Nielsen: Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 (FS97)

“his readings have the authentic ring to them.” Penguin Guide

“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

“The Fourth and Fifth are two of Nielsen's most popular and deeply characteristic symphonies.
Blomstedt's are splendid performances. The Fourth occupied Nielsen between 1914 and early 1916 and reveals a level of violence new to his art.
The landscape is harsher; the melodic lines soar in a more anguished and intense fashion (in the case of the remarkable slow movement, 'like the eagle riding on the wind', to use Nielsen's own simile). Blomstedt's opening has splendid fire and he isn't frightened of letting things rip. The finale with its exhilarating dialogue between the two timpanists comes off splendidly.
The Fifth Symphony of 1922 is impressive, too: it starts perfectly and has just the right glacial atmosphere. The climax and the desolate clarinet peroration into which it dissolves are well handled. The recording balance couldn't be improved upon: the woodwind are well recessed (though clarinet keys are audible at times), there's an almost ideal relationship between the various sections of the orchestra and a thoroughly realistic overall perspective.
Blomstedt's account of the Sixth Symphony is a powerful one, with plenty of intensity and an appreciation of its extraordinary vision. It's by far the most challenging of the cycle and inhabits a very different world from early Nielsen.
The intervening years had seen the cataclysmic events of the First World War and Nielsen was suffering increasingly from ill health. Blomstedt and the fine San Fransisco orchestra convey the powerful nervous tension of the first movement and the depth of the third, the Proposta seria.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“an admirable and inexpensive way of collecting Blomstedt's complete cycle of Nielsen's symphonies which is self-recommending. All six performances are among the finest available...To put it briefly, this remains the best all-round modern set of the symphonies, and the bonuses add to its attractions.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The reputation of Jascha Horenstein has never been higher…The generous coupling in this set is Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony, a work Horenstein had the highest regard for…a life-affirming lyrical middle section…the end brings real release and optimism and a shout of joy..it has as much tingle as you would wish to have in this modern masterpiece… This is a major release from BBC Legends…You will be involved, you will be moved, you will be unnerved, you will not be disappointed” MusicWeb International