By MS65515
06-Dec-2012

How did they do it?  

Yes, just how did they manage to give such a committed and thrilling performance to such a decent recording? Clarity is the motto here, and every strand of the music can be heard. Sometimes the tutti passages threaten to break up a bit, but it's a small price to pay. In fact, the performance is so gripping that one quickly forgets that this is a mono recording.

The orchestra plays as if their lives depended on it, the conductor is a Nielsen expert who actually knew the composer, everything was just right. This is an excellent companion to the even earlier Laury Grondahl recording of Nielsen's 4th, again a recording of such clarity that BBC Radio 3's critic on Building a Library pointed out that a key theme in the first movement could only be clearly heard on this 1950s recording but not on subsequent modern stereo ones!

A real bargain, one to return to every so often, if you heard it every day you'd be just too energised for your own good!
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