Ensemble Concerto Copenhagen and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen, the leading Nordic performers of early music, join forces with the Danish National Vocal Ensemble on the new vinyl release of the Romantic masterpiece Elverskud – or Erlkönigs Tochter, as the German title sounds. The soloists on the LP are soprano Sophie Junker, alto Ivonne Fuchs and baritone Johannes Weisser, and together they perform the canonized choir work in Niels W. Gade's own revised version, which has appeared at The Royal Danish Library after being forgotten since the death of Gade.

Danish national work in German?

Elverskud (Erlkönigs Tochter / The Elf-King’s Daughter) is a dramatic cantata from 1854, based on Danish medieval ballads and is one of the most famous and loved Danish works. Elverskud became one of Niels W. Gade’s greatest successes, not only in his native Denmark, but throughout Europe, where the work was performed several hundred times, often conducted by Gade himself. Gade was especially admired in Germany, and on this album Elverskud is sung for the first time with the German text that brought the work international fame. 

Original instruments

On the LP Elverskud is recorded on period instruments for the first time. Gade continuosly made changes in the score for Elverskud throughout his life, but for unknown reasons these changes were never added to the printed scores, why they've been forgotten since Gade's death. Now the score has appeared in the Royal Danish Library, and the version Gade ended up with is quite different from the Elverskud we've known so far, which can be heard on the release.