II. Poco Allegretto

In 2006 selected the most popular Danish symphony, belonging to the Danish cultural heritage. The symphony was given the subtitle 'Det uudslukkelige' (The Inextinguishable) and was provided with an explanatory preface that was printed in the programme at the first performance. Nielsen sought to place his symphony between the poles of absolute music and programme music: 'Faced with a task like this: of giving abstract expression to life, where the other arts show their incapacity, are obliged to make detours, to make excerpts, to symbolize; there, for the first time, music is at home on its own Ur-field, in its right element simply because, just by being itself, it has solved its task'.