Niels Wilhelm Gade

Symphonie no. 1 op. 5

'I can't remember when another work made a more lively, beautiful impression on me' - this is what a very enthusiastic Felix Mendelssohn wrote to Niels Gade in January 1843. On March 2nd he premiered Gade's C minor Symphony at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. On 26 October of the same year the 26 year old Danish composer conducted the second performance himself and in the following year he was engaged as co-conducter of the Gewandhaus concerts.

His first symphony, however, was to remain Gade's greatest success: unique are its colourful instrumentation, atmospheric melodies and the characteristic sound world which we know as Nordic.

This volume presents Gade's opus 5 as volume I.1 of the Complete Edition 'Niels W. Gade / Works', edited by Finn Egeland Hansen. The volume also contains a preface by Inger Sørensen as well as a separate discussion of the musicological reception of this central work.