Nielsen: Symphonies 1 & 6 / Davis

Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra

Nielsen
Symphonies Nos 1 & 6

The second release in Sir Colin Davis's acclaimed Nielsen Symphony cycle features Symphonies Nos 1 & 6. The first title in the series, Symphonies Nos 4 & 5, was an Editor's Choice in Gramophone and Orchestral Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine. The final release in the cycle, Symphonies 2 & 3, will be released at the end of 2012.
Nielsen's First Symphony draws inspiration from Brahms and Dvorak but also contains hints of the progressive tonality for which he was later celebrated. His enigmatic final symphony, entitled Sinfonia Semplice (Simple Symphony), suggesting a work of "entirely idyllic character", turns out to be anything but this.
Though written 30 years apart, both works feature folk-inflections, tonal ambiguity, and Nielsen's distinctive anti-Romantic style.

Concert Reviews
'an enormously impressive, entirely distinctive work ... it's difficult to imagine a more persuasive performance than this one' Daily Telegraph (UK) 5 October 2011 [Symphony No 1]
'Davis still has fire in the belly, as his Nielsen First Symphony demonstrated ... It oozed authority and gravitas, thanks partly to the LSO's ideally meaty tone, but it also had Beethovenian dynamism, blazing impressively throughout the opening movement' Financial Times (UK) 5 October 2011 [Symphony No 1]
'It says something for Sir Colin Davis' eternal vitality and musical curiosity that he should come to the dynamic Carl Nielsen symphonies so late in life. You have to be old enough to grasp the ironies of this playfully subversive piece and the devilish glint in Davis' eye more than suggested what we've known all along - that the anarchy of a second childhood is more fun when you are old enough to care less.... This music is deliciously fitful in its refusal to conform' The Independent (UK) 29 May 2011 [Symphony No 6]
'The key to Davis's success with Nielsen's sometimes bewildering music is that he does not seek to impose himself on it too much.
Rather, the emphasis is on getting the detail as clear as possible and allowing the overall shape to emerge naturally' The Guardian (UK) 29 May 2011 [Symphony No 6]

Price: $19.98