical refinement of a Cahuzac, was able to impart the roots of
Nielsen's music. The Clarinet Concerto, to quote Svend Christian Felumb,
the oboist in the Quintet, "...was not only a concerto for clarinet, it
was a concerto for Aage Oxenvad. The composer was so deeply inspired by
Oxenvad's immerions in the essence of the instrument and by *his* peculiar
manner of expressing the soul of the clarinet, that one may safely say that
Carl Nielsen would never have written *this* work if he had not heard
Oxenvad. No verbal characterization could be more vivid than Carl
Nielsen's musical one. It tells everything about Aage and his clarinet."

A reviewer of the Danish premiere of the concerto also noted the great debt
the work owed Oxenvad: "Hardly a more homogenous interpretation of this
work could be imagined. Oxenvad has made a pact with trolls and giants.
He has a *temper*, a primitive force harsh and clumsy, with a smattering of
blue-eyed Danish amenity. Surely Carl Nielsen heard the sound of *his*
clarinet when he wrote the Concerto."

Scharff put it this way: Even in urbane or royal company, Nielsen and
Oxenvad "both had mud on their boots."

I hope this is of interest to those of you who have worked on the Nielsen
Concerto. For more specific information on the Danish performance
tradition in the work, refer to an article I wrote for the Clarinet
Magazine, Winter 1987, vol 14, nr 2.

Recordings representative of this performance tradition include that by
Kjell-Inge Stevensson [I don't know if this is still in print - I haven't
seen it on CD] and a more recent one by Hakan Rosengren w/ the Swedish
Radio Symphony Orchestra [Sony Classical SK 53276]. The best performance
I've heard of it by far is by the principal clarinetist [in 1979] of the
Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen, Niels Thomsen. I taped it from a radio
broadcast; I don't believe it is available commercially. It is technically
superb, as well as interpretationally sound. To be avoided: Stanley
Drucker's recording with New York Phil [technically incredible, emotionally
completely cold, it has *nothing* to do with Nielsen!] and of course
Cahuzac's brave attempt.

Eric Nelson