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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Carl Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
“his readings have the authentic ring to them.” Penguin Guide | 
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| |  | Nielsen & Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Sir John Barbirolli was a champion of both Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. He recorded all the Sibelius Symphonies and many of the orchestral works, but this 1959 recording of the Symphony No.4 ‘The Inextinguishable’ is Barbirolli’s only commercial recording of the music of Nielsen. The symphony expresses ‘the elemental will to life’ and the explosive start to the symphony bears witness to the inextinguishable energy of the natural world. In the astonishingly powerful finale Nielsen places two timpani players at opposite sides of the orchestra, and from here their thundering volleys fly across the sound stage at each other. Barbirolli’s classic recording is a powerful rendition of Nielsen’s greatest symphony. Sir John was also a champion of the music of Brahms. He recorded the four symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and the piano concertos with Daniel Barenboim. This 1959 recording of Symphony No.4 with the Hallé Orchestra was briefly available on CD over ten years ago, so this latest reissue is a welcome reminder of Barbirolli intense performance. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Nielsen: 20th Century Classics Volume 2Symphonies Nos. 1-4
Nielsen: | Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 (FS16) Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt Symphony No. 2, Op. 16 (FS29) 'The Four temperaments' Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Blomstedt Bøhmisk-dansk folketone, Paraphrase for strygeorkester (FS130) Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt Symphony No. 3, Op. 27 (FS60) 'Sinfonia espansiva' Kirsten Schultz & Peter Rasmussen Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 (FS76) 'The Inextinguishable' City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle |
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), the greatest composer to come out of Denmark, was an accomplished symphonist. He produced six very fine symphonies with which his name is most closely associated and of which the first four are included in this set. These symphonies date from the years 1891 to 1914 and so follow the development of the composer from a young man at the beginning of his career to a mature, established composer. Nielsen played in the second violins of the orchestra at the successful première of the First Symphony; by the time he gave the first performance of the Fourth Symphony he was its renowned and well-respected composer and conductor. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
DSD recording, live at the Barbican October 2009 (Symphony No 5) and May 2009 (Symphony No 4). Despite having been an admirer of the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen for many years, Sir Colin Davis has rarely conducted any of his works. Now, at the age of 83, Sir Colin embarks on a complete cycle of the composer’s symphonies. Although Carl Nielsen is frequently compared to his near contemporary Jean Sibelius, each composer’s music is equally individual. Both were celebrated symphonists but used the potential of an orchestra in different ways. Despite giving titles to the majority of his symphonies, Nielsen was often vague about the specific themes for each work. However his music is always direct, dynamic and lyrical. Sir Colin’s traversal of the symphonies began in concert in 2009. He will conduct the remaining symphonies in 2011 with two further LSO Live releases following in 2012. Concert reviews: “Nielsen’s music could have been written for the LSO: the orchestra’s robust sound and free-spirited temperament suit this symphony’s virtuoso demands and visceral dynamism. Davis, too, is attuned to Nielsen’s brand of Beethovenian conflict. Davis conducted it with the vitality of someone worthy of the symphony’s title, the ‘Inextinguishable’” Financial Times “this account of the “Inextinguishable” confirmed he and the LSO have something special to offer … he produced an account of fabulous coherence” The Guardian “Forget old dogs and new tricks, clearly it’s never too late to embark upon a new repertoire strand … this was an auspicious start. I reckon the maestro shed 40 years during this performance” The Independent “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  BBC Music Magazine
Orchestral Choice - March 2011 |
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| |  | Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 - 6
Nielsen: | Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 (FS76) 'The Inextinguishable' San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt Little Suite in A minor for strings, Op. 1 (FS6) Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ulf Schirmer Hymnus Amoris, Op. 12 (FS21) Barbara Bonney, John Mark Ainsley, Lars Pedersen, Michael W. Hansen, Bo Anker Hansen Copenhagen Boys' Choir / Danish National Radio Choir / Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ulf Schirmer Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 (FS97) San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt Symphony No. 6, (FS116) 'Sinfonia semplice' San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt |
“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 | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Two thrilling 20th Century orchestral works, ideally realised in the hands of Zubin Mehta, and released for the first time on CD. The volley of timpani as they hurl challenges at each other in the Nielsen is one of the most exciting moments of orchestral music. And Scriabin's Poeme de l'extase (Poem of Ecstasy) is one of his most intoxicating orchestral works. “one of the great Nielsen Fourths... it's wonderful to have these classic recordings on CD” Classics Today “The real find here is Mehta's voluptuous conducting of Scriabin's sweaty tone poem” International Record Review | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Nielsen - Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5
Nielsen: | Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 (FS76) 'The Inextinguishable' René Mathiesen (timpani I) & Christian Utke Schiøler (timpani II) Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 (FS97) Niels Thomsen (clarinet) & Tom Nybye (snare drum) |
The most important Danish composer of the first third of the twentieth century, Carl Nielsen was prolific in almost all genres. The six Symphonies are essentially tonal, emotionally direct works, which alternate long lines of melody with passages of blazing energy. Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’, his most dramatic, conveys ‘the elemental will to live’, while in his Symphony No. 5, written after the 1914-18 war, Nielsen develops new and stronger rhythms and more advanced harmonies. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6 (8570737) and Nos. 2 and 3 (8570738) are also available. “Schønwandt's performances, a reissue of recordings made in 2000 for the Dacapo label, are spectacular in every way…He imparts a melodic flow to the music that both minimizes the jarring juxtapositions and binds them together in a more continuous, unified progression.” Fanfare | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Sir John Barbirolli
“…the Sibelius… gets right to the heart of the matter, moving towards its blazing conclusion with a fantastic sense of inevitability - a classic single-breath performance. …in The Inextinguishable… the rushing scales heralding the finale are real edge-of-the-seat, devil-take-the-hindmost stuff, and the finale itself, though on the steady side, feels as though it is working through life-and-death issues, with the timpanists all but bursting the skins in their cannonades.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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“A finely paced account with plenty of breath and nobility, and no lack of fire, which can hold its own with the best.” (5 star BBC Music Magazine) “For this new DVD cycle, Schønwandt took orchestra and works back into the concert hall in November 2004, coming out with leaner, fitter accounts, well prepared and played with undeniable enthusiasm. The video direction is of fairly standard concert broadcasting type, mixing orchestral panoramas with interesting details. The direction hits the spot... in the finale of No 4, The Inextinguishable, where the camera angles along both sets of rampaging timpani, with the brass caught between as if in crossfire. The set is augmented by an extra disc with a useful documentary by composer Karl Aage Rasmussen setting the music in the context of Nielsen's turbulent personal life.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2006 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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