The latter work, completed August 15, 1928, was first heard in a private concert at the summer home of Carl Johan Michaelsen, in Humlebaek, on September 14, with Oxenvad as soloist and Emil Telmányi conducting.
He was sixty-three, and had achieved considerable renown throughout Scandinavia; yet he was disappointed that his music had not reached a wider audience, he was deeply concerned with the unsettled state of the world, and he knew that his days were numbered.
The Concerto was performed for the first time on 14 September at a private concert in Carl Johan Michaelsen’s summer villa Højtofte, in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen.
Politiken wrote: “... he has liberated the soul of the clarinet, not only the wild animal aspect but also its special brand of ruthless poetry....
Oxenvad’s sonority is in tune with the trolls and the giants, and he has soul, a rough and stocky primordial force mixed with naive Danish mildness.
The final part is an energetic Allegro vivace, but a return to the Adagio brings the work to what Robert Simpson calls an ending of "calm severity," with the key of F major ultimately triumphant.
In addition to the solo clarinet, the only other instruments called for in the score are two bassoons, two horns, snare drum and strings.
The Clarinet Concerto was one of the three items chosen for the gala concert in Copenhagen celebrating the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen's birth.
Accompanied by Danmark Radio's Symphony Orchestra conducted by Juanjo Mena, the soloist was the Finnish clarinetist Olli Leppäniemi (born 1980).