Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900) and Emil Hartmann (1836-98) were from one of Denmark’s prominent musical families (the grandfather, Johann Ernst, emigrated from Germany and became a celebrated Danish composer). Both father and son composed in a highly romantic idiom heavily influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner. In fact, Emil’s The Vikings overture (based on Ibsen) sounds like Mendelssohn’s The fair Melusine with the rough waves of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman scattered throughout. J.P.E. Hartmann’s Hakon Jarl overture shares his son’s predilection for harp accompaniments, but papa Hartmann’s harmonic style owes more to the Schumann/Mendelssohn/Brahms school than to Wagner, especially in his relatively conservative Autumn Hunt (En efterasjagt) overture. Emil did his own take on Ibsen’s Hakon Jarl in his extended symphonic poem, which took him 39 years to complete (perhaps he felt daddy looking disapprovingly over his shoulder?). Still, this first Danish symphonic poem is a highly effective dramatic work written in the composer’s received Germanic style.
Finally, Emil’s Cello Concerto provides an example of his non-literary music, and as expected the piece is stylistically closer to home, drawing upon Danish folk tunes as its thematic source, thus making it recognizably of the same fertile soil from which the early works of Carl Nielsen would later spring. Kim Bak Dinitzen gives a cheerful account of the solo part, while Jean-Pierre Wallez leads the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, South Jutland in accomplished readings of both this and the other works in this collection. Recorded sound is warm and full-bodied. In all, a delightful trek off the beaten path and a real find for collectors of Danish music.
