album preview

With these two symphonies Herman D. Koppel liberated himself from the heritage of Carl Nielsen, who had been his teacher and his idol both as a composer and as a human being. During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, the Jewish Herman D. Koppel and his family had to flee to Sweden, where they met a childhood friend of Koppel who had become a baroness. In her house Koppel could compose in peace and quiet. He dedicated his Third Symphony to her, but in spite of the safe surroundings, Koppel's experience of the war, and of the execution of his Polish-Jewish family in German concentration camps, had a profound impact on his works from this period. The Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and conductor Moshe Atzmon have won international acclaim for Vols. 1 and 2 in this series, and Dacapo Records is proud to present them in another great performance of one of the most important Danish composers of the twentieth century.