Louis Glass

Born in the Copenhagen area into a musical family, Louis Christian August Glass studied with Niels W. Gade and then in Brussels, where the music of César Franck reached him; Bruckner also influenced his writing. He worked as a concert pianist, cellist and chamber musician, and was also active in composition, teaching, conducting and the organisation of musical life. Six symphonies stand at the centre of the output, including the Third, known as the Forest Symphony, and the late Fifth and Sixth. His chamber music includes four string quartets, a string sextet, a piano trio, a piano quintet and instrumental sonatas. The symphonies have been recorded complete. An arm ailment ended his work as a concert pianist, but he continued to conduct. He directed the conservatory founded by his father C. H. Glass and conducted the Danish Concert Society (Dansk Koncert-Forening) from 1915 to 1918, and an immersion in theosophy lies behind the ballet Artemis and much of the late writing. Sources differ on the dates of the symphonies: the Danish Composers' Society lists the First as 1894 and the Sixth as 1924, while the Sofia Philharmonic biography gives the span 1893–1926. The Plovdiv Philharmonic under Nayden Todorov recorded the six symphonies for Danacord, together with the Fantasia for piano and orchestra with Romeo Smilkov.