Little Suite in A Minor

For his official debut as a composer, the 22-year-old Nielsen chose not to startle the world with something grand and ambitious, but to charm it with a work that initially seems modest yet turns out to be highly individual. On the surface, Little Suite (1888) resembles the exquisite, cosily melancholic, seductively tuneful orchestral miniatures of Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. Nielsen later claimed that the three movements were inspired by Ancient Greek imagery, but the atmosphere and expressive light and shade are unmistakably Nordic. But there’s also something edgy, less salon-refined about this music, as can be heard in the assertive climax of the “Praeludium”, in the surprising melodic and harmonic twists and turns of the waltz-like “Intermezzo”, and in the “Finale”’s sudden plunge from sombre brooding to dancing elation. Nielsen’s own bracingly natural voice can be heard quite distinctly, however much he may try to mind his manners. No wonder it divided the critics. Audiences, however, loved it, and they still do.