Nielsen: Symphonies, Overtures & Concertos (5 Hybrid SACD)

Herbert Blomstedt is an iconic American-born Swedish conductor known for his extensive career and "old-world ideals" approach to music. Born in 1927, he continues to conduct at a very advanced age. His career has included tenures as chief conductor of prominent orchestras, such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, and as music director of the San Francisco Symphony. Blomstedt was notably the first conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra from 1967 to 1977, during which time he made the acclaimed recordings contained in this Nielsen box set. He is noted for his performances of German and Austrian composers as well as Scandinavian composers.

Blomstedt's conducting style is often described as disciplined and serene, using minimal, refined gestures without a baton, as he believes the orchestra needs a musician to communicate with rather than a "time beater." He approaches each work as if it were new, constantly discovering new details. He has been praised for his ability to bring out the grace and clarity in a piece, and for his collaborative and communicative relationship with the musicians he leads.

The Danish composer Carl Nielsen lived between 1865 and 1931. He was 22 years younger than the great Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, and born just six months before the Finnish genius, Jean Sibelius. His birthplace was a village near Odense, on the island of Fyn, the town which was also the birthplace to one the greatest writer of stories for children, Hans Christian Andersen.  

Whilst his works may not show the influence of his country’s literature and landscape as overtly as Sibelius, Nielsen is a composer who absorbed the distinctive atmosphere of his homeland. His scores are clear and forcefully argued, he used progressive tonality rather than resorting to the atonal techniques being practiced elsewhere in Europe. His modern reputation is based primarily on his six symphonies but, as can be heard in the other works in this collection, he was adept in many musical forms.