Warner
seems to be in overdrive, with re-issues of their modern recordings
tumbling out of the shops as though CDs were going out of fashion.
What with the Apex and Elatus series, nearly all of this company’s
back catalogue is a potential candidate for reissue. With such
a flood comes confusion. Still, to an aware consumer, this is
an ideal opportunity to buy discs that they previously missed
Jukka-Pekka
Saraste’s cycle of the complete Nielsen Symphonies was generally
well received on its first release, coupled differently than as
at present. At the time, they were being released, the competitive
series was on DaCapo with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Michael Schønwandt. This latter cycle was
thought generally to be superior, mainly a feeling of rightness
in the approach of the Danish players. The competition from Finland
however is severe, and now, with the price difference, the Warner
series is much more competitive than before.
This
means that if you previously bought some of these symphonies,
and now wish to complete your series, you may have to suffer some
duplication, or indeed to buy the whole cycle anew – those people
at Warner are not stupid.
Saraste
has been chief conductor of the Helsinki Orchestra for some time
now, and this shows by the obvious rapport he enjoys with his
players. Both symphonies have that most important feature, and
that is the freshness of the playing. They yield nothing to the
accuracy of their Danish competitors. These performances complement
rather than supersede their competitors, and I would place them
right at the forefront of modern symphonic cycles, without forgetting
the modern summit, still occupied by Blomstedt and the San Francisco
Symphony Orchestra on Decca. If however, you want to hear how
these symphonies might have been interpreted by Nielsen himself,
you should certainly try to hear the complete cycle on a three
disc boxed set on Danacord, conducted by such legends in Danish
music as Erik Tuxen, Launy Grøndahl and Thomas Jensen.
All three were around when Nielsen was alive and conducting his
own works, and in some cases, were playing in the orchestra under
the baton of the composer. If you can put up with the sound (mostly
live concerts given in the late 1940s, early 1950s), you will
be astounded by the difference. Conductors and their orchestras
simply do not perform these works like this today – they are upholstered
insipid performances by comparison. Some of the early performances
were recorded subsequently under studio conditions and have been
very successfully re-mastered and released by Dutton Laboratories
and the like.
Both
symphonies recorded here give a very good modern view of each
work without scaling the absolute heights as do the earlier performances
mentioned above. One point of interest is the prominence given
to the timpani in the last movement of No. 4. This is a very important
part of the score, displaying the conflict explained by the composer
"Music is life and like it, is inextinguishable." The
conflict that the composer is working out within the symphony
is expressed by the conflict between tonalities, and also between
timpani and the remainder of the orchestra. If the timpani are
backwardly balanced as they often are, the conflict appears one
sided. Here, this is not the case, and I am sure that anyone buying
this disc will be overjoyed with this aspect. Warmly recommended.
John
Phillips
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Jukka-Pekka
Saraste.