Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was born on the island of Funen in eastern Denmark, in a peasant community that was also the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. At fourteen, he played in a military band in Odense. A decade later, he joined the violin section of the Royal Theatre Orchestra in Copenhagen and, in 1890, won a scholarship to study in Dresden and Berlin, where he was influenced by the music of Wagner and Brahms. His First Symphony was premiered by the Royal Theatre Orchestra in 1894, solidifying his career as a composer.
The rest of his life was devoted to composition, with a lesser focus on conducting. His compositional output is dominated by his six symphonies, which have an improvisational character similar to Sibelius and have won increasing popularity in recent years. Nielsen suffered a serious heart attack in 1925 which slowed his creative pace, but he continued composing until his death in 1931.
After the premiere of his Wind Quintet (1922), Nielsen decided to write a concerto for each member of the quintet, but only completed concerti for flute and clarinet before his death. The Clarinet Concerto, written for the quintet’s clarinetist Aage Oxenvad shows a rather unusual side of Nielsen, reminiscent of the angular modernism of Stravinsky, with a solo clarinet part that demands a faultless technique. Completed August 15, 1928, it was first heard in a private concert at the summer home of Carl Johan Michaelsen, in Humlebaek, on September 14, with Oxenvaad as soloist and Emil Telmányi conducting. The same performers gave the premiere in Copenhagen on October 11 of that same year, when it met with a decidedly mixed reception. Since that time, it has gained much wider acceptance.
The Clarinet Concerto was conceived during the most difficult period in Nielsen's life, which might reflect in a constant conflict between two tonalities—F Major and E Major. Every time hostilities seem to be at an end, a snare drum incites the combatants to renewed conflict. Another explanation for this is that Oxenvad had a bi-polar disorder, so Nielsen might have been poking fun at his constant mood swings.