Search - Carl Nielsen, Adrian Leaper, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland :: Nielsen: Symphonies 2 & 3

Under-rated masterpieces beautifully played and recorded

Martin Selbrede | The Woodlands, Texas | 07/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember being vaguely unimpressed with Nielsen's works when I was first exposed to them 20 years ago. It took the bargain Naxos price to coax me off my prejudiced perch to give this composer one last try. The five-star rating a previous reviewer gave this album also helped push me over the edge. I figured that, worst case, I'd only have proven again that glowing customer reviews are seldom authoritative or objective. Boy, did I eat crow!



I was transfixed by these works virtually from the outset. The performances were passionate yet precise, emotionally insightful but framed with crystalline clarity. There are dimuendi and pianissimo string decrescendos that are so controlled and balanced, you marvel that anyone could have captured that magic in a recording. It's as if you're listening to the Berlin Philharmonic on a "good hair day." As you listen, you keep thinking to yourself "this can't possibly be a budget disk. Someone must have slipped a Deutsche Gramophone CD into the jewel case!"



For listeners seeking motivic development on a Beethovenian, Brahmsian, or Mahlerian scale, Nielsen delivers the goods on this front as well. The sheen of these masterpieces is not merely skin-deep. There is architectonic depth and contrapuntal integrity undergirding this fine composer's flights of imagination. What more could one ask of a disk, than to introduce listeners to one of the great symphonists of the 20th century?"