ELSE BREMS - Naxos Music Library

Shdhdrazade songs, the first of which is incomplete,
and four songs for voice and piano by Debussy' of
which two are incomplete. These few examples'
however, show her interpretation of French songs to
be of international fomat. In 1950 she was elected
"Honorary Artist" by the students of Copenhagen' and
in his speech on this occasion Professor Nils Schigning
said. "The secret behind the transmission of this art
(...) is, of course, in the first place to comprehend the
psyche out of which it was created; few can do this;
add to this the ability to suPpress one's own feelings
untler a glittering, multi-coloued but often glassily non
committal surface. Then, and not till then will the
artistic fire flare up with brightest flme. Else Brems
masters this. She, like most otherhuman beings, knows
and understands the passions which move the human
heart. At the same time she is reticent, perhaps even
afraid, ofbeing swept along by the cunent of emotions
which threaten to overwhelm. Therefore she finds
herself particulrly at home with an ar1 fom which
demands reticence as a cover for turbulent feelings.
An art fom which will only yield the essence of what
poet and composer conceived when there is a glow of
feeling behind the gla.sy surlace'.
"La fl0te de Pan" from Chansons de Billtls, and "Romance"
ate from a private recording of a radio transmission
from the end of the 40s (II,9&10).
From her ptrents Else Brems lemt to love the fteasury
ofDanish songs, from the great romances to the simple
stmzaic ballad. In this recording re included four songs
by Peter Heise, the most important Danish lied composer.
The first three are from a private recording of a
concert in Tivoli in 1955. "I remember yet that place"
is from a novel by Carsten Harch, Robert Fulton' rn
which the girl Laura thinks with mournful longing of
her home (II,1 1). "Poor heart, are you weary" is from a
play by Jens Christian Hostrup. Ingeborg, a young girl'
has been rescued from the sniles of the nix at the last
moment by the sound ofthe churchbells. Thorsten, her
beloved, finds her and sings this song to the girl who
has fainted away (II, I 2). In "Spring Song ofthe Young
Lrk" the piano descibes "con leggerezza'how the ltrk,
intoxicated with spring, soars up towards the sky'
jubilantly singing. The text is by the Danish poet Steen
Steensen Blicher (II, l3). The only Heise song with Else
Brems on a gramophone record is "Agnete's Lullaby"
from the play Agnete and. the Merman by
H.C.Andersen. Agnete at the bottom of the sea is
singing to the baby she has had with the mermm (II,l4).
Fini Henriques, a contemporary of Carl Nielsen, was
primarily a violinist, but as a composer he was a
melodist of mark. We include here his happy song
"Spring" with a text by a long-forgotten Danish
novelist, Ellen Reumert (II,15). The Danish composer
dearest to Else Brems's heart was probably Peter
Erasmus Lange-Mtiller His quiet, inttmate tone was
highly congenial with her own charactel In his "The
Sky Glows Faintly" he comes fairly close to
impressionism (II,16). The "Neighbour's First Song",
from a long-forgotten play by Sophus Bauditz' is a
graceful little serenata which became a much-loved
encore by her ever faithful, large audience (II, l7). The
"Sunset" is a beautiful, moumful evening song with
its muted sense of longing (II,l8), whereas "Firenze"
is an enthusiastic homage to this "flowering" city of
the South (II,l9).
Else Brems worked primarily with three pianists For
her d6but she was accompaniedby the outstanding Carl
Nielsen interpreter, Christian Christiansen, and later on
she had either Folmer Jensen, regular accompanist in
Radio Denmrk, at the pimo, or Kjell Olsson, the highly
esteemed accompanist of many great, foreign singers.
Kjell OIsson accompanied her al concens. radio transmissions,
and gramophone recordings.