Poster Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen
Wikipedia.org
Performance Today®

Temperamental Nielsen

How are your bodily fluids today? Too much black bile? Not enough phlegm? Ridiculous questions today, but in medieval times, people believed that there were four fluids that ruled our moods. Depending on the mix, you were choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, or sanguine. Carl Nielsen ran across four comical paintings based on these four temperaments, and based his Second Symphony on them. We'll hear it, from a concert by the San Francisco Symphony.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Carl Nielsen: Overture to Maskarade
The San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

George Gershwin: Prelude No. 2
Red Cedar Chamber Music
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 2, Op. 16 (The Four Temperaments)
The San Francisco Symphony, Alan Gilbert, conductor
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

Johann Sebastian Bach: Sleepers Awake
Joshua Smith, flute, Cynthia Phelps, viola
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul

Jean Marie LeClair: Sonata No. 6 for Two Violins
Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall, mandolins
Savannah Music Festival, Savannah, Georgia

Hour 2

Stephen Paulus: Playful, from Dramatic Suite
Mina Fisher, cello, and friends

Johann Sebastian Bach: Gavotte from Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830
Jeremy Denk, piano

Bedrich Smetana: Polka in A Minor, from Czech Dance Book I
Jeremy Denk, piano
Alice Tully Hall, New York City

Stephen Paulus: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
Lynn Harrell, cello, the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra, Donald Runnicles, conductor
Grand Teton Music Festival, Teton Village, Wyoming

Franz Schubert: Quartet Movement in C Minor, D. 703
The Shanghai Quartet
Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene, Oregon

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