The Nielsen Nexus

[Mirror Image]

He champions the one he's sees in the mirror.

Hah!

[Mirror Image]

Well if you look at his Cincinnati Symphony series on Telarc, you get a good idea. He's brought that orchestra to Martinu, Tubin, and Tuur.

Also, on the whole, Paavo is a far better conductor than his father, with a better track record. I don't like his Poulenc, but that's the only real "miss" of his that I've heard so far. Whereas Daddy Jarvi would conduct literally anything post-Liszt, provided he didn't need to show a feel for it.

I know your opinion of Neeme (a conductor I actually enjoy on some occasions --- his Prokofiev being my favorite anything from him). I'm not sure if I agree with Paavo being a 'better' anything than anyone. I remember hearing his Ravel, Nielsen, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, among others and being thoroughly disappointed by the almost lethargic approach he took with those composers. Definitely not up my alley at all. He redeems himself with his Part and several of his Sibelius recordings, but, as I said, he's not a bad conductor, just not one I rate too highly. I actually don't rate his father that highly either, but I'm not going to launch into the reasons as this is the Nielsen thread and not the Jarvi thread.

[calyptorhynchus]

It's only taken 35 years after first hearing Nielsen's music for me to get around to listening to Saul and David.

I'm listening to the Horenstein recording in English and enjoying it enormously. With opera I get bored with opera composers' standard patterns and accompaniments, so it's a relief to listen to real composers like Nielsen, Mozart, Janacek, Mussorgsky, Vaughan Williams, Havergal Brian &c composing opera, because their orchestral writing is so inventive, as is Nielsen's here. So many felicitous sounds and textures are heard (just one example, the solo cello in the Witch of Endor scene, such a pity Nielsen didn't write a Cello Concerto, or Sonata).

The musical movement is very clear, of course, and the idea of having two or three big blocks of music in each Act has the effect of making the music symphonic.

The only problem with the Horenstein recording is the ancient sound and Boris Christoff singing wonderfully, but mispronouncing English so badly. (I guess they thought him mispronouncing English would go down better in Copenhagen than him mispronouncing Danish in Copenhagen). I'm wondering if I ought to get the Neema Jaarvi recording (in Danish). How does that compare?

[The new erato]

I'm wondering if I ought to get the Neema Jaarvi recording (in Danish). How does that compare?

I cannot compare, but that is a very fine recording, dynamic and powerful, just like Nielsen's Music.

[Christo]

With opera I get bored with opera composers' standard patterns and accompaniments, so it's a relief to listen to real composers like Nielsen, Mozart, Janacek, Mussorgsky, Vaughan Williams, Havergal Brian &c composing opera, because their orchestral writing is so inventive, as is Nielsen's here.

Somebody had to (dare to) say it! 

[vandermolen]

This very fine boxed set restores Berglund's Bournemouth SO recording of Nielsen's 5th Symphony. It is one of the very greatest performances and has long been unavailable. I'm not sure that it was ever on CD and if so not for decades. The set has many gems including a very sibelian version of Vaughan Williams's 6th Symphony:
[asin]B00DKAH74Y[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

This very fine boxed set restores Berglund's Bournemouth SO recording of Nielsen's 5th Symphony. It is one of the very greatest performances and has long been unavailable. I'm not sure that it was ever on CD and if so not for decades. The set has many gems including a very sibelian version of Vaughan Williams's 6th Symphony:
[asin]B00DKAH74Y[/asin]

Have you heard Kubelik's live Nielsen 5th, Jeffrey? Absolute scorcher.

[vandermolen]

Have you heard Kubelik's live Nielsen 5th, Jeffrey? Absolute scorcher.

Hi John, I have a Kubelik version on EMI with Sibelius works but this may not be the one you mean. Hang on a minute...I think that I may have another Kubelik version on one of the BBC labels, maybe that is the one you mean...actually, come to think of it, I think that the BBC version is conducted by Horenstein. 

[Mirror Image]

Hi John, I have a Kubelik version on EMI with Sibelius works but this may not be the one you mean. Hang on a minute...I think that I may have another Kubelik version on one of the BBC labels, maybe that is the one you mean...actually I think that the BBC version is conducted by Horenstein. 

Yes, the Kubelik on EMI is the one I'm referring to. It's a great performance IMHO.

[vandermolen]

Yes, the Kubelik on EMI is the one I'm referring to. It's a great performance IMHO.

Yes, it's a great CD as I think it also features the best recording of Luonnotar.

[Camphy]

Cover art for this new release:

[asin]B016Z8K956[/asin]

[Camphy]

Lovely reminiscences about John McCabe's recording sessions of Haydn, Grieg and Nielsen, written by his wife Monica:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/gramophone-guest-blog/remembering-john-mccabes-haydn-grieg-and-nielsen-recording-sessions

[DaveF]

I don't think this

[asin]B000000A8O[/asin]

has had a mention since the first page of this thread - I got it in my local Oxfam shop yesterday and like it a lot.  Recording a bit distant, timps especially a bit muffled (although mine is an earlier issue, with a much nicer cover, looking a bit like one of the windows from Coventry cathedral), but increasingly convincing as it goes on, feeling all very structurally "right".  Also has a splendid side-drum cadenza, complete with rim-shots and whatever it's called when the sticks are bashed together.  Even with the less-than-perfect sound, the brass has a vicious bite, and the end is especially invigorating, with as little as possible no rit. up to the final chord (poco a poco allargando, the score says; not much poco here).  99p well spent.  Helios and the Sibelius items are also more than OK, and there's a laugh in the notes, where Vårsång is described as the "Finnish" title of Spring Song - an error reproduced faithfully in both French and German translations.  You think someone would have noticed...

Got this at the same time too:

[asin]B000QQP1DY[/asin]

(who's throwing out all their Nielsen?)  Also very good - Seivewright could perhaps be a bit more light-fingered in some of the Bagatelles, but the Chaconne and Theme & Variations are mighty impressive.  The Symphonic Suite sounds like a boxing match, as usual.

[DaveF]

I can't remember whether I've mentioned this here before, but all Nielsenites will be familiar with the old Ib Eriksson/Mogens Wøldike recording of the Clarinet Concerto from 1954, and yet a while ago when I decided to upgrade from my old Decca Eclipse LP to a CD transfer and bought:

[asin]B000003LNX[/asin]

I was quite disappointed to find that this was not the same performance as on the LP and, to my humble ears, not such a good one.  A browse through the contents of Danacord's 30-CD historical set here: http://danacordbutik.dk/product_info.php?products_id=33115 confirms this: there's a live performance (25:12) and a studio recording (26:42).  Annoyingly, it seems to be the live performance that gets onto the affordable reissues, while the much superior (much more accurate playing by Eriksson) studio version is hidden away in this megabox.  Both are on Spotify, if anyone is interesting in comparing.

[vandermolen]

I don't think this

[asin]B000000A8O[/asin]

has had a mention since the first page of this thread - I got it in my local Oxfam shop yesterday and like it a lot.  Recording a bit distant, timps especially a bit muffled (although mine is an earlier issue, with a much nicer cover, looking a bit like one of the windows from Coventry cathedral), but increasingly convincing as it goes on, feeling all very structurally "right".  Also has a splendid side-drum cadenza, complete with rim-shots and whatever it's called when the sticks are bashed together.  Even with the less-than-perfect sound, the brass has a vicious bite, and the end is especially invigorating, with as little as possible no rit. up to the final chord (poco a poco allargando, the score says; not much poco here).  99p well spent.  Helios and the Sibelius items are also more than OK, and there's a laugh in the notes, where Vårsång is described as the "Finnish" title of Spring Song - an error reproduced faithfully in both French and German translations.  You think someone would have noticed...

Got this at the same time too:

[asin]B000QQP1DY[/asin]

(who's throwing out all their Nielsen?)  Also very good - Seivewright could perhaps be a bit more light-fingered in some of the Bagatelles, but the Chaconne and Theme & Variations are mighty impressive.  The Symphonic Suite sounds like a boxing match, as usual.

The Alexander Gibson Nielsen symphonies (4 and 5) were both excellent and underrated as were his Sibelius recordings and his version of Vaughan Williams Symphony 5.

[DaveF]

Something else I've come rather late to as a confirmed Nielsenite:

[asin]B0000044CY[/asin]

The Clarinet Concerto is pretty good - Cahuzac's performance is not as risky as Eriksson's, but the sound is no worse (recorded 8 years earlier), apart perhaps from a side-drum that wanders about a bit, sometimes under your nose and at others inaudibly distant.  Cahuzac himself makes a lovely, if slightly unvaried, sound.  Sadly, nothing much good to say about the Serenata in Vano and the Quintet - the bassoonist of Nielsen's favourite quintet is notably inept, from the fluffs in his semiquaver runs at the start of the quintet to his apparent inability to play in a regular 9/8 in his solo variation.  The complete lack of repeats in the quintet - not only 1st movement exposition but any at all in the minuet - is also slightly disconcerting - something to do with 78s, possibly.

[Mirror Image]

Cover art for this new release:

[asin]B016Z8K956[/asin]

I haven't heard much about this particular set, but knowing how his father disappointed me in Nielsen with the only exception being an excellent miscellaneous orchestral works recording on DG, I've been leery of that set.

[Mirror Image]

What does everyone think of Vanska's symphony cycle on BIS? I recall it being decent, but I haven't heard it in years. Any standout performances?

[Mirror Image]

Flute Concerto, FS 119



Nielsen was never much interested in writing a concerto on a heroic scale, saving his weightier material for his symphonies. As a result, each of his three concertos -- for violin, flute and clarinet -- are more or less intimate in character. If the Violin Concerto (1911) reflects an essentially traditional stylistic and harmonic outlook, the succeeding Flute Concerto mirrors the more modernistic currents of the 1920s.

This late work contains few real formal innovations; however, it is characterized by a conspicuous lack of tonal stability. Indeed, the first movement, marked Allegro moderato, seems to spend all of its time searching for a key center, beginning with a discordant sixteenth note theme in the violins. At first, D minor seems to be favored, but assertive themes in E flat minor and F major ensue, only to be followed by a dissonant, quasi-developmental section. Here, Nielsen interjects a coarse solo trombone part in an attempt to disrupt the demure proceedings. Eventually a new idea floats out radiantly on the solo flute, a simple cantabile melody in E major. This is quickly disturbed, however, and when the flute tries to reach it again in a cadenza, the orchestra contradicts it with a recapitulation of the opening themes. A brief second cadenza leads to a coda in the calming yet still uncertain key in G flat major.

While G flat is the relative of the initial E flat minor, it sounds unconvincing, as D minor and F major have been so much in evidence throughout the first movement. Thus, a second movement is needed. The movement begins with a charming melody in G major and proceeds with a rondo-like alternation between a 2/4 Allegretto section and a 3/4 Adagio section, leading to a culminating 6/8 Tempo di marcia, which is essentially a dance-like variation on the opening G major melody. Yet it is E major to which the movement really gravitates, and in a brilliant stroke, Nielsen brings back the bass trombone to provide the final tonal impetus, with a series of burlesque glissandi.

The Flute Concerto was composed for and premiered by the flautist Gilbert Jespersen.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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This is one of my favorite pieces of music...ever. I love it so much. There are a plethora of emotional temperatures displayed throughout the work. Does anyone have a favorite performance? Mine is Patrick Gallois/Chung on BIS. It doesn't get much better than this IMHO.

[Mirror Image]

Rattle talking about Nielsen:

https://www.youtube.com/v/-uHphR0KhYc