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Site review by Castor February 1, 2012
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
The first issue in Sir Colin Davis's invigorating integral cycle of the Nielsen symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra has garnered much critical praise in the music press since its release last year Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 - Davis . The cycle's continuation couples the composer's first and last symphonies – two works 33 years apart that could hardly be more different in style, structure and instrumentation, though both are quite unmistakable as the work of Carl Nielsen. Whilst occasional reminiscences of Brahms and Dvorak can be detected in the 1st Symphony, the 6th has a unique and idiosyncratic sound world and has gradually come to be recognized as one of the composer's finest achievements.
Coming to the Nielsen symphonies late in his career can be something of a two-edged sword for Colin Davis. On the one hand his relative inexperience conducting this composer's works allows the opportunity for a fresh view of these symphonies. On the other there is a possibility that his performances will lack many of the insights shown by other interpreters who are perhaps more immersed in this composer's distinctive style. Happily the latter is not the case, and both the performances on this SACD are deeply considered, powerful and gripping.
Davis's tempo for the opening 'Allegro orgoglioso' (it is incorrectly printed in the liner notes as 'Andante orgoglioso') brilliantly conveys the music's explosively defiant nature, aided by superb playing from the LSO. The pacing of the 'Andante' that follows is again well judged and the playing of the LSO captures both the wistful and often noble character of this movement. Davis brings a prodigious amount of bracing energy both to the symphony's Scherzo and the Finale, whose triumphant C major ending could hardly be delivered with more exhilaration.
Nielsen began his sixth and final symphony in 1924 seven years before his death. It was written when the composer's health was failing He was beset by problems in his personal life and depressed by many aspects of the changing world around him. No one hearing this work for the first time would understand the reason for its title 'Sinfonia semplice' and even a conductor as pioneering as Leopold Stokowski once said that he understood this symphony “technically, but not spiritually, psychologically, emotionally”. Colin Davis and the LSO rise to the challenge of this strange and puzzling symphony with a convincingly thoughtful performance. His approach throughout is profoundly serious , and some will feel that he slightly underplays Nielsen's wit and sardonic humour in, for example, the 'Humoreske'. Davis captures the anguish of the 'Proposta seria' thanks to the impassioned playing of the LSO's string section, while his marvellously responsive orchestra deliver a precise exposition of the 'Tema con variazioni' that bring this enigmatic and disturbing symphony to its quizzical conclusion.
The dry and unforgiving Barbican acoustic does allow excellent instrumental clarity, but also an unwelcome degree of hardness that adversely affects the 1st Symphony much more than the acerbic 6th . The recording fails to provide the upper strings with the warmth and richness these fine players deserve and even in the 5.1 multi-channel mix the lack of ambience is disappointing However, woodwind and brass are vividly reproduced as is the extensive percussion instrument array used throughout the sixth symphony.
Those who enjoyed the first issue in this Nielsen cycle will certainly not be disappointed with this one. One eagerly awaits Davis's accounts of Symphonies 2 and 3 that are due to be issued later this year.
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Copyright © 2012 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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