The Nielsen Nexus

[Madiel]

I can't offer favourites, properly knowing one version of each...

The Da Capo box (Schønwandt plus Dausgaard for other orchestral works) has some interesting little essays about each symphony. Listening to the 6th again having just read the relevant essay (which includes a pretty detailed quote about the Humoreske movement), I think the key to the symphony is that there's something deliberately childlike about much of it. The way Nielsen describes it, with instruments needing to be "woken up", sounds almost like a collection of toys.

Certainly it feels like it's making more sense to me on this listen with that vibe in mind. The end of the 3rd movement, which I just heard, feels like a lullaby.

[Mirror Image]

1: (no definite favourite)
2: Gould, Chung- a fine, contrasting pair
3: Bernstein, Chung - ditto
4: (no definite favourite). Mela is very good, but not on CD or LP. Maybe Blomstedt / decca. Martinon interesting, but a bit too quick at times. Not Karajan.
5: Bernstein rules ...
6: (no definite favourite)

Don't you mean (Zubin) Mehta? Who is Mela? And what do you mean by not on CD or LP?

[prémont]

I think I'll keep away from GMG because I don't like being here at the moment. This is not a friendly place. Sorry.

That is a pity, I think. Even if I find your neural block theory a bit far out, you have so much else to contribute with, which I would miss. And the majority of posters here are essentially friendly people.

[Turner]

Don't you mean (Zubin) Mehta? Who is Mela? And what do you mean by not on CD or LP?

Sorry I should have written Mena, a new name to me. Not Mehta!

[Mirror Image]

Sorry I should have written Mena, a new name to me. Not Mehta!

Ah okay. Of course, Mehta's Inextinguishable isn't bad either.

[Mirror Image]

I can't offer favourites, properly knowing one version of each...

The Da Capo box (Schønwandt plus Dausgaard for other orchestral works) has some interesting little essays about each symphony. Listening to the 6th again having just read the relevant essay (which includes a pretty detailed quote about the Humoreske movement), I think the key to the symphony is that there's something deliberately childlike about much of it. The way Nielsen describes it, with instruments needing to be "woken up", sounds almost like a collection of toys.

Certainly it feels like it's making more sense to me on this listen with that vibe in mind. The end of the 3rd movement, which I just heard, feels like a lullaby.

Good to hear you're making progress on the Sinfonia semplice. Such a magical work.

[Sergeant Rock]

1 - Oramo, Kuchar, Previn
2 - Kuchar, Blomstedt
3 - Kuchar (incomparable brass detail), Bernstein, Schmidt, Rozhdestvensky, Oramo
4 - Salonen, Schmidt, Martinon
5 - Bernstein
6 - Ormandy, Blomstedt, Schmidt

[71 dB]

That is a pity, I think. Even if I find your neural block theory a bit far out, you have so much else to contribute with, which I would miss. And the majority of posters here are essentially friendly people.

Thanks for the friendly worlds. I try to calm down. I want to be friedly too. Far out theories are "my thing" so I product them almost without realising it. I never claimed my theory to be perfect and correct. It is a "starting point" to be rejected/corrected if better theories emerge. Einstein's ideas of relativity were pretty "far out" before people realised Einstein was actually right. Then again, Einstein was a genius and I am not. 

[Mirror Image]

1 - Oramo, Kuchar, Previn
2 - Kuchar, Blomstedt
3 - Kuchar (incomparable brass detail), Bernstein, Schmidt, Rozhdestvensky, Oramo
4 - Salonen, Schmidt, Martinon
5 - Bernstein
6 - Ormandy, Blomstedt, Schmidt

Interesting list. I'll have to revisit Kuchar's cycle.

[TheGSMoeller]

1 - Oramo, Kuchar, Previn
2 - Kuchar, Blomstedt
3 - Kuchar (incomparable brass detail), Bernstein, Schmidt, Rozhdestvensky, Oramo
4 - Salonen, Schmidt, Martinon
5 - Bernstein
6 - Ormandy, Blomstedt, Schmidt

No Gilbert?

[Mirror Image]

No Gilbert?

Sarge isn't a fan of Gilbert's Nielsen cycle IIRC. No worries, I LOVE Gilbert's cycle and consider it, next to Oramo's, the most consistent I've heard.

[Sergeant Rock]

No Gilbert?

His Espansiva was a major disappointment (sonically, anyway) so I didn't bother to collect the rest of his cycle. I should give his Second another chance, though.

Sarge

[kishnevi]

His Espansiva was a major disappointment (sonically, anyway) so I didn't bother to collect the rest of his cycle. I should give his Second another chance, though.

Sarge

I too found Gilbert's symphonies to be lacking in...something. rather blah result.
BUT
The concertos CD which finished off his cycle is one of the best I have heard.
[asin]B00WF5R808[/asin]

[TheGSMoeller]

His Espansiva was a major disappointment (sonically, anyway) so I didn't bother to collect the rest of his cycle. I should give his Second another chance, though.

Sarge

Overall the cycle is good, to me at least, but I think the 2nd is the strength of the cycle. The third movement Andante malincolico is great, and the tempo for the finale is perfect, with the Horns ripping through their lines! Give it a try, Sarge.

[Sergeant Rock]

Overall the cycle is good, to me at least, but I think the 2nd is the strength of the cycle. The third movement Andante malincolico is great, and the tempo for the finale is perfect, with the Horns ripping through their lines! Give it a try, Sarge.

I will.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

The concertos CD which finished off his cycle is one of the best I have heard.

I'll give that a try too.

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

I too found Gilbert's symphonies to be lacking in...something. rather blah result.
BUT
The concertos CD which finished off his cycle is one of the best I have heard.
[asin]B00WF5R808[/asin]

That's interesting as this is the way I feel about almost every Nielsen cycle I've heard: Salonen, Rozhdestvensky, Thomson, both Järvi's, Schønwandt, Schmidt, and Blomstedt's first cycle on EMI. The only cycle that I've heard that I don't remember is Kuchar's on Brilliant Classics. I should remedy this rather soon. If Bernstein recorded the 1st and 6th, I'd be calling his my reference cycle I'd imagine.

[amw]

1 - Oramo
2 - Schønwandt
3 - Chung, Bernstein
4 - Blomstedt
5 - Blomstedt, Bernstein, Kondrashin
6 - Oramo, Schønwandt

[Parsifal]

1 - Oramo, Kuchar, Previn
2 - Kuchar, Blomstedt
3 - Kuchar (incomparable brass detail), Bernstein, Schmidt, Rozhdestvensky, Oramo
4 - Salonen, Schmidt, Martinon
5 - Bernstein
6 - Ormandy, Blomstedt, Schmidt

Oh dear, seems like I have to hear this Kuchar...

[71 dB]

The Blomstedt twofer arrived today. I am now listening to symphony 1. The recorded sound is not perhaps as good as on Leaper's cycle (in fact without crossfeeding it is abysmally bad as the spatial distortion is HUGE!). If there are any artistical advantages over Naxos, I need to figure them out with time. Blomstedt sounds calmer and more distant than Leaper. Blomstedt's Nielsen sounds more Brahmsian and less "Nordic".

These are my initial impressions and again I might have made a mistake believing someone on GMG. I should ALWAYS sample CDs myself before buying. This distance-thing takes so much away of the energy of the music.