Nielsen's Fourth

[Chris Newman]

Thanks Chris, one to look out for ... just got back to the computer after 'I'm Sorry I Havent a Clue' and the staggering announcement that R4 are reviving 'Round The Horne'. Not sure if I dare re-visit, in my memory it was hysterically funny, but I'm a bit worried about how it might sound now, fifty-odd years later. Let's see: Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden ... and I'm not sure either where to find Radio 4extra, or whatever its called.

I think the answer lies in the soil......

[umslopogaas]

Post 16, Chris, remind me: "The answer lies in the soil". A wonderful conflation of 'zoill' and 'oil'. That's a window on the past. Was it Arthur Fallowfield? Who must have been Kenneth Williams in one of his many disguises? Wonderful stuff.

[Chris Newman]

Kenneth Williams (as Arthur Fallowfield):Oi think the answer lies in the soil. Oi waz down in the orchard the other day with my wife when she grabbed my nuts. Well! Oi was flabberghasted. My flabber's never been so ghasted...

Kenneth Horne: ....Yes, well? Thankyou, Arthur, for that tantalizing titbit.

Or things like that. Gosh! that was the early sixties. Mrs Mary Whitehouse did not complain because she could not understand the jokes. When people complained to the Director General (Sir Hugh Carlton-Greene) he binned the complaints because he loved the programme. Our Art Teacher's wife would not allow the radio on before Sunday lunch so poor Mr Hull could not listen. We had art lessons first thing on Monday morning. Most of the class had memorised it and we told him the best bits during the lesson.

[Tevot]

Hello there - or should that be "how bona to vada your dolly eek" ?

Re # 15. You might find this link helpful:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m1d2k/Round_The_Horne_Series_3_Episode_8/

Heaven knows what Carl Nielsen would have made of it.

I first heard the Inextinguishable in karajan's lp recording on DG. (This was the second Nielsen symphony that I'd heard - the first being Paavo Berglund's 1970s recording of the 5th Symphony)

I have Blomstedt's SFSO recording of both the 4th and 5th Symphonies on CD: - which I'd warmly recommend.

Best wishes

Tevot

[PJPJ]

.......(This was the second Nielsen symphony that I'd heard - the first being Paavo Berglund's 1970s recording of the 5th Symphony)

That's a recording thoroughly deserving reissue.

[gurnemanz]

As a newcomer to Nielsen's symphonies (I knew the Violin Concerto from a Vengerov recording coupled with Sibelius) I was interested to read the comments here. I decided to get to know them via the bargain Brilliant set with Theodore Kuchar. It had received excellent reviews and I have relished working my way through them.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//92885.htm

Admittedly, there are not so many laughs as in Round the Horne.

[Colonel Danby]

I do have some Thomas Jensen, but Symphonies 1 & 5 on an old Decca Eclipse issue, not No4 unfortunately. On CD, I've Neeme Järvi's "Inextinguishable" coupled with No 6 on Bis, which is very good.

[HighlandDougie]

I now feel a bit like a BAL contributor as I have spent a happy morning in a very wet Maritime Alps by listening to as many of the suggested recordings as I could track down online (or on my shelves). While I won't be getting rid of Schmidt, Dausgaard, Bernstein or Blomstedt Mk 2, the Schønwandt has now been downloaded. Excellent performance in very good sound and a bargain at Naxos prices. Verging on the obsessive, I've also ordered an admittedly second-hand (but very cheap) copy of Schønwandt's DVD remake of the complete set. I had forgotten about the Markevich (which I have somewhere on a Heliodor LP) and never greatly cared for the Martinon - well-played but a bit slick. I will try and track down a copy of the Mehta (his Decca recordings of that period are usually excellent). I also have the Rattle somewhere (the first time I saw him in the flesh was when he conducted it with, I think, the Hallé or maybe it was his debut with the CBSO??) but don't think that it shows him at his best. While none of them quite get the hairs on the back of my neck standing up like Grøndahl, Davis (as it's SACD) and now Schønwandt would be my choice, with Bernstein running it a close second. It's a pity that Da Capo hadn't yet discovered SACD and that Dausgaard was still feeling his way a bit through the music when they recorded his cycle as their SACD of various bits and pieces of Nielsen conducted by him is in every way outstanding (his SACD of Rued Langgard's rather strange but very compulsive Music of the Spheres is another out and out winner). An SACD of 4 & 5 with Dausgaard conducting the Danish RSO - I can but dream.

[Mahlerei]

HD

Has anyone mentioned Saraste's Nielsen 4 on Finlandia? Listening to it now.

As for Music of the Spheres, I couldn't agree more.

If you like music from Finland do try Kalevi Aho (if you haven't already).

[PJPJ]

It's a pity that Da Capo hadn't yet discovered SACD and that Dausgaard was still feeling his way a bit through the music when they recorded his cycle as their SACD of various bits and pieces of Nielsen conducted by him is in every way outstanding (his SACD of Rued Langgard's rather strange but very compulsive Music of the Spheres is another out and out winner). An SACD of 4 & 5 with Dausgaard conducting the Danish RSO - I can but dream.

DaCapo will release SACDs of Gilbert and the NYPO in the complete Nielsen cycle fairly soon -

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/news-nielsen-project--new-york-philharmonic--carl-nielsen--alan-gilbert.aspx

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks PJPJ - that's something greatly to look forward to. And, Mahlerei, I shall investigate Saraste - a conductor whom I've liked a lot when I've heard him live. Sibelius apart, I don't know much Finnish music apart from Sallinen and Rautavaara so Aho is another composer to explore - one of the great joys of this Board is discovering new names, either as composers or performers