Nielsen, Carl (1865-1931)

[Beef Oven!]

Jayne, I'm 200% with you about listening to newer recordings. But remember, we all listen to much more than we say on here.

I have found the Storgårds on iTunes and it's on my list for this week. I can't help feeling I'm being told off!!!!!!

[jayne lee wilson]

Jayne, I'm 200% with you about listening to newer recordings. But remember, we all listen to much more than we say on here.

I have found the Storgårds on iTunes and it's on my list for this week. I can't help feeling I'm being told off!!!!!!

I virtually stroke your troubled brow and pour you a virtual brandy....

[Beef Oven!]

I virtually stroke your troubled brow and pour you a virtual brandy....

Jayne, you can't go 'round stroking people's brows - not even virtually on the internet!

[kea]

For me the most essential recording of the 5th is Kondrashin/Concertgebouw but I don't imagine many people will agree...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7QvE9cKD54

[Barbirollians]

For me the most essential recording of the 5th is Kondrashin/Concertgebouw but I don't imagine many people will agree...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7QvE9cKD54

I don’t know that one - I suppose that although Ali admire his work I don’t feel the need to buy more Nielsen symphony recordings. I do buy new recordings indeed at the moment I am revelling in Shunske Sato’s superb new accounts of Bach Violin Concertos.

[jayne lee wilson]

STOP PRESS! The excellent & eminent Nielsonian DAVID FANNING in COLLECTION for GRAMOPHONE 2/2019 ON .....NIELSEN 5TH SYMPHONY......

Will report back after getting to grips.....

[Barbirollians]

STOP PRESS! The excellent & eminent Nielsonian DAVID FANNING in COLLECTION for GRAMOPHONE 2/2019 ON .....NIELSEN 5TH SYMPHONY......

Will report back after getting to grips.....

Not all that surprising a winner for him. Rather baffled that the live Barbirolli not even mentioned after Rob Cowan raves about it the other year even though it is in his list of recordings.

[BBMmk2]

Not all that surprising a winner for him. Rather baffled that the live Barbirolli not even mentioned after Rob Cowan raves about it the other year even though it is in his list of recordings.

Thanks for the thumbs up here.

[LeMartinPecheur]

On strength of latest Gramophone and BBC MM I've just ordered the Bernstein 5th and the Martinon 4th

[cloughie]

I don’t know that one - I suppose that although Ali admire his work I don’t feel the need to buy more Nielsen symphony recordings. I do buy new recordings indeed at the moment I am revelling in Shunske Sato’s superb new accounts of Bach Violin Concertos.

I seem to remember it was one of a few ‘live’ recordings released on Philips. Was it coupled with Sibelius 5?

[jayne lee wilson]

On strength of latest Gramophone and BBC MM I've just ordered the Bernstein 5th and the Martinon 4th

I was a bit sad that he put Bernstein on the pedestal ("sheer incandescence" etc., all too predictable...)... but I guess it really depends what you want, and perhaps how often you might listen to the Nielsen 5th...If you just want that huge impact, one-off, no further listens for a few weeks at least - maybe Bernstein could work. Still, it would be shame to restrict yourself to just that one...

But note his comments on Gilbert with the same orchestra; I find that performance much more fulfilling because of its many expressive subtleties and better, more spacious, recorded sound.
I think he undersells Storgårds badly too - as I said on this Nielsen Composers thread above (v.#20), I find his 5th (Part 2) wonderfully weighty, truculent and triumphant at that slightly slower tempo (I thought the same of a live R3 relay of his as well). Again, the excellent, hi-res sound doesn't hurt. And what a splendid final chord!

I may give Bernstein another try... but may not get far with it! Back in the 70s on LP, I found the BSO/Berglund offered me all the excitement I wanted, and a more humane, holistic view of the work.

But - holistically - it's just the old BaL trap of choosing the one, which distorts the picture... (and can push listeners away from many unfamiliar treats...). If you have a streaming service you'll find many newer sets available there.

I was disappointed on my return to the Martinon 4th recently - it has that virtuoso orchestra, it has great physical excitement yes, but as Layton often said back in the day, is far too stiffly, metrically conducted. There is more to the music than this, which very few conductors get at - but try Blomstedt in Denmark to see what I mean....

[jayne lee wilson]

For anyone without the Gramophone DJF's choices were:

THE SAFE CHOICE: SFSO/Blomstedt.
THE HISTORIC CHOICE: Danish RSO/Jensen.
THE 21ST CENTURY CHOICE: LSO/Davis.

....With aforesaid Bernstein as "Top Choice".....He didn't give much credit to many others (seems as fussy as I am about his Nielsen...) but did award some kudos to the NYPO/Gilbert and the rather obscure Odense SO/Serov (commentating that the orchestra would be close to Nielsen's expectations...) a cycle I've long meant to seek out....had we but world enough and time etc.....RL found this genuinely idiomatic back in the day, but felt it was seriously let down by sonic irregularities...

I guess I'll have to give the Davis a proper "try to ignore the Barbican acoustic" listen as well.... (I started the c/w 4th recently and found the string tone so undistinguished I soon gave up...).

[LeMartinPecheur]

Still, it would be shame to restrict yourself to just that one...

Worry not Jayne: the Bernstein 5th joins the Horenstein, on an LP bought in the 70s, and the SFSO Blomstedt on CD. As for the 4th, I already have Schmidt (LP again), Blomstedt, and the Markevitch on a Danish LP that I raised a query about above. That should do me for a little while...

[jayne lee wilson]

***
LSO Live/Davis Nielsen 5th…. is simply magnificent, both naturally expressive and, in the finale, fierily ablaze. Yet still so unrhetoricised, speaking for itself, clear and pure.
I love the simplicity of expression he allows the adagio and the tranquillo, the swiftly flowing tempi, the surging triumphant breakthrough of the battle against destruction, the rising power and excitement as the great adventure reaches its conclusion; the final pages are as thrilling as any I’ve heard ( The sheer body of the LSO strings, a real engine room in Part Two - is physically exciting in itself), but never OTT or too brazen.

Which despite it being clearly the best (by far) of his Nielsen, the Bernstein still is, for me (and too espressivo-Romantic, unidiomatic, in those slow sections, especially the proto-Mahlerian tranquillo). The NYPO do play amazingly well on it though, I must say. Their flow through Part One is magnificently sustained, although the climax isn’t ideally dynamic - the brass don’t come through enough at the peak (but I tend to think this about most Nielsen 5ths…)…
But the sheer speed of Part Two means that focus and articulation do suffer - in the initial allegro and approaching the close - and there isn’t much subtlety (of colour or mood) through the faster fugues. It feels all about frantic, hell-for-leather energy, and there is more to this music.

But I enjoyed this cleaner-sounding Bernstein Symphony Edition version more than I expected, and it has a noble place in the history of the work.
The LSO/Davis though, offers all the visceral thrills of the Bernstein, but in a more humane, idiomatic and subtle reading - and despite the Barbican, better sound.
(And, Barbican ears-adjusted... c/w a very exciting, brilliantly-played 4th…a sort-of Martinon double plus...)

Straight into my top 5 for the LSO Live!

(Next up... Odense SO/Serov...very intriguing...)

[BBMmk2]

JLW, that’s my feelings entirely with the Sir Colin recording. I’ll have to hear this again. I’m listening to at the moment, the Symphonies of Bax and Sibelius.