Denmark's King Frederik IX (1899-1971) was an accomplished amateur musician and self-taught conductor who frequently led the Royal Danish Orchestra or the Danish National Radio Symphony in private rehearsals and concerts. Because the King wished to restrict his podium activities within the confines of private life, the concerts were essentially invitation-only affairs in connection with special events or charitable causes. Some of the King's performances were recorded, and the ones selected for this two-disc set appear for the first time.

Given the circumstances, it would be churlish, even inappropriate, to judge these recordings by the same standards one applies to full-time professional conductors. The results, however, need no apology. The Danish musicians, for one, clearly go the extra mile for their monarch, playing their hearts out in the slowish but resonant Wagner Tannhäuser and Rienzi Overtures. Both conductor and orchestra, in fact, imbue the obsessive rhythmic patterns throughout Beethoven's Seventh Symphony with greater definition and backbone than many world-class versions that crowd the catalog. Notable too are fluid readings of Niels Gade's Efterklange af Ossian, Hakon Børresen's uplifting Prelude to the Royal Guest, and Grieg's Vàren (Last Spring).

More often than not the King's performances take a little time to find their center. The "Eroica" Symphony's first movement, for instance, doesn't firm up until the transition into the recapitulation, nor the Funeral March until the fughetta kicks in. But the Scherzo is impressively fleet and controlled, making up for a rather sluggish Finale. Patches of tape flutter mar the otherwise very good and well-balanced mono engineering. What more worthy present than this to celebrate HM Queen Ingrid the Queen Mother's 90th birthday this year.

--Jed Distler