Older collectors will recall the impact that these records made on their appearance in the late 1940s—and what marvellous and invigorating performances they are! This was our first real encounter with Nielsen in this country and these records long held an unchallenged place. The Second Symphony was the first to appear, though not to be recorded (Erik Tuxen's account of the Espansiva preceded it by a year). Nielsen himself made no records of his own music though according to those who heard them, his own performances of the symphonies were altogether magnificent. Here, however, we have the next best thing: Thomas Jensen studied with Nielsen and played under his baton on a number of occasions when he was with the Tivoli Orchestra. His feeling for Nielsen's tempos was particularly strong, and he apparently remembered them with unerring accuracy. Hence, his version of the Second Symphony has special authority, as indeed do his later versions of Nos. 1, 5 and, above all, 6. To my mind his Second still remains very much in a class of its own—though I confess I was very taken with Launy Grondahl's 1956 account (Danacord mono DACO121/3, 7/84) and, of course, the recent Gothenburg recording (BIS LP247; CD CD247—both 5/84). Danish recordings of the post-war period were uncommonly fresh and the sound of these made between 1947-51 is more than acceptable: it is amazing to think that thanks to modern technology and Direct Metal Mastering, the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies which both took nine 78rpm sides each are so easily accommodated on a side apiece.
All, save for the Fifth Symphony, have been transferred to LP before, the Clarinet Concerto as recently as last year, though neither transfer of the symphonies has been issued in the UK. Oddly enough the freshest-sounding of all is the very earliest, the Second Symphony, which the first volume of The Record Guide (Collins, 1951), admired for the ''sweep and authority'' of the performance but found the recording ''fierce and the climaxes coarse''. The Fourth suffers from some constriction but the Fifth made the preceding year sounds much richer and cleaner. I still cherish the originals of all these, as well as Tuxen's account of the Espansiva and look forward to the day when it joins their company. Launy Grondahl was another champion of Nielsen in these days and had served first as a violinist in the Danish Symphony Orchestra and then as its conductor for 30 years. His account of the Fourth Symphony has a fire and spirit that carries all before it, and captures the very essence of this work. It goes without saying that it does not have the finesse, polish or rich sonority of the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan (DG 2532 029, 3/82; CD 414 313-2GH, 8/84) but it is an indispensable complement to it.
Erik Tuxen gave the Fifth Symphony at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival, only a few months after he had made the present records of it, and this performance did much to put Nielsen on the musical map here. However, this set was soon superseded by Thomas Jensen's Decca version (LXT2980, 12/54—nla) which had, of course, the advantage of greater clarity and presence, and in some ways it was, I think, more tautly held together. Of course, the very first record one encounters leaves a special imprint on the memory, and my reaction may well be coloureed by nostalgia, yet listening again to this pioneering set, it struck me as having the more powerfully distilled atmosphere, particularly in the opening pages. The sound, too, has slightly greater warmth (my comparison is with the original not the somewhat fiercer transfer made on the Ace of Clubs label in the 1960s). Those who recently invested in Telmanyi's record of the Violin Concerto with Fritz Busch (Danacord DACO151, 6/83) will already have the Cahuzac but I can testify to the superiority of the present transfer, which has no obtrusive surfaces and much greater transparency and detail. As I have said in a note on the provenance of these records, when one takes the old 78rpm sets off the shelves, one realizes why we were all so enthusiastic about Nielsen in the 1950s, for these is such blazing commitment about them. Now that we have such excellent transfers I shall be returning to these performances more often, and am delighted that they are now made accessible to a wider audience.'