The Inextinguishable

‘The struggle, the wrestling, the generation and the wasting away go on today as yesterday, tomorrow as today, and everything returns. Music is life, and like it, inextinguishable.’

While the Great War ravaged Europe, Carl Nielsen responded with a Fourth Symphony whose thundering drums represent a struggle for the future of life itself. Béla Bartók, meanwhile, went back to the soil: you can practically taste the earth (and the paprika) in his fiery Dance Suite. It’s a long way from the Art Deco glitter of Walton’s Violin Concerto – but as Edward Gardner and James Ehnes know, it’s all driven by the same irresistible life-force.