Nielsen, Carl (1865-1931)

[BBMmk2]

Playing John Storgards cycle.

[Beef Oven!]

Playing John Storgards cycle.

Later on, make time for Elgar ............








.

[BBMmk2]

Indeed Beefy!

[jayne lee wilson]

I think this release was commented on somewhere here a while ago.... but I'll try it soon....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/nielsen-symphonies-nos-3-4-thomas-dausgaard-seattle-symphony-orchestra/0855404005171

(AM's review (G., 8/18) was a bit hum & ha...)

(haven't faced up to the Storgårds 5th yet, still dwelling upon that marvellous, ground-swelling, mould-breaking 6th, a Nielsen recording for all of the ages...it is uniquely wonderful...)

(Anyway Beef - where are the pictures of Nielsen & Chausson with their rides...?)

[jayne lee wilson]

Nielsen Symphony No.5. BBCPO/Storgårds. Chandos 24/96 Download. 2015 release..

Storgårds doesn’t miss a trick in the 5th - a marvellous, carefully-paced reading whose power and beauty surely makes it one of the very finest on record.
It is that beauty of sound - from the orchestra itself, and the spacious, transparent dynamically wide-ranging recording, that strikes the ear most. Storgårds doesn’t allow the side-drum to become too fierce during part one - until its onslaught upon the orchestra at the peak, whose power at the final surge clear of the battle is stupendous - overwhelming. And how impressively clear the musical strands remain through the teeming density of it all!

Characteristically Moderate tempi in Part Two, but with terrific weight and truculence to the rhythmic momentum. Compellingly demonic second fugue, with savage crescendi before the machine runs out of steam….
The tranquillo pure, then radiant; the orchestra sweeping back, an unstoppable wave, to carry us to a final chord of shining splendour.

So an excellent set overall - sometimes you wonder if the steadiness of pace makes too relaxed an impression, without enough tension or drama, but almost every time (with the partial exception of the 3rd), Storgårds wins you over with tonal beauty, definitional clarity, thunderous weight and momentum - and those huge, magnificent climaxes.
An engineering feat as well as a musical one!

[Alain Maréchal]

Bernstein's coupling of 3 and 5 .

Bernstein recorded 3 the day after a concert acknowledging the Sonning Prize. This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qCCU5EJM5s

was the concert performance, more or less the same as the recording, but with a tighter grip, and in every way a finer performance. Having an orchestra which knew the work intimately probably helped. I've never admired Bernstein, but this is very special, although I do not like the slow finale.

[jayne lee wilson]

So am I almost alone (BbmMK2 apart) as one who admires - or actually listens to - newer recordings....?

Some listeners seem determined to deprive themselves...

[cloughie]

So am I almost alone (BbmMK2 apart) as one who admires - or actually listens to - newer recordings....?

Some listeners seem determined to deprive themselves...

Maybe you are also depriving yourself of some of the other recordings, Jayne! I listen to old, new and many from in between and find good, bad and mediocre, tedious, interesting, ‘breaths of fresh air’...

[BBMmk2]

So am I almost alone (BbmMK2 apart) as one who admires - or actually listens to - newer recordings....?

Some listeners seem determined to deprive themselves...

Thank you Jayne.

[edashtav]

Maybe you are also depriving yourself of some of the other recordings, Jayne! I listen to old, new and many from in between and find good, bad and mediocre, tedious, interesting, ‘breaths of fresh air’...

Fools and Angels?
Festina lente?
Let the on-line chatter winnow the wheat?
Put your trust in KM?

[Beef Oven!]

So am I almost alone (BbmMK2 apart) as one who admires - or actually listens to - newer recordings....?

Some listeners seem determined to deprive themselves...

Because we've not posted or immediately gone with your enthusiasm? That would be one of them there non-sequiturs that we don't like 'round here.

[jayne lee wilson]

Because we've not posted or immediately gone with your enthusiasm? That would be one of them there non-sequiturs that we don't like 'round here.

There is nothing nobler than human curiosity....to seek out strange new worlds, to boldly listen where........

[cloughie]

There is nothing nobler than human curiosity....to seek out strange new worlds, to boldly listen where........

...and talking sh... with friends maybe in there too!

[Beef Oven!]

There is nothing nobler than human curiosity....to seek out strange new worlds, to boldly listen where........

I think we are at one on that!

[jayne lee wilson]

Maybe you are also depriving yourself of some of the other recordings, Jayne! I listen to old, new and many from in between and find good, bad and mediocre, tedious, interesting, ‘breaths of fresh air’...

There aren't many Nielsen Cycles I haven't heard at least something from.... I never heard any of Rozh's Stockholm one, but it isn't locatable via Qobuz for streaming and in an case reviewed rather poorly with RL et al back in the day....(if I can't find something to hear, I read those Gramophone archive reviews very closely....)

Nielsen wasn't well-served on disc for some time. I always felt that the SFSO/Blomstedt, played with such polished virtuosity and well-recorded though it was, maintained an extended pre-eminence through simple lack of competition. So when you have the 150th anniversary and so many new recordings (evidently born of great devotion to the works) it does seem a shame not to hear at least some of them, especially with streaming making it so much easier now.
The Oramo, Storgards, Gilbert and P-Jarvi Symphony Cycles have been around for a few years now, after all.... I simply feel that they changed our view of this marvellous music, of its musical and expressive range....

The Paavo Järvi set, for example, feels to me as a better, fresher more spontaneous sounding update of that previously sacrosanct SFSO/Blomstedt cycle...
When you first listen to Blomstedt's Danish one you think wow, this is great, the best! And No.2 is pretty hard to improve upon, it really has everything and that rare and precious, folk-based idiomatic sound and "movement" (the shaping of phrase & rhythm etc).... but doubts creep in as the music gets larger scale and more demanding in 3-5... clarity/intonation suffer a little, ensemble discipline makes you wince occasionally....
Classic EMI analogue sound though - textured warmth & immediacy, less coolly efficient than Decca at the Golden Gate.

Or you hear Morton Gould's rocket-fuelled CSO Four Temperaments and there's yet another stunningly unforgettable take.... the shockwaves lasted for days....

Oh, you know..... I just adore this music and want to spread the love, and I don't think going back over Bernstein (yet again, endlessly rereleased due to the big name selling power) quite achieves that.

BTW - I always felt that the NPO/Horenstein 5th - possibly the first LP of it I heard, borrowed maybe before the Berglund purchase - was the truest "early classic" rather than Lenny... do seek it out, you'll be well rewarded.