When reviewing the earlier coupling of Nos. 4 and 5, which is part of a complete cycle of the Nielsen symphonies from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Adrian Leaper, I made some criticism of tempos, particularly with regard to the Fourth (10/94): ''The vital current on which every phrase must be borne in Nielsen needs to flow at higher voltage. This is music which needs to be played at white heat.'' Well, there is no lack of electricity in Leaper's reading of the Second. He sets a cracking pace for the first movement, the choleric temperament, and hardly puts a foot wrong in its three companions. In the Sinfonia espansiva I like Leaper's well-judged and sensible tempos throughout all four movements. The finale, where many conductors get it wrong (Bernstein is far too broad and self-indulgent), seems to me just right. These are more than just serviceable performances: they are very good indeed and the Irish orchestra sound better rehearsed and more inside the idiom than in Nos. 4 and 5.
You can pay more and do worse and I would certainly prefer this newcomer to Rozhdestvensky and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, though the latter offers much greater polish and the richer recording. I am also inclined to think the additional polish one gets from Blomstedt or Myung-Whun Chung is worth the extra outlay. Whenever I replay the Gothenburg/Chung performances they grow in stature, and it is no mean compliment to the new Naxos versions to say that they give them a very good run for their money. Naxos do not identify the singers in the slow movement of the Espansiva. No one investing in this new issue and then going on to either of the Blomstedt accounts is going to feel that they have been let down. The producer Chris Craker and his engineer, Simon Rhodes, secure a very decent balance: well laid-back wind and brass, with good front-to-back perspective and transparency of texture. The balance is far more musically judged and more consistent than on the new Kontrapunkt/Serov rival, where unimportant inner parts are sometimes too prominent.
Indeed, by the side of the Naxos, Eduard Serov's version of the Sinfonia espansiva with the Odense Symphony Orchestra would, on the face of it, seem uncompetitive. And indeed uncompetitive it is! After his idiomatic performance of the Second Symphony (11/94), this comes as a disappointment. Serov has real feeling for Nielsen, but he is just a bit too measured in the scherzo and far too measured in the finale. The orchestral sound is a little bottom-heavy and at times the bass end of the spectrum is opaque. The balance at the opening of the finale is hopeless, with an ill-defined violin line and too prominent supporting harmonies from the wind.
Serov includes two transcriptions Nielsen made for full strings of two movements he had written for string quartet at the very outset of his career. In their quartet form he took no great interest in them, yet he must have felt some degree of confidence to allow their appearance in print. They are not particularly characteristic though an occasional flicker of a fingerprint can be glimpsed. The Overture and two other movements from Maskarade complete the disc. Not to put too fine a point on it, the Leaper is good value for money, Edward Serov is not.'