01. - 07. Aladdin Suite, op.34 FS.89 [24'55]
08. Cupid and the Poet, op.54 FS.150 [5'33]
09. Saga-drom, op.39 FS.46 [9'48]
10. Helios Overture, op.17 FS.32 [9'54]
11. - 12. Maskarade, FS.39 - Overture and Prelude to Act II [8'25]
13. Pan and Syrinx, op.49 FS.87 [9'10]
South Jutland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Niklas Willen
Naxos. 8.557164 [recorded October 2002; CD issued 2005]
[CD-rip; flacs, booklet, cover and inlay scans]Recording venue: Musikhuset, Sonderberg, Denmark
Recording engineer and Producer: Tim Handley
The South Jutland Symphony may be a second-tier group but they play splendidly for Swedish conductor Niklas Willen. This is one of the finest recordings of many of Nielsen's popular shorter orchestral works that I know.
This programme contains some of Nielsen's finest music - gems in his output from early to late works. Gems like the less well-known and late Pan and Syrinx which displays echos of the fifth and sixth symphonies and the Clarinet Concerto - something also experienced in Cupid and the Poet. And the Ives-ian The Marketplace in Ispahan from the Aladdin Suite is particularly well served. These recordings closely challenge Esa-Pekka Salonen's recordings of four of these works - but those are only available as make-weights to his recordings of the symphonies - not gathered together in such an attractive collection.
Tim Handley's production and recordings reveal the appropriately spacious acoustic of the venue.