Stephen Pritchard 

Nielsen: Symphony No 2, ‘The Four Temperaments’; Symphony No 6 ‘Sinfonia Semplice’ CD review – blistering accounts of fine companion pieces

Sakari Oramo and his Stockholm players fully exploit the parallels between Nielsen’s 1902 and 1924 symphonies
  
  

Sakari Oramo
Sakari Oramo conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013. Photograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images Photograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images

Sakari Oramo’s cycle of Nielsen symphonies for the BIS label draws to a triumphant, blistering close with “The Four Temperaments” and “Sinfonia Semplice”, radically different pieces separated by 22 years but with parallels exploited to the full by the wonderfully responsive Stockholm players. For example, the second symphony’s beautifully evocative third movement (the melancholic temperament) is mirrored by the anxiety of the adagio of the last symphony. Oramo is totally in control, letting the panic of the first movement of the sixth take hold with alarming speed but also giving the orchestra space to breathe, as in the broad first movement of “The Four Temperaments”, allowing its rich, full-bodied sound to overwhelm us.

 

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