Search - Carl Nielsen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra :: Nielsen: Symphonies 4 & 5 - Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste takes the Finnish Radio Symphony through some of Nielsen's trickiest compositional territory: the opening bars of the explosive Fourth Symphony and the "dueling percussion" sequence in the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. Nielsen's music was at first difficult to perform, but as orchestras evolved and more difficult works were practiced and mastered, Nielsen almost seems tame by today's standards. But this makes him more accessible to audiences today who might be unfamiliar with his work. At the very least, Saraste invests the Fifth--arguably Nielsen's greatest symphony--with an eerie, even spectral moodiness that is nearly unrivaled on disc and should be heard for that reason alone. But then, the orchestra and the conductor are Scandinavian, and they, if anybody, ought to know how this music should be played. --Paul Cook