SACDs - Nielsen

“Davis approaches both works with driving energy...this recording is an exhilarating display of the life-force at full blast in both composer and conductor.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****

“This third and final CD from the series reminds us why Davis is so attuned to Nielsen: the music’s Beethovenian conflict brings out the visceral dynamism in his personality. The opening and closing movements of these two symphonies bristle with vitality, and even in the slower music...Davis finds metaphysical fire and majesty, reinforced by the London Symphony Orchestra’s meaty tone.” Financial Times, 9th February 2013 ****

“The LSO responds with relish … Davis’s readings are a notable achievement, and one can only admire his having taken on a major cycle this late in his career” International Record Review, March 2013

“with this set he establishes himself as a Nielsenian of the first rank...Uplifting, inspired stuff.” Sunday Times, 3rd March 2013

“There’s none of the angst and anger that came later in Nielsen’s work, but plenty of rugged, boisterous, quirky and sometimes beautifully rustic music, which the London Symphony Orchestra deliver with a terrific punch in these concert recordings.” The Times, 9th February 2013 ****

“Gilbert proves capable of embracing and reconciling all the contradictory elements of Nielsen's musical personality: a warm heart and pent-up aggression, tenderness and playfulness, elegance and rowdiness. The playing is incisive and confident, and helped by a handsome recording” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 *****

“Counterpoints that grind rather than dance, the weight and depth of the New York Phil’s sound and Gilbert’s ear for Nielsen’s symphonic mapping really make these recordings. These are rich and hugely enjoyable performances that add to the undernourished interpretative debate around Nielsen like few others have.” bbc.co.uk, 25th September 2012

“There is absolutely no doubting Gilbert's affection for this music. But while it would be an exaggeration to say that he kills the thing he loves, he does occasionally spoil it with sugary treats.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“these performances are both stunners, good enough to make you regret that the applause has been edited out of both live recordings...These two symphonies are glorious. They will enrich your life. The playing and recording are faultless. Unmissable, in other words.” The Arts Desk, 20th October 2012

“From the outset of the opening movement’s allegro orgoglioso (proud), the tension never flags...the LSO’s principal trombone relish[es] his derisive “yawns”...With the dazzling final theme and variations, Nielsen grapples with the pessimistic zeitgeist and the inevitability of death, but his spirit ultimately triumphs — as do Davis and the LSO.” Sunday Times, 12th January 2012

“Colin Davis has come late to Carl Nielsen. But his live recordings of the Dane’s symphonies are likely to be as definitive as his earlier discs of Sibelius and Berlioz...Superb performances all round.” The Times, 21st January 2012 *****

“In Davis’s hands the First Symphony is a more substantial work than its reputation would suggest: his performance reveals its Beethovenian dynamism...The Sixth is a superficially jocular work, but thanks to the LSO’s virtuoso handling of its jabs, scowls and woodwind figurations, it emerges as a set of enigmatic variations” Financial Times, 18th February 2012 ****

“an often probing account of a perenially disconcerting piece [the Sixth], rendered with evident conviction by the London Symphony...[some] may find Davis underselling what is a symphony in constant and unfulfilled transition. The First Symphony (1892), however, is an almost total success.” International Record Review, February 2012

“More fiery and dramatic Nielsen from Sir Colin Davis and the LSO...The First Symphony here is beautifully paced, balancing drive with poetry. The slow movement may be on the broad side but, buoyed up by such musicianship and affection, it can take it...Davis has his finger on the psychological as well as the rhythmic pulse.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012

“This is the second instalment of [Davis's] Nielsen Symphony series with the LSO, recorded with admirable clarity and carrying no extra-musical sounds apart from an occasional gasp, groan or semi-melodic hum from the conductor - but there are fewer of those than usual.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 ****

“The veteran British Sibelian has come late to Nielsen, but his continuing cycle, with the orchestra on its best form, finds him an idiomatic interpreter of the Danish composer’s symphonies.” Sunday Times, 9th December 2012

“Nielsen's last two symphonies form a response to the first world war and its aftermath...Their uncompromising nature is often fearfully enhanced in this pair of hard-hitting live performances from Colin Davis and the LSO...The playing and recording are both exemplary” The Guardian, 13th January 2011 ****

“Nielsen is still not part of the regular concert-hall repertoire in Britain, but if anything could persuade you that he should be, it’s these vivid and dramatic performances... The London Symphony Orchestra rises to the challenges magnificently, throwing contrasts into high relief, and punching out the rhythms on brass and percussion. Colin Davis conducts expertly.” The Telegraph, 4th February 2011 ****

“[Davis] matches Herbert Blomstedt when it comes to grandeur and sense of the long evolving line, and yet the music also seems to fluid and changeable, and alive on so many levels. Full marks to Davis, too, sustaining the momentum through the finale's Adagio fugue in No. 5...Credit too for using the new critical editions of both scores.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 *****

“This is music in which the creative act is no longer a virtue but a necessity, and it is this unequivocal aspect Davis conveys in a performance which maintains onward drive at all costs...With forward yet sonorous SACD sound that is among the best that LSO Live has yet achieved, this disc bodes well for the rest of Davis's Nielsen cycle over the coming year.” International Record Review, March 2011

“Both these interpretations, recorded live at the Barbican, surge along with the full-throated splendour that is a London Symphony Orchestra trademark. In the magnificent Fifth Symphony...Davis's control of pace unfolds a performance of wonderful, unexaggerated drama and humanity, as fine as any I've heard.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 ****

“At last! Nielsen's two best-known symphonies in modern performances with real fire in their belly...[Davis] brings such animal excitement to the task, such a thrilling sense of discovery and existential danger...Davis shows a remarkable instinct for the paradoxical complexity of the moment in Nielsen, as well as for the broader trajectory of his musical thinking.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011

“…this disc is a good reminder of just how experimental Nielsen could be: prepared to try out not just different stylistic devices but even different kinds of persona. Thomas Dausgaard conducts all these works with tremendous gusto, balanced by a fine ear for unusual, suggestive textures, or the comedic vitality that erupts in Maskarade.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 *****

“This is outstanding, and unmissable for Nielsen collectors – and not only for the less familiar items, all of which have been recorded before (not badly, either). The Danish Radio Symphony must have played the Saul andDavid and Maskarade excerpts and the Helios Overture more times than they can count. But for Dausgaard they relish every detail, without ever sounding self-conscious. To call the balance in the 'Cockerels' Dance' felicitous would be an understatement; it is revelatory. Nor is affectionate an adequate word for Dausgaard's interpretations of all the music on this disc; there is love here, and a sense of crusading mission.
The praises of the Rhapsody Overture and Panand Syrinx could be sung just as extravagantly.
As could those over the theatre music excerpts, all of which lead to or from the world of Nielsen's symphonies. Given playing of such finesse and bite (one virtually takes idiomatic understanding for granted) they all feel like gems in their own right.
Here's a Nielsen disc that comes about as close to the ideal as one could hope to hear, and it eclipses almost all others in its field. Dacapo's recording quality is top-drawer, and there is an exemplary essay from Jørgen I Jensen.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010