Search - Nielsen, Salonen, Swedish Radio Orchestra :: Nielsen: Symphony No. 5/Maskarade

A Nielsen Fifth to rival the classic Bernstein

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Salonen looks like a teenager on the cover and was barely 30 in 1988 when he made this recording with the Swedish Radio Orchestra. They play the Nielsen Fifth with fire and conviciton. The key movement is the first, where Nielsen respnded to the horrors of WW I with a snare-drum solo that attacks the rest of the orchestra with shocking violence. At least it should be shocking, as it is here. Even Bernstein, who up to now had the best rendition, can't express the disturbing anarchy one hears under Salonen. The rest of the performance is also up to Bernstein's, although the orhcestra can't match the NY PHil. for sheer virtuosity and elan.



The remainder of this short CD (50 min.) contains a suite from Nielsen's opera Maskarade, a comedy of manners almost never performed outside Denmark. The Overture, however, is a delight and deserves to join the standard repertoire--it's Nielsen's Russlan and Ludmilla. The sonics are clear and detailed but a bit distant and lacking in impact."

A Performance/Recording Weather Time Well

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although this recording was made in 1988 when Esa-Pekka Salonen was just beginning to let the world know of his brilliance as a conductor and composer, this fine recording of Nielsen's Symphony No. 5, here coupled with the Masquerade Suite, remains one of the finest on record. Salonen's early reputation as a conductor who was able to transmit all the inner voices of a score with immaculate precision was never more in evidence than his early performances of the works of Carl Nielsen.



Salonen conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and is complete control of this sprawling work. The dialogues between the snare drum and the orchestral themes have never been more subtly then powerfully realized. Other conductors such as Leonard Bernstein may have driven the work with faster tempi and louder climaxes, but Salonen's way with building a work block by block makes the final resolution almost unbearably powerful and triumphant.



The jocular Masquerade here enjoys a fine outing with many of the echoing moments and fugues seem as though heard for the first time. This, with the 5th Symphony, is one of the now 'standards' of the recorded Nielsen repertoire. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 06"

Uncanny performance!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 01/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nielsen' s Fifth Symphony is one the supreme works of the XX Century, intense, absorbing and enigmatic, reflects as a few, the sense of desperation and hopeless in those difficult years of the WW1.



Essa Pekka Salonen made of one the four best performances that I know about this Opus. Horenstein, Bernstein New York would complete the reduced number of first rate versions in the market.



Go without restrictions in search of this privileged performance. It belongs to the musical legend from it its instantaneous release.

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