The Inextinguishable

What a breathtaking start! At the age of 18, the young Swedish violinist Johan Dalene won the renowned Carl Nielsen International Competition. He was immediately proclaimed «talent of the century» and his playing on his Stradivarius left people speechless. That was four years ago, and hardly surprising in retrospect, with eminent classical greats such as Gidon Kremer, Leif Ove Andsnes and Janine Jansen boosting his budding world career. Nielsen’s Violin Concerto owes its origins to an invitation from Edvard Grieg’s widow, who invited the Danish composer to her late husband’s country estate in Troldhaugen. It was here that Nielsen found the first inspiration for his violin concerto. «The fact is, it must consist of good music and yet display the solo instrument in the best light; in other words, rich in content, popular and brilliant without being superficial.» And that is precisely what he did. Today it ranks among the masterpieces of the genre. This is also true of Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony – an expressionist contribution to musical modernism, an existential music of ideas, «which has no programme, but is intended to express what we call the will to live, life in motion …» .