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Reviews for
GHCD 2340 CARL NIELSEN (1857-1931)
Symphony No.3, op. 27 ‘Sinfonia espansiva’
- Ruth Güldbaek – soprano - Erik Sjoberg – baritone - The Danish State
Radio Symphony Orchestra JOHN FRANDSEN conductor - (recorded 3-5 March 1955 –
Philips NBR6034) - Symphony No.5, Op.50 - The Danish Radio Symphony
Orchestra ERIK TUXEN conductor - (recorded 29 August 1950, Edinburgh Festival):
69:15
American
Record Guide July / August 2009
Danish Radio/ John Frandsen, Erik Tuxen
Guild 2340-69 minutes
The Dutton Label has been reviving
the "first generation" of recordings of
Nielsen's music by the Danish Radio
Orchestra in the 1940s and 1950s. The
Violin Concerto (with Emil Telmanyi)
and the Saga Dream under Egisto
Tango, plus the Clarinet Concerto, (with Louis
Cahuzac) under Frandsen, have appeared an
9744. The Flute Concerto (with Holger GilbertJespersen)
and Maskarade
excerpts under Jensen, plus the
Clarinet Concerto (with Ib Erikson)
under Mogens Wöldike are an 2505. On
2502 are the First and Fifth Symphonies
under Jensen, plus the Helios Overture under
Eric Tuxen. In 1207 are the Third and Fifth
Symphonies plus the
Saul and David
Act II Prelude, all under Tuxen.
(None of these have been reviewed save
the all-Tuxen disc: S/O 2000, p 273.)
These were recordings I
grew up an in my student days. They represent the transmitted experience
of conductors (especially Jensen and Wöldike) who honed their interpretations
from personal contact with Nielsen. Their recordings are documents of basic
importance; and, in Dutton's skilled remastering, the sound still holds up
remarkably well, capturing the special polish and mellowness of the Copenhagen
woodwinds. Jensen's Sixth Symphony was recorded in 1952 for the Norwegian Tono
label (released here briefly by Mercury). As the first recording of this thorny
work, and by a Nielsen authority, it remains an impressive exploration of the
score-despite Jensen's cut of much of the excruciatingly difficult cadenza for
unison violins near the end of the finale-presumably out of mercy for his
players. Dutton's is not the first CD revival of this: it appeared previously in
Danacord's series of historic Nielsen reissues (351, 3CD). This 1955 recording
of the Third Symphony under Frandsen was made by Philips and issued here on
Epic. I remembered it as a rather diffident interpretation, soon swept aside by
Bernstein's sensational Copenhagen recording of 1965. Frandsen made relatively
few recordings, but was the established workhorse conductor for many years at
the Royal Opera House. Listening after many years to his recording of this work,
I find more to enjoy than I remembered, complete with one of the best-balanced
placements of the two singers.
An even older relic here is represented by two short
orchestral pieces from Nielsen's music for the play Moderen, recorded (in rather
dim sound) in 1946 under Emil Reesen, respected as both a conductor and a
composer. With copyrights expired on all these old recordings, more companies
are weighing in with reissues. The one from the Swiss Guild label gives us a
curious combination. No. 3 here is exactly the same 1955 Philips recording under
Frandsen as in the Dutton release. I find Peter Reynolds's remastering a bit
less lean than Michael Dutton's, with slightly more boomy bass.
But sonic concerns increase with the Tuxen Fifth. Tuxen had
a particular identification with this work: he got into trouble because of his
tinkerings with orchestral details that he incorporated, without
acknowledgement, into the edition of the score he prepared for publication. He
made three recordings of it. The studio session from 1946 for HMV is the one
included in Dutton 1207. The latest of the three is a concert performance in
Paris in April 1955, issued by Danacord. In between came a concert performance
of 1950, and that is the one offered by Guild. It is the least listenable of the
three in sound. It took place at the Edinburgh Festival and caused a sensation
and launched a Nielsen craze in Great Britain. I don't recall encountering this
historic recording before.
Listeners who
have come to appreciate Nielsen's music through stereo recordings would do well
to make contact with these pioneer recordings for their special insights and the
contact what was still left of the composer's world in the second decade after
his death.
CRC Spring 2009
Nielsen Symphony No. 3, Op.
27, Sinfonia espansiva a. Symphony No. 5, Op. 50b. a Ruth Güldbaek (sop); a Erik
Sjoberg (bar); Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra / a John Frandsen; b
ErikTuxen.
Guild mono GHCD2340 (69mins;
ADD); rec. b Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 29/8/50; a unspecified location 3-5/3/55.
Until it appeared unexpectedly
in 2004 from Decca/Universal via the Retrospective Recordings label ( RET043)
John Frandsen's 1955 recording of Nielsen's Espansiva Symphony was in danger of
being forgotten except by Nielsen enthusirits with long memories who had hung on
to their original Philips ten-inch LP ( NBR6034). Since Frandsen is a distant
figure now it was presumably thought necessary to couple him advantageously (with
Eduard van Beinum conducting Ravel), though mang collectors might haue wished
for more Danish music from Frandsen: there was certainly sufficient available at
that period from Philips sources.
Now, equally unexpectedly, two more transfers of Frandsen's
account of the Symphony appear simultaneously, this time muck more suitably
coupled. In fact Guild offers the first issue an CD of Erik Tuxen's performance
of the Fifth Symphony, while Thomas Jensen's Sixth is only available in
Danacord's three-disc Set of mainly radio performances of all the symphonies.
Tuxen's Fifth is the live performance at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival widely
credited with kick-starting the appreciation of Nielsen's music in the UK and
elsewhere, so it is of documentary importance. Predictably, allowances have to
be made for the sound, which hardly does justice to a reading alight with
trail-blazing spirit. Guild is coy about its source for this performance (it did
once appear on a Danacord LP), but even through the sub-fusc sound and
occasional dropout the outlines are still reasonably clear.
Guild states
that its Espansiva comes from NBR6034, and indeed the transfer successfully
mirrors the sound of that LP. The Dutton issue is taken from the original tapes
and is much more wide-ranging and detailed: the venue is thought not to be
Danish Radio's fine concert hall familiar from other DSRSO discs but, wherever
it was, Michael Dutton has succeeded in making its ambient sound warmer without
clouding the detail; it is now impressively open and free, conveying a better
impression of Frandsen's fine performance of this life-enhancing symphony, well
in a line from his distinguished predecessors. Nielsen lovers will find the
Guild disc serviceable, though I suspect they will have much more fun with
Dutton's, which has been most carefully done: its impact is extraordinary for a
50-year old recording. There is little to choose between the two versions now
available of Thomas Jensen's Sixth since both are excellent: Danacord's is
slightly more mellow, while Dutton brings up in impressive clarity of detail
what is generally regarded as one of the greatest performances of this elusive
work ever to reach disc. Dutton's two interesting excerpts of incidental music
recorded in 1946 feature Emil Reesen, one of the DSRSO's founding conductors in
1925; even heard briefly, he was quite obviously another Nielsen natural.
Lyndon Jenkins
Audiophile Audition Thursday January 22 2009
NIELSEN:
Symphony No. 3 “Sinfonia espansiva,” Op. 27; Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 - Ruth
Gueldbaek, soprano/Erik Sjoberg, baritone/Danish State Radio Symphony
Orchestra/John Frandsen (Op. 27)/Erik Tuxen (Op. 50)
Guild GHCD 2340, 69:15 [Distrib. By Albany] ****:
The
recordings of two Nielsen symphonies, the Third (1912) and the Fifth (1922)
derive from the 1950s, marking the advent of Nielsen’s music in England,
particularly in the Edinburgh Festival performance of the Fifth under Erik Tuxen
(29 August 1950).
The Third Symphony (rec. 3-5 March 1955) comes from a fruitful and happy period
in the composer’s life, and the music reflects an exuberance and exhilaration of
the outdoors, a rhythmic fancy that often finds itself compared to the Seventh
Symphony of Beethoven. The opening movement wends its athletic way between
modes, often reminding one of Shostakovich, but here qualified by angular, waltz
figures and vigorous thrusts from strings, brass, and tympani that exert a
martial, inflamed spirit. The Andante pastorale asks the two vocal soli
to sit among the orchestral players, their voices in wordless melisma as
rarified instruments suggestive of a hidden, bucolic world far away from the
concerns of daily civilization. The third movement tests the distinction between
Allegretto and Scherzo, a dark, powerful dance that often hints at
Mahler’s especial sarcasm, mystery, and contrapuntal acerbity. The last
movement, Allegro, presents us a martial, confident tune that contains
folk elements, not so far from an Elgar sensibility, but colored by Nielsen’s
wry and massive textures. Conductor John Frandsen (1918-1996) adjusts Nielsen’s
striking and shifting temperaments with fine-tuned skill, pacing the individual
lines of melody and rhythmic ostinati with convincing units of phrase, creating
an sense of inevitability to the colossal, assertive peroration that ends this
often blazing piece of orchestral virtuosity.
Musicologist and commentator Deryck Cooke once declared Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony
the greatest such score of the 20th Century; whether this hyperbole works or
not, the piece demands a certain concession to genius, given its scale and
vibrancy of colorful imagination under Tuxen (1902-1957). The long, weaving
harmonies and moody impulses in the bass of the first movement pass through
Bartok and Shostakovich easily; then, the various tympanic and snare drum choirs
enter and mark a new direction in music altogether. The wind choir of the Danish
State Radio Symphony proves itself the equal of any ensemble in the pantheon of
orchestral excellence. Swirling winds and angry snare riffs converge, while the
strings drive forward a theme not so far divorced from Ravel’s Bolero.
The orchestral colors and effects become more seemingly random; and the music’s
dark, dirge-like, mellifluous arioso tires to offer some consolation in the
midst of crisis. Eventually, Nielsen combines the two impulses and thus defines
the alternately poignant and heroic contradictions of his times. The second
section combines scherzo, intermezzo and finale, the first of
these a perpetual mobile in angry, irregular accents, haunted and driven by
inner demons. The inertia finally dissipates--or entropy sets in--and then light
strings begin a fugato of impish character that the bassoon, clarinet and
tympani assume, the agogics once more becoming lunatic, a kind of Danish
hexentanz. Another quiet episode ensues, led by high strings, diviso;
Nielsen uses counterpoint to subdue the chaos. So many mecurial, inner tempests
in this composer’s soul, including his own version of rapture! Nielsen’s lets
his trumpets speak, and another whirlwind carries to the extended coda,
punctuated by mocking accents in winds and brass. The world threatens to
explode, as had the politics from which this severe, apocalyptic piece was born.
A grateful 1950 audience applauds the musical dynamo in the form of Erik Tuxen
and his thoroughly prepared Danish players.
Gary Lemco
Page revised Thursday December 17 2009
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