BaL 6.06.15 - Nielsen: Symphony no. 3

[umslopogaas]

Many thanks Richard, I'll get the CD shop on the case tomorrow.

[Bryn]

I think the most recent re-issue of the Bernstein recordings of the Nielsen 3 and 5 was in the 60 CD Symphony Edition released in December 2010 in the UK. It's available from Amazon, but not at the bargain basement price it was a couple of years ago.:

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Bryn, it seems a bit indulgent to buy 60 CDs to get one, but the rest look interesting too, so I might indulge.

[pastoralguy]

Many years ago, I spent gone entire summer simply listening to the many versions of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony. There were, for me, two clear outstanding versions.
Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic and Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Superb conductor.

[Bryn]

Thanks Bryn, it seems a bit indulgent to buy 60 CDs to get one, but the rest look interesting too, so I might indulge.

The packaging is pretty horrendous. It's a 12" by 12" LP sized box with the inside poorly divided into 4 sections, each holding 15 card-sleeved CDs. However, QOBUZ also have it in lossless download formats, replete with downloadable booklet notes, for €91.49:

http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/the-symphony-edition-60-cd-leonard-bernstein/0088697683652

[jayne lee wilson]

For once I do have a clear favourite - Royal Stockholm PO/Oramo, the latest issue of all. It has all the power you could want in passages like the crazy waltz episode in the 1st movement (best I've ever heard), but an expressive subtlety, a light and shade of sound and phrase that is exceptionally fresh and idiomatic. The finale is wonderfully crisp and upbeat.
Having revisited it often, I've also grown fonder of the NYPO/Gilbert too. Perhaps just a bit too "thoughtfully lingering" here and there, but with far greater subtlety than Bernstein's pioneering classic with the Royal Danish Orchestra nearly 5 decades before. Yes, the Bernstein is great in its way, but I find it just too overbearing now, almost bludgeoning in the 1st and 3rd movements especially. It can inspire devotion, but if you love the piece you need to hear one of the latest issues mentioned above, which also benefit greatly from hi-res sound in their 24-bit download guise. They're both very transparent, natural and spacious, allowing that essential Nielsonian naturlaut, lightness & danceability to dwell alongside all the power and energy.

I've always had a problem with Blomstedt's SFSO readings. Earlier this year I lived for a few weeks with the DRSO set, on the Japanese EMI Forte edition (no obvious evidence of remastering, but great sound anyway...).
Every time I compared the Espansiva I had a strong preference for the DRSO one - more spacious and atmospheric, greater warmth and affection in performance and sound (very obvious at the start of the slow movement). But still with stunning brilliance and power in the brassy climaxes! More open and fulfilling than in San Francisco. This was true of almost the whole set, but especially of 1-3 and 6. The SFSO readings always sound a bit too sleek and clinical, albeit the orchestra is more disciplined in 4 and 5, their best efforts.

So much to say so little time..., but I do think recordings like Bernstein and SFSO/Blomstedt have become wrongly sacrosanct, probably because of earlier appraisal when the music was less familiar, and competition so thin... (Most of the Gramophone reviews of the SFSO pre-dated the remastered DRSO cycle, the late 1990s EMI Forte).

(Good discussion of the 3rd here by Andrew Mellor - http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the...nnial-symphony) (but pre-Oramo or Gilbert!)

And here's Dan Morgan (mahlerei) on Oramo...

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Mar/Nielsen_sys13_BIS2048.htm

[CallMePaul]

I hear that The John Storgards version/cycle, is rather good. Anyone else know?

I'm going to hear this (plus some vocal Mahler) at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester next month, so I'll know better then. I understand that release on CD is imminent but that it's not yet in the shops.

[Dave2002]

I recently discovered Giordano Bellincampi on a Danish EMI label. Definitely worth investigating IMO. Despite an Italian sounding name, he is Danish.

[Roehre]

I recently discovered Giordano Bellincampi on a Danish EMI label. Definitely worth investigating IMO. Despite an Italian sounding name, he is Danish.

Barbirolli doesn't sound English, either, does it

[Beef Oven!]

Barbirolli doesn't sound English, either, does it

Whereas Enzo Maccarinelli and Joe Calzaghe are indisputably Welsh sounding.

[richardfinegold]

For once I do have a clear favourite - Royal Stockholm PO/Oramo, the latest issue of all. It has all the power you could want in passages like the crazy waltz episode in the 1st movement (best I've ever heard), but an expressive subtlety, a light and shade of sound and phrase that is exceptionally fresh and idiomatic. The finale is wonderfully crisp and upbeat.
Having revisited it often, I've also grown fonder of the NYPO/Gilbert too. Perhaps just a bit too "thoughtfully lingering" here and there, but with far greater subtlety than Bernstein's pioneering classic with the Royal Danish Orchestra nearly 5 decades before. Yes, the Bernstein is great in its way, but I find it just too overbearing now, almost bludgeoning in the 1st and 3rd movements especially. It can inspire devotion, but if you love the piece you need to hear one of the latest issues mentioned above, which also benefit greatly from hi-res sound in their 24-bit download guise. They're both very transparent, natural and spacious, allowing that essential Nielsonian naturlaut, lightness & danceability to dwell alongside all the power and energy.

I've always had a problem with Blomstedt's SFSO readings. Earlier this year I lived for a few weeks with the DRSO set, on the Japanese EMI Forte edition (no obvious evidence of remastering, but great sound anyway...).
Every time I compared the Espansiva I had a strong preference for the DRSO one - more spacious and atmospheric, greater warmth and affection in performance and sound (very obvious at the start of the slow movement). But still with stunning brilliance and power in the brassy climaxes! More open and fulfilling than in San Francisco. This was true of almost the whole set, but especially of 1-3 and 6. The SFSO readings always sound a bit too sleek and clinical, albeit the orchestra is more disciplined in 4 and 5, their best efforts.

So much to say so little time..., but I do think recordings like Bernstein and SFSO/Blomstedt have become wrongly sacrosanct, probably because of earlier appraisal when the music was less familiar, and competition so thin... (Most of the Gramophone reviews of the SFSO pre-dated the remastered DRSO cycle, the late 1990s EMI Forte).

(Good discussion of the 3rd here by Andrew Mellor - http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the...nnial-symphony) (but pre-Oramo or Gilbert!)

And here's Dan Morgan (mahlerei) on Oramo...
http://www.musicweb-international.co...13_BIS2048.htm

Interesting. I reach a completely opposite conclusion about the 2 Blomstedt versions. I learned the music through the Danish recording, but think the SFSO outclasses it in Orchestral muscle, pacing (particularly in IV), and the Soloists, who simply sound more bardic to my ears.
Gilbert is ok if Uninvolving. My prefered High Res is Dausgaard's on Blu Ray, but you do make the Oramo enticing.
After listening to the Bernstein today I find that I enjoy his 5th more than his 3rd, but I wouldn't want to be without it.

[reinerfan]

I believe that the Tuxen and Frandsen versions are still available, the latter being one of my favourites as it was the first version that I heard on an old Philips 10" LP, but now very well transferred to CD. On the other hand, the Tuxen is the most convincing version that I have heard, although the new Oramo comes close.

[richardfinegold]

I just listened to the Horenstein on youtube. He does some wonderful things with instrumental balances, particularly with the winds, reminding me of Nielsen's Serenade. Unfortunately the ensemble is tentative and comes apart during the very last bars , ruing the final climax.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Barbirolli doesn't sound English, either, does it

'Sir John' does, a bit...

[Bryn]

'Sir John' does, a bit...

And Glorious John even more so.