Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5. Michael Schonwandt, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Dacapo Records 8.224156.(Review)

Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5. Michael Schonwandt, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Dacapo Records 8.224156.

The early-20th-century Danish composer Carl Nielsen was unusually prolific. He not only wrote six symphonies, he did operas, concertos, chamber music, piano and organ music, and songs. He is probably best known to American audiences, though, for the two pieces represented on this disc, the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Given, then, that the disc presents his most accessible material, that it's performed by a Danish conductor and orchestra, and that it's framed in excellent sound, it amounts to a good buy for listeners who don't already have favorite copies of these items.

The Fourth Symphony, known as "The Inextinguishable," is the more Romantic of the pair, the closer to Nature, and, because of its structure, the more unified. Nielsen wrote the symphony's four movements to flow into one another without interruption, something nicely observed in this recording. And, thanks to the clarity of the soundstage, the various bird calls and animal murmurings come across quite distinctly. Life, according to this music, ...