Search - Carl Nielsen, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic :: Nielsen: Symphonies 3 & 5

Nielsen; The 20th Century Greatest Symphonist.

Kim Bergenser | Near Chapel Hill NC | 01/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I experienced live Bernstein conducting Nielsen's symphonies in Denmark, when I was young. The 1st movement of Nielsen's masterpiece the 5th symphony is still etched in my mind as one of the most powerful pieces of music ever composed. Where have you every heard a clarinet and a snaredrum togehter making beatiful and at the same time frightening music. Bernstein masters this complex composition and its feelings perfectly and the recording is a great honor to these two masters, Nielsen and Bernstein. I cannot find any 20th century composition or even any classic symphony, which comes close to Nielsens mastery in the 5th, except perhaps Nielsen's own 4th and 6th symphonies.When you at the same time get the lesser played but very moving "Sinfonia Expansiva" Opus 27/ Nielsen's 3rd symphony thrown in for free, you are in for a rare treat. While the 5th only had two more or less interlinked movements, the 3rd is a classical four movement symphony. But up to Nielsen's usual treatment of harmonic bluffness, an almost unremittingly dissonnat progress, in places even with polytonal features, in the 3rd symphony no particular key is not maintained for long. In fact the music expands continiously in melodic and rhythmic elements. The classic insistance on tonal unity wihtin each single movement as well as the work as a whole had been disregarded by Nielsen as early as his 2nd symphony. A special coloring is obtained in this symphony by the combination of melody with 2 human voices, that sing seemingly improvised coloraturas on the vowel "a". If you buy this, you will also have to buy his 4th and 6th symphonies, and the Clarinet Concerto (try the one played by jazzman Benny Goodman). The 5th symphony use of clarinet and snaredrum later inspired this tumultuous concerto."

PASSIONATE READINGS OF NIELSEN'S BEST SYMPHONIES

S. Henderson | Hazlet, New Jersey USA | 09/21/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"EVEN THOUGH THERE HAVE BEEN TONS OF RECENT WELL-RECORDED CD'S OF THESE SEMINAL SCANDINAVIAN SYMPHONIES, THESE EARLY '60s VERSIONS WERE PROBABLY THE FIRST BY AN AMERICAN CONDUCTOR AND, LIKE HIS MAHLER SYMPHONIES, ARE TOWERING STATEMENTS THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIME. THIS IS TYPICAL BERNSTEIN: PASSIONATE, SOMETIMES OVERWROUGHT BUT JUST RIGHT FOR THE MUSIC AND WELL-RECORDED BY JOHN MCCLURE. THESE TWO PARTICULAR SYMHONIES CONTAIN ALOT OF UNUSUAL CHARACTERISTICS INCLUDING A WORDLESS TENOR/SOPRANO DUET IN THE THIRD AND A FURIOUS SNARE-DRUM OSTINATO IN THE FIFTH. NIELSEN RECEIVED HIS DUE FROM BERNSTEIN AND CONDUCTORS SUCH AS BLOMSTED, SALONEN AND RATTLE HAVE TRIED TO FILL HIS BIG SHOES BUT INTERPRETATIVELY THIS MID-PRICE COUPLING CAN'T BE BEAT."

The definitive performance of the "Espansiva"

12/08/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many reviewers fault Bernstein's tempi in the finale of the Espansiva, but I feel it is precisely these slower than usual tempi that make this music a wonderful demonstration that solemnity and exultation are much more compatible than generally believed."