Later audiences could be enchanted by the concepts that mark Nielsen out as an unique, experimental and daring composer. These qualities have been already evident in his First Symphony of 1892, his unorthodox juggling of keys anchored by an instinctive feeling for counterpoint and melody.

He developed these extra efficiently within the Second Symphony, which although it could not rival the Third Symphony (‘Espansiva’) in reputation, nonetheless has lots of the identical substances. Nielsen is aware of how you can carry the guts with these joyful excessive woodwind passages, whereas his earthy bassoon and trombone traces add color and depth to his canvas. He has a present for depicting life in all its mess and wonder, and nowhere extra so than in ‘The 4 Temperaments’.

A information to the music of Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, ‘The 4 Temperaments’

In chatty programme notes for a Stockholm efficiency in 1931, Nielsen provides insights into his imaginative and prescient for every motion. Although not a fan of programme music, he nonetheless imagined the actions because the characters portrayed in these garish work: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine.

Noting that each individual has parts of every temperament, Nielsen shares motifs and melodies between actions – as an illustration, certainly one of his favorite intervals, the rising minor third, seems in each the Phlegmatic’s lilting melody and the Melancholic’s tragic opening theme.

The primary motion, Allegro collerico, begins ‘impetuously’ as Nielsen writes, with brief emphatic chords main right into a headlong gallop down the dimensions and up once more, dynamics lurching from f to fpp to fz. That choleric horseman is unable to rein in his anger till the second, lyrical topic, however then one thing rouses him once more and the music displays this intemperance. With its rhythmic selection and temper swings, the exposition has a picaresque flavour, recalling one thing of Berlioz’s energetic orchestral adventures.

For the second motion, Allegro comodo e flemmatico, Nielsen imagines an indolent, lovable youth lounging beside the harbour ‘along with his legs dangling over the sting’. The affect of his rural childhood permeates this heady, summer-filled reverie, with a single sudden forte. ‘Did a barrel fall into the water and disturb the younger man for a second?’ asks Nielsen. ‘Perhaps. So what.’

Within the Andante malincolico, Nielsen goals to specific the character of a heavy, melancholic man. Broad, solemn melodies stir the guts, by no means descending into sentimentality – however a shadow of hysteria lurks beneath. Nielsen remarks ruefully, ‘What the composer himself needs has much less significance than what the music’s innermost essence is looking for.’

And the Allegro sanguineo? ‘A person who storms thoughtlessly ahead within the perception that the entire world belongs to him, that fried pigeons will fly into his mouth with out work or hassle,’ as Nielsen remarks. Certainly the music bursts rudely onto the scene, adopted by a joyous, galumphing hoe-down when the musicians throw warning to the winds and be a part of the celebration. A cheerful, cocky coda – Marziale – ends this exhilarating work.

One of the best recordings of Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, ‘The 4 Temperaments’

Ole Schmidt (conductor)

London Symphony Orchestra

Alto ALC2505

Two excellent performances – Herbert Blomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony from 1989 and a brand-new launch from the Danish Nationwide Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi – burnish Nielsen’s exhilarating rating with their energy and polish. But it surely’s the almost 50-year-old efficiency by Ole Schmidt and the LSO that, regardless of its shortcomings, finest captures Nielsen’s character research with irrepressible vigour and humanity.

Their pioneering full symphony cycle was recorded between energy cuts through the three-day week in London in 1974, giving the performances an urgency that extra pampered recordings lack. The string sound is typically skinny and ragged and the brass could be too distinguished, however the general impression is of an orchestra thrilled to be discovering this music with a Danish conductor steeped in Nielsen. Initially on Unicorn Kanchana, it’s been remastered and reissued by Alto, with enhancements in stability and readability.

From the primary outburst of the Allegro collerico, the distinction between rage and reflective moments is properly drawn. Savage strings tear into the runs, brass and woodwind bray in sharp two-note figures. When the second theme arrives, Schmidt broadens the tempo until the melody floats like an excellent ship on the swell. Within the Allegro comodo e flemmatico the orchestra conjures up a lazy summer season day on Funen; over the lilting breeze you’ll be able to hear a fly buzzing, a element not apparent in all recordings.

The opening tempo of the Andante malincolico is the litmus check for any conductor. Luisi and the Danish NSO fall down right here – their funereal plod strips the melody of its momentum – however Schmidt maintains a measured tempo, nothing exaggerated or sentimental in his melancholy. Pungent brass and woodwind exclamations earlier than the poco largamente distinction with the fairy-tale second theme, un pochettino più mosso, all veiled strings and delicate woodwind traces – even in 1974 the LSO clearly had top-rank soloists.

Schmidt’s high-wire efficiency of the Allegro sanguineo actually units the heartbeat racing. On this hectic hoedown the strings virtually journey over their very own shoelaces and the brass and horns galumph alongside like village bandsmen, a flashback to the 14-year-old Nielsen enjoying trumpet in a army band. And the triumphant Marziale coda, regardless of its abrupt, unsophisticated ending, is dispatched with irresistibly life-affirming confidence.