Carl Nielsen Symphonies

[jayne lee wilson]

Thanks chaps. a bit more out there than I'd realised.

Highlanddougie's summary of the latest activities is most interesting

Yes - re HD's summary I've just started to catch up on the Oramo/Stockholm/BIS cycle. I thought No.1 was really thrilling, especially in big moments like the finale recap - wonderful! A really dense, weighty orchestral sound - not the most transparent but did I care? And a real HD treat as 24/96 WAVE files... this morning I noticed eclassical offering 4&5 at 30% off, so... backlog building up a bit and I'm scarcely over a Sibelius obsession (main revelation - Berglund/COE - OT, sorry)! Where DOES the time go?

BTW HD - 2 and 6 are already out in Japan as an SACD, so release here must be imminent (and another big discount too if you act fast). Love the abstract cover art in this series too.

***
David Patrick Stearns did the Collection feature on the Espansiva for the Gramo this month, and made the Gilbert his top choice. Having deleted it from the drive in deep discontent, I copied it back at 24/192... but still find it deeply average...
His favourites otherwise were Jarvi ("Vocal Choice"), Bernstein ("Extreme Choice") - I'm not fond of either - and... Serov/Odense. If you've read Layton's original review of the latter (11/95 - hardly positive), you might wonder why!

But some of DPS's phrases - "with Gilbert, the Symphony's dinner-table conversation of the 1st movement is more polite" (!?)**, "paragraphs built with a more strategically coloured dramatic arc" ... really made me wonder about him. Metaphor in music journalism (or almost any writing really) is hopeless if all it does is draw attention to itself or has no clear image...

(**Nielsen's 3rd as tafelmusik might not do much for your digestion..).

[HighlandDougie]

BTW HD - 2 and 6 are already out in Japan as an SACD, so release here must be imminent (and another big discount too if you act fast).

Tracked it down on Tower Records Japan, which, fortunately for my bank balance, doesn't ship outside the country so I'll just have to contain myself until e-classical offers it.

On Schønwandt, I heartily endorse Beefy's recommendation of the DVD cycle. Maybe because they are live recordings in front of an audience but I found them to be rather more engaged as performances than his earlier CD cycle, which can be a bit staid and just a bit dull (e.g. the Espansiva). The 'Carl Nielsen The Masterworks Volume 1' box from Da Capo, which contains both CD and DVD cycles (and Thomas Dausgaard's superb SACD of orchestral pieces), turns up cheaply from time to time on Amazon Marketplace.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just played the Oramo/Stockholm 3rd - another wonderful performance! There's a lovely springy momentum to the playing, the rhythms really dancing but never rushed or overdriven, and Oramo allows those pools of lyrical calm plenty of space too, letting the strangeness of Nielsen's quirky little woodwind interludes come through with colour and character. A great album, with No.1 one of the best I've heard.

Can't wait for the 2/6 coupling... if temptation's your thing HD, you can get the SACD at HMV Japan right now ...
I'll just wait for Robert von Bahr to offer the 24/96 in the usual generous way.. his note accompanying the 1/3 release said "this is how I want to hear Nielsen now".

[BBMmk2]

JLW, Stockholm PO/Oramo on BIS? I'll have to have a look at that!

[Barbirollians]

I found that Gramophone Collection pretty odd - I cannot understand the revisionism about the Blomstedt SFSO recordings . The Third strikes me as outstanding today as when I first heard it - it remains an outstanding set !

[Tevot]

I found that Gramophone Collection pretty odd - I cannot understand the revisionism about the Blomstedt SFSO recordings . The Third strikes me as outstanding today as when I first heard it - it remains an outstanding set !

Hear Hear ...

I'm sure someone has already put a good word in ... but if not... I'd advocate the Myung Whun Chung recording of Nielsen 3 done way back in yesteryear on BIS... Really liked it

[HighlandDougie]

BTW HD - 2 and 6 are already out in Japan as an SACD, so release here must be imminent (and another big discount too if you act fast).

Today's bargain download offer from e-classical.com:

http://www.eclassical.com/labels/bis/nielsen-symphonies-nos-2-and-6-1.html

with the 4th and 5th also available:

http://www.eclassical.com/labels/bis/nielsen-symphonies-nos-4-and-5.html

They work out at about £7.00 - £7.50 per album, which is good value for a 24 bit download. That's this afternoon's listening sorted.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just bought them this evening, HD but...

I'm just up to No.3 in the EMI-Japan Double Forte issue of Blomstedt's Danish RSO cycle - and I already have clear preference for it over the SFSO set. Wonderful sound and such idiomatic readings... More later I hope...

(It has to be said though, that EMI have curated this Danish set very well (it's available in three different, well-presented editions) whereas the SFSO cycle languishes unremastered on a pair of visually subfusc Double Deccas...)

[BBMmk2]

How does the Oramo/BIS cycle compare?

[Roehre]

..
I'm just up to No.3 in the EMI-Japan Double Forte issue of Blomstedt's Danish RSO cycle - and I already have clear preference for it over the SFSO set. Wonderful sound and such idiomatic readings... More later I hope...

(It has to be said though, that EMI have curated this Danish set very well (it's available in three different, well-presented editions) whereas the SFSO cycle languishes unremastered on a pair of visually subfusc Double Deccas...)

the original 8LP set (also including the concertos) introduced me to Nielsen in the late 1970s.
The finale of symphony 3 was quite a couple of days a real ear worm
Idiomatic these recordings certainly are.

[Barbirollians]

I was apprehensive about the Nielsen 5 from the same joint 1960 Halle/BBC Northern Concert as the Mahler 7 on BBC legends a few years back. I have always really enjoyed that Mahler 7 but wondered why it was coupled with Bruckner 9 and not this .

Who knows because this is stupendous albeit primitively recorded performance and the side drum playing is remarkable . Visceral thrilling and marvellous - now from the Barbirolli Society .

[richardfinegold]

I was apprehensive about the Nielsen 5 from the same joint 1960 Halle/BBC Northern Concert as the Mahler 7 on BBC legends a few years back. I have always really enjoyed that Mahler 7 but wondered why it was coupled with Bruckner 9 and not this .

Who knows because this is stupendous albeit primitively recorded performance and the side drum playing is remarkable . Visceral thrilling and marvellous - now from the Barbirolli Society .

What recordings are you referring to?

[Barbirollians]

What recordings are you referring to?

The clue is in the Barbirolli Society

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nielsen-Mahler-Symphonies-BBC-Northern/dp/B01CPQKXWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466664524&sr=8-1&keywords=nielsen+barbirolli

[Nimrod]

I was apprehensive about the Nielsen 5 from the same joint 1960 Halle/BBC Northern Concert as the Mahler 7 on BBC legends a few years back. I have always really enjoyed that Mahler 7 but wondered why it was coupled with Bruckner 9 and not this .

Who knows because this is stupendous albeit primitively recorded performance and the side drum playing is remarkable . Visceral thrilling and marvellous - now from the Barbirolli Society .

I too have acquired this pair of CD's and I agree with you Barbirollians, a stupendous performance of the Nielsen! Well done the Barbirolli Society!!