The Nielsen Nexus

Started by BachQ, April 12, 2007, 10:10:00 AM

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Madiel

Yeah. Um, Bostock is... not good.

I have the Naxos/Da Capo set (it's been issued on both labels) by Schønwandt, and I like it very much. As do quite a lot of other people, though I note that there are also people who aren't enthusiastic about it. If you want your Nielsen to be full throttle it won't appeal, whereas if you want more of a sense of shape and structure it's excellent in my view.
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Daverz

If we are talking symphony cycles again, I'll put in a word for Oramo, though it's on 3 separate discs and not cheap.

premont

Quote from: Madiel on April 15, 2021, 03:35:14 AM
Yeah. Um, Bostock is... not good.

I have the Naxos/Da Capo set (it's been issued on both labels) by Schønwandt, and I like it very much. As do quite a lot of other people, though I note that there are also people who aren't enthusiastic about it. If you want your Nielsen to be full throttle it won't appeal, whereas if you want more of a sense of shape and structure it's excellent in my view.

I suppose you would call Blomstedt/SFSO full throttle? This kind of super-efficient music making doesn't appeal to me. I don't think it matches Nielsens national style. Instead I prefer Oramo and Schønwandt and also Thomas Jensen. BTW I don't think Bostock is that bad, even if his interpretations lack some punch.
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Madiel

#1163
Quote from: (: premont :) on April 16, 2021, 08:39:24 AM
I suppose you would call Blomstedt/SFSO full throttle? This kind of super-efficient music making doesn't appeal to me. I don't think it matches Nielsens national style. Instead I prefer Oramo and Schønwandt and also Thomas Jensen. BTW I don't think Bostock is that bad, even if his interpretations lack some punch.

I don't know the Blomstedt that well, I only briefly sampled it and from that memory I think that yes, it's in that full throttle style. Certainly I remember reading an article where the author lamented the tendency to recommend the Blomstedt (one symphony in particular being described in the way that we're talking) and saying that Schønwandt was far more appropriate.

And from what I can remember I made comparisons using iTunes samples and could hear how some versions were just constant momentum, and Schønwandt had much better light and shade.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Madiel

I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

premont

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Mirror Image

Quote from: (: premont :) on April 16, 2021, 08:39:24 AM
I suppose you would call Blomstedt/SFSO full throttle? This kind of super-efficient music making doesn't appeal to me. I don't think it matches Nielsens national style. Instead I prefer Oramo and Schønwandt and also Thomas Jensen. BTW I don't think Bostock is that bad, even if his interpretations lack some punch.

To play the contrarian, I do believe Blomstedt gets Nielsen and he conducts this music magnificently. For me, Nielsen is a composer that needs forward momentum in the music. It's almost like trying to capture a lightning bolt in a jar --- it won't happen, but I love the conductors who really 'go for it'. Bernstein was another that understood the composer, IMHO. His performances of the 3rd and 5th symphonies are revelatory or, at least, they were for me. His 3rd is especially momentous in that he conducted the Royal Danish Orchestra on their home turf. Basically, he showed up and said, through the music, now this is how Nielsen should be conducted and the Danes agreed.

Madiel

There's no question that Nielsen needs forward momentum. The issue to me is some conductors can act as if that's all he needs.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mirror Image

Quote from: Madiel on April 16, 2021, 08:57:42 PM
There's no question that Nielsen needs forward momentum. The issue to me is some conductors can act as if that's all he needs.

And even here, I also think Blomstedt and Bernstein find the beauty in Nielsen, too. I agree that he's not all lightning flashes and pedal-to-the-metal.

The new erato

Re pedal to the metal: Anybody up for Horenstein's No 5?

Mirror Image

Quote from: The new erato on April 16, 2021, 09:09:30 PM
Re pedal to the metal: Anybody up for Horenstein's No 5?

No! I've had all the Nielsen I can take tonight. :P

Biffo

Quote from: The new erato on April 16, 2021, 09:09:30 PM
Re pedal to the metal: Anybody up for Horenstein's No 5?

My all-time favourite

The new erato

Probably mine as well. Available on youtube, I have the LP....... :P

Biffo

Quote from: The new erato on April 17, 2021, 06:21:06 AM
Probably mine as well. Available on youtube, I have the LP....... :P

I also have the LP. I replaced it with the CD which developed the dreaded bronzing.

MusicTurner

#1174
I've enjoyed a well-restored little film showing street scenes and tram rides through Copenhagen in 1906 - that is, between Nielsen's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies, and around the premiere of the successful opera "Maskarade" (in November 1906).

It's nice seeing how, besides the absence of cars, a lot of the scenery is the same, including the architecture. Also amusing, how people are fascinated by the filming, and play a bit of jolly theatre in front of the cameraman. Though not focused on inequality, and often showing the posh and modern side of the city, it does include street vendors and a brawdy street fight ...

There's also a part of it that has been supplied with good colours - almost 2 minutes:
https://twitter.com/Kfortuit/status/1383789976949723146

The total version, almost 8 minutes:
https://filmcentralen.dk/museum/danmark-paa-film/film/kobenhavn-paa-kryds-og-tvaers-1906




Roasted Swan

Revisiting 3 Nielsen performances by conductors who - as far as I know - only commercially recorded one symphony each.  Such a shame - these are compelling versions all!



Previn's No.1 & Martinon's No.4 are both excellent - dynamic and exciting.  The Martinon is also coupled with Morton Gould's No.2 - another fine performance.....



the Gould is also coupled here with Goodman's Clarinet Concerto which I seem to remember is notable for the fact that Goodman doesn't play all the notes(!)  Is this true?  Is it worth a listen?


Madiel

Trying to work out if that last cover is circling something significant in Copenhagen or (my current theory) a completely random waterway...

I don't remember anything musical in that spot.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Daverz

Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 24, 2021, 06:32:42 AM
the Gould is also coupled here with Goodman's Clarinet Concerto which I seem to remember is notable for the fact that Goodman doesn't play all the notes(!)  Is this true?  Is it worth a listen?

It's an infamous "party record".

vandermolen

Been enjoying this fine performance of the 5th Symphony (Danish RSO/Kubelik):
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

DaveF

Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 24, 2021, 06:32:42 AM
the Gould is also coupled here with Goodman's Clarinet Concerto which I seem to remember is notable for the fact that Goodman doesn't play all the notes(!)  Is this true?  Is it worth a listen?

It's not so much that he doesn't play the notes as that he's technically incapable of playing them at the speed Nielsen asks.  His performance is 4 minutes longer than anyone else's, which in a piece lasting under 25 minutes (well, except in Goodman's hands) is significant.  Some passages - the notorious lead-in to the second big solo cadenza, for example - are taken about half-speed.  I think the story is that Goodman didn't really bother to practice, being confident that he could just turn up and play.  But yes, worth a listen - he's quite good in the slower sections, even if his cushioned, vibrato-rich sound is probably a world away from the shrieking wildness Nielsen had in mind.  It's especially interesting to follow it immediately with the Stanley Drucker/Bernstein version, which is how the piece really goes.
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