Nielsen 5
Sat, Nov 19 2011, 5:23PM
A great masterpiece, no doubt. I have listened to a recording with Rafael Kubelik conducting the Danish RSO. I doubt that I will ever hear a better performance than this. Great conducting and great playing. The strings singing bittersweet and such cumulative power in the orchestra. Did Kubelik record any other Nielsen symphony?
Sun, Nov 20 2011, 9:23AM
#2
RE: Nielsen 5
Thank´s for the advice Bliss. I will look it up.
Tue, Nov 22 2011, 1:41PM
#3
RE: Nielsen 5
Reading the inspiring web article on the Rome Santa Cecilia orchestra, reminded me that the DRSO was another orchestra which lost its way for many years. Recordings and concert programmes from the 40s-50s-60s are full of names like Busch, Malko, Jensen, Tuxen, Kubelik, Celibidache and soloists from Horowitz, Milstein, to Serkin etc. That 6 CD treasure trove, Famous Singers and Musicians in Copenhagen, issued by Danacord, says it all.
I believe that Busch suggested Keilberth as his DRSO successor but the orchestra's administrators thought they knew best. And years of darkness followed. Perhaps they are on a better track now with the appointment of Fruhbeck de Burgos.
Hopefully, we'll get some good Nielsen from New York soon - where I believe Danacord is recording.
Tue, Nov 22 2011, 5:44PM
#4
RE: Nielsen 5
A very good almost brand new recording of the Fifth is with LSO under Colin Davis, in very good SACD form. The reviews were quite positive as well.
From older versions, in very good sound (the complex orchestration requires the best possible recordings) : Blomstedt and San Francisco S.O. in Decca and Bernstein with NYPO in Sony.
For a complete set, I would opt for Chandos excellent recording of mid 90's with Royal Stockholm P.O. under Gennady Rozhdestvensky! Then, if you want to stick to performers from the Nordic countries, you may always visit the rather vast catalogues of the recordings of the brilliant Da Capo, the enormous BIS and the fine Danacord, appropriately mentioned by Hermastersvoice.
Parla
Mon, Dec 5 2011, 5:37PM
#5
RE: Nielsen 5
It's interesting to hear Eloquence's (relatively) new issue of the First and Fifth Symphonies under Thomas Jensen in the early 1950s - Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra, as it was known. It's not brilliant, but a good idea of style (pretty rank woodwinds).
I've always liked Osmo Vanska's BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Fifth on BIS, also a very good Second. And Michael Schonwandt with the re-named Danish National Symphony Orchestra is good - the new box-xet from Dacapo is a real treat as it has the DVD recording thrown in, taped in the 'old' radio hall over in Frederiksberg, now the conservatoire.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 12:53AM
#6
RE: Nielsen 5
I bought Kubelik's recording secondhand but found it too syrupy. Few conductors realise that Nielsen isn't Sibelius. While Sibelius' symphonies reflect the Finnish countryside Nielsen's music is about people, about the human psyche.
The Decca symphonies under Jensen go to the heart of the matter. As does Blomstedt, however there is a spiritual dimension to Jensen's rendition which Blomstedt doesn't quite catch (but maybe I'm just being sentimental about the old recordings).
I do not find any other Nielsen symphony in Kubelik's discography. Maybe somewhere out there is a recording of a concert performance of something else by Nielsen. If you did enjoy the Nielsen 5th there is a 3 disc box set of all six symphonies on Brilliant Classics. The price is right and the performances by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra under the American conductor Theodore Kuchar are outstanding and so is the engineering.
Bliss