First grade Gade

[Mark Thomas]

No question for me that the First Symphony is Gade's stand out work. It is utterly delightful and the freshness has never worn off in the thirty-odd years that I've known it. His equally early overture "Echoes of Ossian" breathes very much the same air and is just as recommendable. I'm a recent convert to the Violin Concerto, which doesn't have the same open-air quality as the Symphony but displays a mature lyricism that is very heart warming.

Personally, I don't rate his chamber music very highly (the Mendelssohn influence is just too strong) and I find it difficult to tell the choral works apart.

[khorovod]

Personally, I don't rate his chamber music very highly (the Mendelssohn influence is just too strong) and I find it difficult to tell the choral works apart.

I think in the later choral works, from the point of view of the music some of the numbers could quite easily be transplanted from one piece to the next without seeming out of place. There are some lovely things in all of them though. And again, "Comala" and "Baldur's Dream" are more reminiscent of his early, "Ossian" style than those later pieces (including in that, "Elverskud") where his youthful romanticism is maybe a little "tamed" for want of a better word.

I like his overture, "In the Highlands" and his third symphony too.

[DennisS]

As a result of the various comments on Gade, I have been re-listening to all his symphonies. I have them all but as Mark says, his symphony no 1 is by far the best of the bunch. I have listened to no 1 several times in the last couple of days and its freshness and originality are still quite thrilling.

cheers
Dennis