Nielsen - Flute Concerto, Symphony no.3, Pan and Syrinx
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Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHSA5312
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 5th April 2024
Contents
Artists
Adam Walker (flute)Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Edward GardnerWorks
Flute Concerto, FS119Pan and Syrinx, op.49 FS87
Symphony no.3, op.27 'Sinfonia espansiva'
Artists
Adam Walker (flute)Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Edward GardnerAbout
For this second instalment in their Nielsen cycle, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by the flautist Adam Walker for a programme that combines the Flute Concerto, the Third Symphony, and the tone poem Pan and Syrinx. Nielsen began work on the Third Symphony in 1910, some seven years after he had completed his Second Symphony ‘The Four Temperaments’, and the work was premièred in Copenhagen in 1912. In his album note, Paul Griffiths describes the work’s eventual title, ‘Sinfonia espansiva’ as a fifth temperament – Joviality. In the second movement, uniquely in his symphonic output, Nielsen calls for (wordless) voices – solo soprano and baritone. It was also the first of his symphonies to be commercially released on record – Erik Tuxen conducting the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Composed in 1926, the Flute Concerto is a late work, and demonstrates Nielsen’s stylistic evolution towards the new modernism. The soloist engages in repeated interactions with other instruments within the orchestra, most notably the clarinet and the bass trombone. Pan and Syrinx dates from 1918, and is based on the ancient legend which tells how the amorous god Pan invented the pan flute whilst pursuing the nymph Syrinx.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Pan og Syrinx, Op. 49, FS 87
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2Flute Concerto, FS 119. I. Allegro moderato
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3Flute Concerto, FS 119. II. Allegretto, un poco
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4Symphony No. 3, Op. 27, FS 60 'Sinfonia espansiva'. I. Allegro espansivo
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5Symphony No. 3, Op. 27, FS 60 'Sinfonia espansiva'. II. Andante pastorale
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6Symphony No. 3, Op. 27, FS 60 'Sinfonia espansiva'. III. Allegretto un poco
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7Symphony No. 3, Op. 27, FS 60 'Sinfonia espansiva'. IV. Finale. Allegro
Europadisc Review
There’s a kindred spirit among the Nordic nations that transcends their very individual characteristics, and when they perform one another’s music there’s a feeling of shared heritage. Such is certainly the case with the Nielsen recordings being made by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under their chief conductor, Edward Gardner (Nielsen himself conducted the orchestra in his own music). When we reviewed their previous disc, coupling a splendid account of the Violin Concerto from James Ehnes with the Fourth Symphony (‘The Inextinguishable’), we hailed it as ‘self-recommending’. So we were eager to hear their follow-up album, coupling the similarly popular Third Symphony (the ‘Sinfonia espansiva’ of 1910–11) with two later works that find Nielsen increasingly embracing elements of modernism.
The disc opens with one of Nielsen’s few tone poems, Pan and Syrinx, op.49, composed in 1917–18. Some four years earlier, Debussy had written his astonishing Syrinx for solo flute, a key work in musical modernism, but Nielsen’s approach to the legend of the virtuous nymph pursued by the amorous god Pan, who transforms herself into reed pipes rather than surrender to his advances, is very different. It opens in a comfortingly pastoral F major, and most of the score is in lilting compound time. But it is the spiky interjections from xylophone and full orchestra that begin to animate proceedings as Pan pursues his quarry, while the haunting cor anglais solo and its attendant glockenspiel interjection evoke the elusive, alluring nymph.
All the vital woodwind solos are played with immense character, bringing out the music’s edginess as well as an air of antique mystery, while there’s ample depth and richness to the strings. The fractured nature of Nielsen’s writing – moments of frantic activity alternating with passages of eerie stillness – is brilliantly conveyed by Gardner and his players, and the end result in this compact nine-minute work is utterly captivating.
Adam Walker is the soloist in the Flute Concerto of 1926, which has a lighter, almost neoclassical feel to it. Yet Nielsen’s own hallmarks are much in evidence: the fruitful interplay of stasis and dynamism, the understanding of instrumental character, and the key part played by duets for the soloist with other instruments (notably clarinet and trombone). Walker produces a wonderfully limpid yet pliant tone, featherlight and wonderfully agile, with hints of exoticism in the first movement cadenzas.
After the urgent opening, the second movement has a folksy feel to its outer sections (culminating in a march), and Walker imparts an engagingly carefree feel to the music. This contrasts nicely with the more plangent, gently wistful Adagio sections, shadows coming over the music in a moment of crisis before the folk-like motif returns. Once again, the contrasting moods are finely caught by Walker, Gardner and the orchestra, moments of eruptive seriousness quickly brushed aside after making their impact. This is music that calls for agility of mood, and this performance delivers in spades.
The earliest work on the disc is the Sinfonia espansiva, and here the richness of tone for which the Bergen Philharmonic is renowned comes into its own. The punchy repeated unison As that launch the work are gripping, and then we launch into the ‘expansive’ main theme, peppered with violent interjections. Here the adjective ‘espansiva’ could as well apply to the sonic depth achieved in Bergen’s Grieghallen as to the openness and spontaneity suggested in Paul Griffiths’s excellent booklet notes. Once again, the interplay between sparsely scored passages and explosive tuttis is marvellously keen. The whiff of the outdoors suggested by the Andante pastorale second movement, with hushed strings and supporting drones, is unmistakable. Woodwind solos are again a highlight, and the episodic nature of the music never impedes the sense of forward flow. This sense of wide, open spaces is reinforced by the wordless offstage singing of soprano Lina Johnson and baritone Yngve Søberg, the orchestral playing superbly sotto voce, evoking distant meadows.
There’s plenty of animation and bite in the scherzo-like third movement, the opening horns magnificently full-throated, and even where the music seems to be going round in circles, one senses that Gardner always knows exactly where he’s going. The generous-hearted theme that opens the Finale has a joyous nobility to it, expansive in the most benevolent sense, and when textures begin to break down, the different strands are expertly delineated (Nielsen is very fond of fugato passages in this work!). Above all, one always has the impression of a strong, safe pair of hands on the tiller, navigating through the repetitions and contrasts that are such a defining feature of Nielsen’s musical language. The climaxes at the movement’s centre-point and at the work’s close are simply glorious, capping another triumphant recording from this team.
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