Fan Qianyi, Ma Ningze and Liu Shiya performs the Griebel Wandall’s Notturno for Cello and Piano and Hilda Sehesteds Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Piano as well as her Fantasy Pieces for Violin and Piano. The three works are all published as a part of our DCM Project, and it is a great joy that the new publications of these largely overlooked pieces have made their way to Beijing.
Alongside the works of the Danish composers, music by Laura Netzel, Olga Grevenkop Castenskiold and Amanda Maier will be performed at the concert.
The story of Sehested and Griebel Wandall's music
Following a performance of Sehested’s Four Fantasy Pieces for Violin and Piano in 1893 the work was reviewed in the Danish newspaper Dannebrog, where the critic wrote:
"Here nothing is superficial or incidental. Each instrument follows its own independent path, based on a polyphony that seems to come naturally to Miss Sehested [...] There is such a well-constructed, logical, concise, and tightly structured quality to all of them."
Together with Intermezzi and the piano sonata, Four Fantasy Pieces for Violin and Piano marked the conclusion and culmination of a compositional period in Sehested’s life. The three works together represent a high romantic style, which, according to Orla Rosenhoff, Sehested’s composition teacher, can be described as “Beethovenian”. From 1894 to 1900, Sehested composed very little, evidently due to the tragic death of her fiancé Henry Petersen in 1894, just a month before their wedding.5 In 1900, Sehested gradually began to compose again and resumed lessons with Orla Rosenhoff, with whom she had previously studied. In this new period, Sehested’s interest in brass instruments became particularly pronounced. She also completely abandoned the high romantic style that was so characteristic of Intermezzi, the piano sonata, and Four Fantasy Pieces for Violin and Piano.
Tekla Griebel Wandall’s Notturno for cello and piano was composed in 1891 and is one of the very few chamber music works by Tekla Griebel Wandall. It is evident from the four work catalogues that she herself compiled towards the end of her life, that her oeuvre consists almost exclusively of songs, solo piano works (all of which are character pieces rather than sonatas), operas, and stage music. She barely engaged with the many genres within chamber and orchestral music. Her efforts were usually devoted to creating dramatic music or programme music, often with a vocal element. In this sense, Notturno is somewhat of an exception within the overall picture of the composer. Notturno is also, by all accounts, a student piece – a work written while she studied at the conservatory in Copenhagen from 1889 – 1891, where she was presumably taught to write for various instrumental combinations.