Everyone has their favorite individual performances of the major Nielsen symphonies, but on balance Michael Schonwandt’s cycle remains the most consistently excellent available. It has no weak links at all, and is expertly recorded. It has been variously available on Dacapo and, later, on Naxos, but here it comes repackaged with two DVDs featuring the same forces in live performances of the same works. I leave it to you to decide if the live versions are better than the recordings; it’s nice to have both.
The disc of orchestral works, containing a selection of overtures (including Maskarade, Helios, Cupid and the Poet, and An Imaginary Journey to the Faeroe Islands), incidental music (Snefrid and others), and the tone poem Pan and Syrinx, with Thomas Dausgaard conducting, was and remains the finest recording of these works yet issued. It is stunning in every respect. If you haven’t yet heard these performances, then this set will be a mandatory acquisition, particularly if you want to get a big chunk of Nielsen in a single shot.
