Prom 41: Nielsen's 3rd Symphony with Behzod Abduraimov playing Beethoven (17.08.22)

[Serial_Apologist]

A thought provoking post.

I would agree, except the Nielsen could hardly have been "reminiscent" of the Vaughan Williams, since it was composed 10 years earlier - but I dare say I am being unnecessarily pedantic here!

[Ein Heldenleben]

I would agree, except the Nielsen could hardly have been "reminiscent" of the Vaughan Williams, since it was composed 10 years earlier - but I dare say I am being unnecessarily pedantic here!

Yes it was composed mid WW1 rather than post which is quite a crucial difference! I suppose it is “reminiscent” to some one like me who knows the RVW so much better. Don’t understand why Nielsen is so underperformed.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I am the one , I believe, that mentioned the Nielsen 3 evokes RVW for me. I wasn’t trying to establish that one piece inspired the other, or even the relative dates of composition of the two. Let’s just say that from the vantage point of 2022, they seem roughly contemporaneous. I also understood that the genesis of the RVW was during his work as ambulance driver in Flanders , regardless of the Publishing date. This makes it increasingly unlikely that he would have known the Nielsen, but who cares? I am not alleging plagiarism, just noting an Artistic Similarity

No Richard I was the one who confused the Expansiva with the Inextinguishable which I remember reading had a WW 1 link. The Expansiva couldn’t have had that - though there are plenty of cases of artists unconsciously “anticipating “ major historical events. I think it’s perfectly possible that RVW had heard the Expansiva by 1922 or , more likely , read the score. He would definitely have heard it by the time of the above letter to Michael Kennedy. On the other hand it could be a complete co-incidence that the Andante Pastorale is a wordless voice movement and that approx 10 years later RVW wrote something similar (but harmonically different).
Without setting another hare running listening to the timp exchange the other night reminded me of the artillery fire that deafened RVW …