Product Description "Music is life, and like life itself, music is inextinguishable," said the Danish national composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Raised in the Danish countryside as the son of a poor folk musician, Nielsen's indomitable courage and infinite curiosity helped him develop into one of the greatest symphonists of the 20th century. This acclaimed series of Nielsen recordings, featuring the New York Philharmonic and their music director Alan Gilbert, has now reached the 1st and 4th symphonies, the former of which has never previously been performed - not to say recorded - by the New York Philharmonic. Review "An occasion to celebrate for Nielsen lovers everywhere." - The New York Times (after the performance in Avery Fisher Hall) "If there is any composer that Alan Gilbert conducts to perfection, it is Carl Nielsen." --The New Yorker<br \><br \>The New York Philharmonic is a powerhouse orchestra, Nielsen is a powerhouse symphonist, and Alan Gilbert revels in the music's energy and dynamism. 10/10 --ClassicsToday<br \><br \>Dacapo's engineering, as with the previous release in this series, is natural and very present. The woodwinds feel just slightly recessed in more fully scored sections, but I can attest that the music really does sound like this in actual performance with a large orchestra, and certainly nothing gets lost. More importantly, the engineers have captured the impression of a live performance, caught on the wing, and the audience is mercifully quiet. --David Hurwitz, classicstoday.com<br \><br \>"It's puzzling why Carl Nielsen's six symphonies, written between 1891 and 1925, are still widely undervalued. They offer a bracing alternative to the afterglow of Romanticism, and with off-kilter rhythms and compact, often spiky melodies, they still sound extraordinarily fresh. Especially so in new recordings by conductor Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, who are in the middle of recording four albums of Nielsen's orchestral music." --Deceptive Cadence, NPR<br \><br \>Sometimes a musician just "gets" a composer's music, for example, the conductor Alan Gilbert and the Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). When Mr. Gilbert began the Nielsen Project at the New York Philharmonic in 2011, a multiyear venture to perform and record the composer's six symphonies and three concertos, it was immediately clear that he had a special affinity for Nielsen's visionary music. --Tommasini, New York Times Classical Playlist"As a kid, Carl Nielsen made music by pounding on logs in the family woodpile. He'd grow up to become one of the most important, if still undervalued, symphony composers of the 20th century. Conductor Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have been making a case for Nielsen, recording live performances of all six of the great Danish composer's symphonies. Pairing the First and Fourth shows both how bracing and fresh the works sound and how Nielsen's symphonic language developed. The first, even with its whiffs of Dvorak, reveals the characteristic Nielsen rhythmic life force and harmonic personality. The Fourth, from 1916, subtitled "The Inextinguishable," unfolds in one continuous flow, with episodes of rambunctious glee (lots of fun for two timpanists), potent introspection and, ultimately, triumph." --Tom Huizenga, NPR Best Classical Albums of 2014New York Times, Classical Best of 2014: Alan Gilbert again proves an inspired conductor of the visionary Danish composer Carl Nielsen in this impressive live recording with the New York Philharmonic, part of the Nielsen Project, Mr. Gilbert's survey of the six symphonies and three concertos. Here are gripping, insightful accounts of the First and Fourth Symphonies.-Anthony Tommasini, New York Times New York Times, Fall Preview, 2014: Closing one of the great successes of Alan Gilbert's tenure thus far, the New York Philharmonic comes to the end of a multiyear process of performing and recording the Danish composer Carl Nielsen's six symphonies and three concertos for the Dacapo label. The symphonic cycle wraps up in October, with the Fifth - Nielsen's great masterpiece - and the seething Sixth ("Sinfonia Semplice"), along with the overture to his opera "Maskarade." In January, Mr. Gilbert leads the Clarinet Concerto, featuring the orchestra's new principal clarinetist, Anthony McGill, who will be testing the waters at the Philharmonic in what is officially being called a leave of absence from his position with the Metropolitan Opera's orchestra. If all that is simply not enough of Nielsen, whose 150th anniversary is in 2015, his countrymen will have their say, too: the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, under Cristian Macelaru, will play the dramatic Fourth Symphony ("The Inextinguishable") in February at Carnegie Hall, on a program that also includes Sibelius' "Valse Triste" and Violin Concerto, featuring the great Anne-Sophie Mutter. --New York Times, September 2014
H**Y
and the 5 and 6 cd are the best I've heard
I have an Osmo Vanska, BBC Scottish Symphony Nielsen Symphony cycle that I've had for about 8 years. It's okay, but was never that crazy about it. This Martin Gilbert/NY Phil changed my whole perspective about Nielsen's Symphonies. This cd, along with the 3 and 2 cd, and the 5 and 6 cd are the best I've heard.
I**Y
Good performance of Nielsen
UPS screwed up in the holiday rush but Amazon is not to be faulted. Good performance of Nielsen, invites more purchases of his compositions.
W**K
Five Stars
Great recording.
D**Y
Important disc from the Nielsen Project
This new DaCapo CD with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert includes fresh live recordings of two of the greatest 20th Century Symphonies, the first and fourth by Carl Nielsen. These are strongly felt performances; Gilbert calls this "full-blooded, passionate, dramatic and ultimately human music." An early review of the First Symphony, also quoted in the liner notes, called Nielsen "ruthless but innocent - like a child playing with dynamite." Gilbert shows the Bart Simpson side of this astonishing work, downplaying its 19th Century Romantic roots in favour of something sharper, ruder, more modern. The challenge for today's musicians is to present revolutionary music of a century (Nielsen or Stravinsky) or two or three centuries ago (Beethoven or Monteverdi) and make it sound as freshly radical today. This means turning up the volume or sharpening the focus, and Gilbert and his excellent players do both here, to great effect.I don't mean to slight the Fourth Symphony. This great work, written during the slaughter of World War I, represents the mature composer's deepest thoughts on life as well as music. Its exalted programme - it's called `The Inextinguishable" - might have condemned a lesser composer's music to bathetic gestures and cliche, but Nielsen's default mode is liveliness. His music always has a strong pulse, and this work has such a vital forward thrust that even the grief Nielsen expresses over the violence overtaking the world has its own dramatic interest. Gilbert and the orchestra are again admirably direct and dramatic, and are aided by a clear and lifelike recording.This is more than a great Nielsen recording, though great Nielsen recordings are hardly thick on the ground. It is part of the vitally important Nielsen Project (nyphil.org/nielsenproject) which will present concerts and recordings of the six symphonies and three concertos from 2012 to 2015. Alan Gilbert deserves a great deal of credit for his vision in bringing this music to a wider audience and raising Nielsen's reputation closer to what he deserves: amongst the three or four greatest composers of the 20th Century.
A**S
Fine playing of Nielsen's Symphonies 4 "The Inextinguishable" and 1!!!!
I was fortunate to buy this CD of Nielsen Symphonies 4 and 1 while at a New York Philharmonic Concert in New York last year, when they had just brought them out. I already have their recording of his Symphonies 3 and 2, which they did in 2012 also on the DACAPO label, and was very pleased with them. Alan Gilbert, the NYP Music Director, has a good bond with Nielsen's music and I'm very glad he has now recorded all six of his Symphonies with 5 and 6 just out on sale this year on Amazon.Alan Gilbert knows how to capture the essence of these Nielsen Symphonies with his positive energy and strength and the NYP respond brilliantly with their own power and style especially in the strings and brass. I have to say though that there are some beautiful woodwind solos on both Symphonies on this CD.I have to admit that I do prefer Nielsen's earlier Symphonies, like his 1st, and find his later Symphonies harder to appreciate. However this performance by Gilbert and the NYP of the Symphony No.4 "The Inextinguishable" has helped me come to like it much better.
A**N
Inexhaustible!
The Gilbert/NYP Nielsen cycle is one disc shy of completion. The latest release features a coupling of early and mature works. The Symphony 1 is well constructed and harmonically novel for its day, an auspicious first effort by anyone’s standards. Symphony 4 expands upon this trajectory of originality which initially crystallized with the lovely Symphony 3. In terms of thematic organization, harmonic arc and color, the final four symphonies solidify this composer’s stature as a major symphonist of the early part of the 20th century. Maestro Gilbert maintains a firm hand on the proceedings, artfully steering his orchestra through the alternate stretches of tension and repose. The NYP members provide nuanced, alert playing, unleashing ample horsepower when required. In a fiercely competitive field, this issue more than holds its own. The sound pickup, especially in Super Audio, has plenty of gusto and presence.
I**A
Excelente!
Totalmente satisfecho
ル**ム
洗練された「不滅」！！！
録音がキレイですね・・・特に「不滅」のダブル・ティンパニの辺りが、音が割れずズンと響くサウンドは最高！ギルバート＆NYPは、かなり洗練された演奏・・・ブラス・セクションの迫力も二重丸！！「不滅」もイイが、１番のフレッシュな感じもナカナカ・・・ニールセン初心者～ニールセン通まで幅広くお薦め！！！
A**S
Fine playing of Nielsen's Symphonies 4 "The Inextinguishable" and 1!!!!
I was fortunate to buy this CD of Nielsen Symphonies 4 and 1 while at a New York Philharmonic Concert in New York last year, when they had just brought them out. I already have their recording of his Symphonies 3 and 2, which they did in 2012 also on the DACAPO label, and was very pleased with them. Alan Gilbert, the NYP Music Director, has a good bond with Nielsen's music and I'm very glad he has now recorded all six of his Symphonies with 5 and 6 just out on sale this year on Amazon.Alan Gilbert knows how to capture the essence of these Nielsen Symphonies with his positive energy and strength and the NYP respond brilliantly with their own power and style especially in the strings and brass. I have to say though that there are some beautiful woodwind solos on both Symphonies on this CD.I have to admit that I do prefer Nielsen's earlier Symphonies, like his 1st, and find his later Symphonies harder to appreciate. However this performance by Gilbert and the NYP of the Symphony No.4 "The Inextinguishable" has helped me come to like it much better.
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