THE VERSATILE WEYSE
At a large-scale all-day festival, Concerto Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music will celebrate Weyse’s 250th anniversary. Through drama, storytelling, talks, and various concert formats featuring over 100 participants, the focus will be on the composer, his life, and his era .
This will be the largest tribute to date for a composer whom we know well in small doses, but whom we will now experience in all his breadth.
There is hardly a schoolchild in Denmark today who has not become acquainted with Weyse’s melodies. “Julen har bragt velsignet bud,” “I østen stiger solen op,” “Det er så yndigt,” and “Nu titte til hinanden” are songs that have become an integral part of Danish cultural heritage. Unfortunately, Weyse’s versatility as a composer is still overlooked today, as very few are familiar with his symphonies, singspiele, and cantatas. But in a major collaboration between Concerto Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Academy of Music, it is precisely this multifaceted composer who is being brought to the stage.
One composer – three different concerts
We will have the opportunity to experience Weyse in all his diversity and in various formats, appealing to children, young people, and adults alike. For this year’s celebration, we have carefully selected music from Weyse’s versatile body of work and organized it into three main concerts under the headings: The Church, The Salon, and The Theater. Weyse’s instrumental works, excerpts from cantatas and singspiele, hymns, songs, and his entire First Symphony are on the program as Concerto Copenhagen, under the direction of Lars Ulrik Mortensen, students from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the Academy’s children’s choir join forces for a full-day tribute to one of the most significant composers in Danish music history.
Schedule for the day:
1:00–2:15 PM: Concert – “Weyse and the Church”
2:30–3:15 PM:Discussion between Jens Hesselager, PhD and associate professor of musicology at the University of Copenhagen
, and director and playwright Johan Klint Sandberg
4:00–5:15 PM Concert – “Weyse and the Salon”
5:30–6:15 PM Book launch and reception hosted by Multivers Publishing to celebrate Jens
Hesselager’s new book on Weyse
7:00–8:15 PM Concert – “Weyse and the Theater”
In addition to three different concert formats, actors Emil Knutzon, Signe Thielsen, and Minna Flyvholm—directed by Johan Klint Sandberg—take you on a journey to discover the man behind the music we all know: Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse!
“I would like to tell the story of a young artist who believes so strongly in music as a form of human communication that he fails to notice the romantic future overtaking him. In many ways, the 1820s bear some resemblance to the 2020s, and MON to ask whether Weyse represents a rupture between the intellectual and the physical in a way that we can see reflected in today’s polarizing cultural debate.” -Johan Klint Sandberg
In true festival style, between concerts you can treat your taste buds to food from Ristet Rug’s food truck and enjoy cold refreshments at the open bar, which serves wine, beer, and water
We look forward to welcoming you to the concert hall at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. We strive to provide good accessibility, but due to specific preservation and structural constraints, there are certain limitations. Read more here.