A powerful symphonic journey
Alan Gilbert (conductor)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Dacapo 6220624
This is a live 2015 concert performance, but there is barely any audience noise – only a palpable sense of occasion and collective, rapt attention. The vivid sound is quickly noticeable, as is the quality of the playing. Gilbert’s reading shows masterly attention to the inter-relation of the four movements and, within the discursive first movement, of paragraphs. A powerful linear sense of the symphonic journey emerges, encompassing a perfectly judged second movement where continuing symphonic evolution remains perceptible.
In the slow third movement, the tension of the extended opening string passage resists selling out to mere melodrama, and an elemental force persists. The beautiful subsequent violin solo passage is allowed to register as a startling change, the prayer-like quality personal and affecting in its incongruity. Ensuing incantatory
Gilbert shows masterly attention to the relation between the movements
interruptions from the woodwinds are perfectly served by Gilbert’s tempo, enabling the forceful, almost Brucknerian climax to emerge organically, not as a dislocated point of arrival – but also to subside convincingly towards the fragile concluding oboe solo: always a challenge, given the short time available. Certain other performances run into trouble by overdoing the breadth of the climactic moments and imbuing them with an unhelpful, misleading finality.
The onset of the finale consists of a precipitate collective cadenza for the entire string section, followed by an electric silence and then one of the most exhilarating openings in all symphonic music. Here it is easy to lose the grandeur of the conception by pushing too hard and too fast, just as it is to broaden things at the simultaneous expense of excitement and the long, shaped line. Despite fierce competition, Gilbert grasps all this in inspired fashion. Moreover, his wisdom shows in a slightly more spacious middle
section and the electrifying, unusually driven tempo that propels us towards the home straight.
The final stages are crucial, not least because this is the first and only time that Nielsen allows us to hear his inspired central theme in what amounts to a definitive form. Just as this symphony must give the illusion of pitching us initially into something started some time earlier, it has to end seemingly expanding forever, even as the sound cuts off. Few performances realise this through pacing and dynamics as insightful as Gilbert’s – and his timpanists are top-drawer!