The most impressive thing about this extraordinary first entry in dacapo's new Nielsen symphony cycle is the combination of clarity and total naturalness that Michael Schonwandt and his players demonstrate in bringing out the brilliant details of the composer's orchestration (such as the trumpet tremolos introducing the great waltz in the middle of the Espansiva's first movement). To do this without ever holding up the music's flow is no easy task. Movement is everything in Nielsen's music. Find the right tempo, and these works practically play themselves. Indulge a desire to take in picturesque details, and you wind up with a mess. Schonwandt passes all of the "tempo tests"--the second movement of the Second Symphony, the finale of the Third--with flying colors, and he's been given a recording that permits the orchestra to positively glow. Most Danish orchestras in the past have approached the music of their greatest symphonist with too much reticence, as if embarrassed by its boisterous high spirits and occasional eruptions of violence. Not here. Schonwandt's rhythms are as punchy as his tempos are flowing. Nielsen's symphonies remain on the edge of the international repertoire--unjustly, because he's as great a symphonic composer as ever put pen to paper. If this series maintains the high level of excellence on display here through the rocky terrain of the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, perhaps that situation will change. Keep your fingers crossed.

--David Hurwitz