Until recently it had not been possible to accommodate quite so much music on one CD, with the result that collectors have had to acquire (possibly unwanted) duplications in order to add the Nielsen concertos to their shelves. Indeed, if you want the comparative versions listed above, you will also get the First and Third Symphonies, albeit in very good performances, plus the Sibelius Violin Concerto, which may well deter some readers who have already invested in the Blomstedt or Ole Schmidt Symphony cycles (Decca and Unicorn-Kanchana respectively). Therefore in having all three concertos together on one CD, that falls only a few seconds short of 80 minutes, the present issue starts with a very strong competitive advantage over its rivals. And that aside, taking each performance on its individual merits, its competitiveness still remains very keen indeed.
Kim Sjogren's account of the Violin Concerto has a great deal going for it: he may not have the lyrical purity and aristocratic finesse of Cho-Liang Lin (CBS—a 1989 Gramophone Award-winner), nor his effortless virtuosity but he plays with great understanding and intensity. Moreover he has the advantage of an infinitely more sympathetic and understanding orchestral support. Right from the beginning and throughout the work—I should add the whole record—Michael Schonwandt shows an innate feeling for this music and its atmosphere, and is far more responsive to its natural flow than Lin's conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. The perspective between soloist and orchestra is well-judged (Sjogren is never larger than life) and so, for the most part, is the internal balance: only at one point a little way into the finale did I feel the woodwind was a bit too prominent. If Sjogren does not produce quite as noble a sound as Lin, the performance as a whole can hold its head high alongside it.
In the Flute Concerto Toke Lund Christiansen gives a very fine account of himself, full of spirit and intelligence. In some respects he is not quite the equal of the remarkable Patrick Gallois with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung (BIS/Conifer) who has great expressive intensity and conveys the ''lightness of spirit and awareness of pain'' you find in this concerto to striking effect. All the same, this fine Danish player, a pupil of Poul Birkelund, produces good sound and has no want of brilliance, authority or character. Last but emphatically not least, Niels Thomsen's account of the Clarinet Concerto is one of the very finest I have ever heard, and I do not forget the masterly performance by Kjell-Inge Stevensson with Blomstedt (EMI, 10/75—nla) or Olle Schill's fine Gothenburg version (BIS) listed above. There is no attempt to beautify the score or to overstate it: every dynamic nuance and expressive marking is observed by both soloist and conductor, and the risks that are taken come off. Niels Thomsen plays as if his very being is at stake and Michael Schonwandt secures playing of great imaginative intensity from the Danish Radio orchestra.
In short a very impressive recording and well worth acquiring, even if you have some of the rivals listed above.
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