# Louis Glass



## Joachim Raff (Jan 31, 2020)

Composer(1864-1936)

Louis Glass was an exact contemporary of Carl Nielsen, and was one of the most important and consistent Late Romantic composers in Denmark. His artistic integrity was highly esteemed, but his reflective idiom did not win him general popularity.

From his studies abroad Louis Glass brought home inspiration from Bruckner, Wagner and César Franck, and especially after his personal immersion in Theosophy produced a series of large-scale independent works.

In his six symphonies one find an unusually sure grasp of the technical and intellectual aspects of music. The Third and Fourth Symphonies are monumental, the Fifth Symphony is a high point of Danish Symbolism, while the Sixth was a vain attempt to revive National Romanticism. To these one can add many other orchestral works, including a Fantasia for piano and orchestra, and the Theosophical ballet Artemis. Louis Glass was both a pianist and a cellist, and his chamber works are very well-written.

After the deaths of Louis Glass and Carl Nielsen, Glass' music was ousted from the musical milieu by the standard-bearers of Carl Nielsen, and only in recent years have we re-discovered how he complements the Danish culture of the turn of the century in a very personal way.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I'm a decently enthusiastic fan of his Symphonies. Finely crafted works, pretty dramatic, I like them, although I am not convinced the Plovdiv Philharmonic are a top drawer orchestra. Maybe the CPO series are/will be better?

I very much like the Asger Hamerik Symphonies as well; there are some pretty decent Danish symphonists other than that Nielsen chap......oh wait, there's even more than one of those as well!


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