One of the principal attractions of running a blog like this is that you get to spin records you like and then pontificate about them. Many people listen and some even read what I have to say, so what could be better!
Today we have a real favorite of mine, Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 3, or Sinfonia Espansiva, as he called it., in what is perhaps the classic recording of the work, by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra directed by Erik Tuxen (below).
Although he lived until 1931, Nielsen made no recordings of his own music. The early recordings by Tuxen, Launy Grøndahl and Thomas Jensen are considered to have a certain authenticity because they worked with Nielsen. However, since Tuxen was 29 when Nielsen died, I wonder how much the composer actually shaped his interpretation.Nielsen was little known outside Scandinavia when these records were made. Today his symphonies are played on an occasional basis, but more often the fourth through the sixth rather than the first through the third. Too bad - this outgoing "expansive symphony" is beautifully wrought and inspiring, and Nielsen's first two efforts are hardly less impressive.
For some reason, this recording was not issued until mid-1949 in England, and then was little trumpeted by Decca, as you will see from the advertisement below from my copy of the June 1949 Gramophone magazine (click to enlarge). Assiduous record collectors will see a number of other items of interest in Decca's offering of that month.
The original issue of the symphony was on 78s, with the overture to Nielsen's opera Maskarade as a fill-up. When the symphony appeared on LP in 1951, the overture was left behind. While I don't have the original coupling, I do have Tuxen's recording of the Helios overture, and will be presenting it later.
This is from a very clean pressing.
Buster: I always read what you write, am thankful for your insights, and gladdened by the lucidity of your prose. Thank you for this offering; I love Nielsen's symphonies and do not know this recording. I am looking forward to listening to it.
ReplyDeleteLarry - So happy to hear it. It so happens that we have a Mutual Admiration Society.
ReplyDeleteHey - remember that tune? It was, what? a rhumba? It came from Happy Hunting, as belted out by Ethel Merman. I would guess the song was "inspired" by Hernando's Hideaway.
Off track again - thanks so much for your note!
Buster, This should be quite good. I will pair it with Tuxen's take on the Helios Overture, available on the European Archive.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Fred
Buster:
ReplyDeleteBeen following your transfers for a while, but this is my first comment here. This is, I'd say, my favorite of all the Nielsen symphonies. I'm very interested to hear its first ever recording. One of the most interesting things about your scan of the Gramophone ad is that the composer names, of all the included information, are in the smallest and least significant font. Curious prioritizing, or lack thereof.
Keep up the great work.
--Aaron
@ Aaron,
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right about the prioritization - that was in fact quite common back then and has always struck me as odd. I tend to think it was an artifact of the 78 era - where most records were chunks of works rather than complete works. So "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth (Handel)" makes more sense than "Symphony No. 3 (Nielsen)".
Thanks for your note! Hope you enjoy the work.
I noticed at Amoeba Records in Hollywood that Decca has finally released the Jensen recordings of the Nielsen 1st and 5th symphonies on CD: http://www.amazon.com/Nielsen-Sym-Nos-Flt-Maskarade/dp/B003LDKJMW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1278972513&sr=8-1. It makes me wonder if they'll get to the Tuxen 3rd as well.
ReplyDeleteBuster: I don't know if you've seen this youtube video from am Ethel Merman TV pilot or not, but it's worth checking out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbdSnVOc9ew
ReplyDelete@ Gigh-Fi - I have that Jensen recording of the first (the original LP, that is) around here someplace. Also, I think I have the Grøndahl recording of the fourth, but I believe that was on HMV rather than Decca.
ReplyDelete@ Larry - Super! I hadn't seen that and enjoyed it a lot.
Thank you! It's great to have such an excellent transfer of the first recording of this work I got.
ReplyDeletePatience is a virtue. I couldn't, for the life of me, see why you made such a fuss about Carl Nielsen in general and his "Sinfonia Espansiva" in particular as I plodded through the first somewhat stodgy, turgid movement. But I understood when I heard that hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music second movement. From then on, I was captured, if not always captivated. My real reason for writing is to tell you how impressed I was by the 1946 sonics of this recording. London is justly celebrated for its recordings in the mid and late 1940s. I have no idea of whether Erik Tuxen is the ideal interpreter of this music. But I'll take your word for the authoritativeness of his reading. Thanks for introducing me to Mr. Nielsen in clear early high fidelity.
ReplyDeleteI like your transfer! When Michael Dutton released this on CD in 1999 (paired with Tuxen's recording of Symphony No. 5 from 1950), he gave the recording date as 25-26, 30 Oct 1946. That would still make this the first commercial recording of a Nielsen symphony. Danacord issued recordings of the 2nd Symphony (with Jensen, from 1944) and the 5th Symphony (with Høeberg, from 1933), but neither had been released before.
ReplyDeleteBrent Miller
Brent - Glad you like the transfer. I knew that Dutton issued it as well, but I haven't heard that one.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Buster - I just found this and am downloading now. I used to have the 78-rpm release of this as London set LA-126, but had to let go of it in 2003 (along with most of my 78s at the same time) so it's good to get to hear it again.
ReplyDeleteCould you please restore this link? Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteNew remastering (Apple lossless):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/file/dp0m0jfhfc33b0z/Nielsen%20-%20Symphony%20No.%203%20%28DRSO%20Tuxen%29%20%28remastered%29.zip
MediaFire is denying permission to download.
DeleteAlternative link:
Deletehttp://www18.zippyshare.com/v/GdVe4rgo/file.html
Buster,
DeleteFrom a big fan of both Nielsen AND Tuxen, AND old Decca FFRR's --
I have looked around your blog for an excuse to add these two venerable items; but I haven't found any relevant Swiss music, nor some tonal Schoenberg. So be it; here's two further items that collectors of the above might also enjoy.
1. Othmar Schoeck's incredibly beautiful Violin and Horn concerti, with Edmond de Stoutz conducting the Zurich orchestra and soli Ulrich Lehmann, and Josef Brejza. I had this on a Mace stereo LP of the late sixties and after I sold my entire collection of 13,000 Lps following my retirement from classical radio, I missed it so much that I went back to the dealer who bought it -- Wessex in Menlo Park -- and gave him TWICE as much as he'd paid me for the record just to get it back in my possession to digitize it. Unfortunately I didn't scan the Mace LP cover but I found an ExLibris LP cover on Discogs.
https://www118.zippyshare.com/v/9c0EEeoE/file.html
(231 MB, zipped mp3s--to expire in one month after upload, as of this date.)
2. Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, in the classic early 1950s recording conducted by Rene Leibowitz. You know the blogger who first posted this: he had very inferior equipment and techniques, and his blog is now defunct. I worked over the files and since I'd heard the Vox Box originals, I knew that they needed help anyway. I think it's now worth hearing at least once or twice, if one knows and loves this expressive postromantic score!
https://www79.zippyshare.com/v/8hYb6Cpn/file.html
(454 MB, zipped mp3s of each side, plus cover image. But, at the end of thirty days, this turns into "4 minutes 33 seconds" by John Cage.)
8H Haggis
I'm sure I have the Mace LP; great record indeed.
DeleteThanks for this. Here is the Mace cover taken from a YT up load and doctored a bit in an image editor.
Deletehttps://www.flickr.com/x/t/0099009/photos/26483274@N04/41678193640/
What a classic, lovely cover! I hope you don't mind a little bit of retouching to reduce some of the camera flash-reflections and increase the smoothness of the dark red background (which always gets a bit grungy in JPEGs with moderate levels of compression.)
Deletehttps://www76.zippyshare.com/v/1uKr8OKN/file.html
8H Haggis
Here are some other Decca FFRR early Nielsen recordings, in transfers sent to me a few years ago by a midwestern friend. I had these in the LL-series issues in my old (now-sold) large vinyl collection, and used to play them on an old early-50s Fisher preamp that had numerous playback curve settings; his transfers were made with the modern RIAA curve and don't sound nearly as vivid as I remember them from the "correct" equalization; there is also some mains hum in each of the original masters (as it disappears in the lead-in and lead-out grooves, suggesting that it was on the tapes or disks used to cut the LL series matrices.) I haven't done anything to these except to aggregate all of them into a single folder. The performances are all splendid--as fine as any I've ever heard.
DeleteSymphonies 1 and 5; Maskarade Overture; Flute and Clarinet Concerti; text file with artists and label issues attributed; and cover pix of LATER Decca LP issues, not the same LL series releases used for these transfers):
https://www19.zippyshare.com/v/dZRSKxJv/file.html
(100 MB zipped mp3s, 30-day limited availability)
8H Haggis
Not Nielsen, but rather some other contemporary Decca/London FFRR issues that particularly thrill me, below.
DeleteJosef Krips' earliest records always impress me. Here are two of the most successful, which I had in authentic first edition copies in my old vinyl collection. Both were recorded around 1950-51 in splendidly vivid, balanced sound. This Beethoven Fourth, with the Concertgebouw, is fabulous and vastly superior, IMO, to Krips' later LSO stereo version for Everest. I think that it is one of the finest performances ever recorded, bar none.
The Schubert Ninth with the same orchestra is *almost* in the same league, though the scherzo would benefit from at least a few more repeats: in particular, the very first one is excised which bothers me a bit. Otherwise, this driving, intense performance is one of the most exciting ones I've ever heard.
Australian Eloquence has reissued these and Krips' other Deccas, but I found the sound disappointingly over-bright and thin compared to the original American London pressings. Apologies for including merely two mp3 files of the entire works, untracked--but I did not have the inclination to dig out my lossless FLAC originals as this upload from Zippyshare (unregistered) will expire in only 30 days.
The embedded cover images are NOT from the actual disks used; the transfers were done years ago and the original covers were not scanned at that time. I've even lost track of the original LL numbers of these releases, and unfortunately the Discogs website has not documented them.
https://www19.zippyshare.com/v/jwSF7rK2/file.html
(64 MB, zipped mp3s, with LP cover images of certain other LP equivalent copies)
8H Haggis
I might add a little first-hand "Krips anecdote":
DeleteWhen I was a nipper, I attended one of his concerts with the SF Symphony at Foothill College in Los Altos; I brought with me the Everest "cheapy" reissue box of his LSO Beethoven Nine and presented it to Krips for his autograph.
The original Everest full-priced LP issue of c.1961 was a very deluxe production, but by the late sixties, Everest had changed hands and the new owner (Cornfield?) had cheapened everything, with inferior pressings and very chintzy packaging.
Krips took it in his hands and was shocked: he'd never seen this edition, and seemed quite visibly upset and annoyed. Nevertheless, he then recovered quickly and signed it with a flourish in a grand, large hand.
Wondering why he had seemed so perturbed, I later did some detective work and uncovered photos of the FIRST release, which was considered to be a landmark in the original Belock/Everest catalogue--and could understand why the conductor was so dismayed by this cheezy looking smaller box with ugly black-and-white printing and entirely different (and uninspiring) cover image.
At any rate, Krips' reputation with the SF Symphony players was that he was a sort of unforgiving despot and tyrant, who constantly expressed complete exasperation with the ensemble and their rather apathetic playing. I remember a concert with a Mozart violin concerto: Krips was so apparently upset with the opening tutti that he waved his hands violently--and started it all over again!
The SF Sym DID dramatically improve subsequently! He was a great 'orchestra builder' if not a beloved figure like his idol, Bruno Walter...
8H Haggis
Oh, by the way: toward the end of Krips' short tenure in SF, he became much more satisfied with the artistic results. I recall a live concert featuring the Brahms First: when he came to the grand 'chorale' theme in the last movement, Krips beamed radiantly at the orchestra and FOLDED HIS HANDS, allowing them to sing out expressively with no direction from him whatsoever. A year or two later, I saw Kubelik conduct this work with the SF players--and confess that I felt rather let down that he didn't replicate this "Krips trick" but continued his gesticulations quite energetically and -- it almost seemed -- unessentially!
Delete8H Haggis