Review

Carl Nielsen
Five Pieces:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer


Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Piano score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Bass/Contrabass Trombone - with piano

Five Pieces, Op. 3 was the first collection of piano music by Carl Nielsen ever published in 1891. In the process of arranging the work for tuba (or bass trombone) solo with piano, Ralph Sauer extracted the melodic line and placed it in the solo part, with occasional transpositions of an octave when appropriate. The set of pieces has a performance time of approximately nine minutes, although individual or selected movements could be performed separately if time is an issue.

The opening slow movement (“Folktune”) consists of a relatively simple melody, presenting the soloist with a good opportunity to showcase their expressiveness. This is followed by the faster second movement (“Humoresque”) which presents challenges both with slide technique and contrasting articulations. Perhaps due to the length of this movement, Mr. Sauer decided to leave some measures of the original piano solo unchanged, giving the soloist a few bars of rest. The third movement (“Arabesque”) is the most challenging if performed on bass trombone. While slow in tempo, the melody consists of thirty-second note chromatic “turns” along with longer thirty-second note passages that require excellent coordination. The melody of the moderately fast fourth movement (“Mignon”) contains several lengthy triplet passages in the key of E-flat minor while the final movement (“Elf’s Dance”) may be the most melodically interesting. There are a few measures in the final movement that Mr. Sauer transposed down an octave for the benefit of the soloist. A confident performer may want to try those measures an octave higher, simply to see if that would be a viable option.

Aside from the technical challenges described above, Carl Nielsen’s Five Pieces, Op. 3 should not appear particularly demanding to an experienced bass trombonist (the melodic range of C double sharp to c1). The piece would be well suited for a recital dedicated to Scandinavian composers or even as a unique addition to a traditional program. As always, it is highly recommended that soloists listen to recordings of the original version of the piece when preparing for a performance.