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Nielsen: Symphonies 1 & 3 - Oramo

Nielsen: Symphonies 1 & 3 - Oramo

BIS  BIS-2048 SACD

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


NIELSEN, Carl (1865–1931):
Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 FS 16 (1891–92)
Symphony No. 3, ‘Sinfonia espansiva’, Op. 27 FS 60 (1910–11)

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)


‘The new benchmark’ and ‘set to become the reference recordings’ – these are a couple of the verdicts on the new Carl Nielsen cycle from Sakari Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, based on the team’s performances of the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, released in 2013 (BIS-2028). For the present instalment, Sakari Oramo has chosen the composer’s first attempt in the genre, completed in 1892: a work by a composer still in his mid-twenties, and mindful if not overly respectful of previous models.

Thoroughly classical in its proportions, Symphony No.1 owes much to Schumann, while at the same time displaying affinities with the fieriness of Berlioz, with the lyrical tone of Grieg, and with the rhythmic vitality of Grieg’s fellow-Norwegian Johan Svendsen, who conducted the work’s première. (In later years Nielsen often conducted his own music, but at this time he was still dependent on his income as an orchestral player, and sat among the second violins.) If the work met with a certain sympathy – one influential critic wrote that the work promised ‘a coming storm of genius’ – what might be termed Carl Nielsen’s ‘definitive’ breakthrough as a symphonist only came some 20 years later, with the première of Symphony No.3, later subtitled Sinfonia espansiva.

The work was described by one reviewer as ‘genuinely Carl Nielsenesque in all its strange mixture of naiveté and refinement, humour and lyricism, violence and grace’, and it was soon taken up by orchestras across Europe. In the second movement, Andante pastorale, Nielsen unusually adds vocalises for solo soprano and baritone: as he put it in one of his programme notes, the aim was ‘to underscore the peaceful atmosphere you might imagine in Paradise before the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve’. The movement was played at Carl Nielsen’s funeral, in Copenhagen Cathedral on 9th October 1931.

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PCM recording

Recorded in January 2013 [Symphony No. 1] and in May 2014 [Symphony No. 3] at the Stockholm Concert Hall, Stockholm, Sweden, 24/96

Producer: Jens Braun [Symphony No. 1]; Hans Kipfer [Symphony No. 3] (Take5 Music Production)

Sound engineer: Thore Brinkmann (Take5 Music Production)

Equipment: BIS’s recording teams use microphones from Neumann and Schoeps, audio electronics from RME, Lake People and DirectOut, MADI optical cabling technology, monitoring equipment from B&W, STAX and Sennheiser, and Sequoia and Pyramix digital audio workstations.

Post-production: Editing and mixing: Jens Braun [Symphony No. 1]; Hans Kipfer [Symphony No. 3]

Executive producer: Robert Suff
Reviews (1)
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Review by Graham Williams - January 2, 2015

This is the second issue in the Nielsen Symphony cycle being undertaken by Sakari Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for BIS.

The first release, that coupled the 4th and 5th Symphonies, was greeted with considerable critical acclaim both for Oramo’s clear sighted and exciting interpretation and the superb quality of the BIS recording Nielsen: Symphonies 4 & 5 - Oramo.

It is pleasing to report that this coupling of Nielsen's early 1st Symphony and his 3rd, the 'Sinfonia Espansiva of 1910 -11 maintains the excellence of the earlier release in all respects. Tempi in both Symphonies hardly differ from those adopted by Alan Gilbert on his accounts (differently coupled ) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Dacapo Records Nielsen: Symphonies 1 & 4 - Gilbert and Nielsen: Symphonies 2 & 3 - Gilbert and while both orchestras perform magnificently for their respective conductors, the playing Oramo elicits from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, especially in the 1st Symphony, has greater drive and character.

The explosive opening movement of the 'Sinfonia Expansiva' is beautifully judged; its propulsive energy being captured to the full by Oramo and his fine orchestra. The contrasting 'Andante pastorale' is notable for the lovely quality of the soprano and baritone solo voices (Anu Komsi and Karl-Magnus Fredriksson) whose delivery of the melismatic vocal line seems well nigh perfect. The many fugal passages in the final two movements are beautifully articulated while in the Finale the blazing horns statement of the movement's main theme bring Oramo's ripe account of this life-enhancing work to a thrilling conclusion.

The recordings took place in the warm and generous acoustic of Stockholm's Concert Hall in January 2013 (Symphony No. 1) and May 2014 (Symphony No. 3), and engineer Thore Brinkman's 24/bit / 96kHz recording combines the necessary richness and bite to do full justice to Nielsen's dynamic scores.

This release deserves an unqualified recommendation and makes one impatient for the release of the final instalment (Symphonies 2 and 6 ) of this excellent cycle during 2015 the Nielsen centenary year.

Copyright © 2015 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Multichannel):

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