How did you get involved with Herman D. Koppel's music?

Back in 2008, Herman D. Koppel would have turned 100 and I thought it would be interesting to celebrate him with a series of lied concerts. I realised that there was a very large corpus of songs that had only been partially published, and that it was in fact one of the most important Danish contributions to the genre, both in quantity, but also in quality and diversity. Once I had started working with the songs, I discovered the piano works and that there was a similar corpus of works that not many people know or play, for some of the same reasons.

I came up with the idea because I have an interest in Danish music of that time, especially from the mid-20th century. I think it's important to document it, but also to draw attention to the fact that it's an important piece of Danish music history, which I think we sometimes tend to forget. And the last, more personal, reason why I've thrown myself into it is that I knew him in my childhood because he and my father (composer Svend Westergaard, ed.) were very dear friends. So he's always been there in some sense.

What kind of figure was Herman D. Koppel in Danish musical life?

He is an interesting figure because he is both a phenomenon and the patriarch of a whole dynasty of interesting musicians and cultural figures, and because he was both a composer and a pianist – a double practice. It's a relic of a bygone era and practice where you were always performing even though you were creating. There was a generation of exciting Danish composers with Koppel and Niels Viggo Bentzon, who were the last of their kind, but I could imagine that they might actually be forgotten for that reason, because who should we remember Herman D. Koppel as? Is it for the whole myth of the Koppel family, is it as a pianist, or is it as a composer or as everything? For that reason, the story about him is perhaps not so clear.

Why have we been missing this kind of series or collection?

His piano works and songs were largely written for his own use and, in the case of the songs, often together with his daughter Lone Koppel. With a few exceptions, this music has primarily been handed down in his own recordings, which is a fantastic historical document and an incredibly valuable source. But it is also very authoritative and has perhaps prevented others from recording it.  

His way of being a musician is rooted in the time he lived in, so it's anti-romantic and objective. But sometimes I feel that there is something else to be found in, for example, the great piano works for whoever might pick it up and that there is a layer of interpretation that is not there when the composer himself is playing. Of course, I want to present my take, but I also really want to set it free so that others can discover it and leave their mark on it.

Why did you choose to collect the piano works and songs in the same series?

It is not the first time that I have completed this kind of collection (e.g. with Peter Heise: The Song Edition, ed.) and it will not be the last! I think that as long as this kind of collection does not exist and you are dealing with key figures, it is essential that someone does it.

I wanted to put the piano works and the songs together because I thought the two illuminate each other in some interesting ways. Both because there is the pillar called Koppel the performer and pianist on the one hand and Koppel the composer on the other, and because the works range from some of his first compositions in the late 1920s to some of his last, which were largely for pedagogical use and for his many grandchildren. So there are some bridges in the series reaching from the earliest works in his youth up to old age, when he looks back.

In what ways are religion present in Koppel's music?

There is a duality in the way he wrote his own identity into the music.He said in several interviews that he was Jewish, but he was a Danish Jew. The two pillars, the Jewish culture and the Danish culture, accompany each other in different ways and meet throughout most of his creative life.

Specifically, he writes both religious, Jewish Old Testament songs and Danish secular songs, for example to poems by Poul la Cour from the post-war years and the collection Årstiderne (The Seasons) to Danish late Romantic and Symbolist poets. But he had a renewed interest in the Old Testament in the post-war years, when people had become completely familiar with what had happened during the war. In addition, he also had his own personal story, where he fled to Sweden during the war.

How can you tell that Koppel was a pianist himself?

You can feel all the music he had in his fingers. He also actively promoted the music of his fellow Danish composers of the same age; for example, he played one of Niels Viggo Bentzon's great sonatas during the years when he also wrote his own great sonata. You can also feel what he was interested in and that Carl Nielsen is very much present in the early works. Perhaps his version of the Nielsen idiom is even a little more pianistic because he was a pianist himself and Nielsen was not.

In addition, you can feel that he was a pianist himself, because it's difficult to play! You really have to practise. And he doesn't get easier to play in his old age, so I think he's always been in shape in some way.

Koppel composed music for more than 60 years. What development can you hear in the music?

As with most composers who live long enough, there are phases in Herman's music. There is an early phase where the inspirations are clear and noticeable, from Nielsen, Stravinsky, Bartók and Hindemith, for example. Even in his early works, he stands out as a confident craftsman, despite being a self-taught composer. 

Then there is an intermediate period where he develops a freer and more independent voice and becomes a little less self-conscious. I think he maintained an openness to the world throughout his life: He was interested in his sons' other musical discourses, in jazz music and Balinese gamelan music. So there is a kind of vitality and openness, for example in his 15 Miniatures, which I consider to be a major work, as well as in contemporary Danish piano music in general. There is a curiosity about them, where there is nothing to prove and where he does not need to manifest either his own position or talent.

His work as a composer culminates around the 1950-60s, when he writes major works, including seven symphonies, the oratorio Moses and the Piano Sonata Op. 50, which is probably his Eroica symphony. After that, he mainly wrote smaller works, including the 50 Short Piano Pieces, which he wrote for his many grandchildren. He was a very warm family man and was very good with children, which harmonises very well with his playful way of making music and composing in later years, in the childlike mind of old age.