# SS 03.03.18 - Nielsen #6 "Sinfonia Semplice"



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening! 
_*
*_For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Carl Nielsen (1865 - 1931)*

Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia Semplice", FS 116

1. Tempo giusto
2. Humoreske: Allegretto
3. Proposta seria: Adagio
4. Tema con variazioni: Allegro

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Another weekend is here and this week it will be the last appearance of Danish composer Carl Nielsen with his sixth and final symphony. I hope everyone will find a recording and give this one a listen. I listened to all of Nielsen's a few months ago but am looking forward to listening to this one again.

I'll be listening too:







Michael Schonwandt/Danish National Symphony Orchestra


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Nielsen is one of my favourites and so shall enjoy this version
I can recommend these performances


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

A major work, sadly overlooked and overshadowed by the three preceding Symphonies. I'll probably listen to Schonwandt on Naxos, it's one of the best out there?

Same recording as realdealblues, just repackaged. Alternatively, the Berglund recording on RCA.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'll be listening to Davis/LSO.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

A tough choice - which to pick from the shelves, Berglund, Blomstedt (San Francisco Symphony), Paavo Jarvi, Neeme Jarvi - one of those will join an old favourite recording I haven't played for a good while:

View attachment 101992


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Everyone seems to have made an impeccable choice so far!


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## Eramire156 (Sep 28, 2017)

Malx said:


> A tough choice - which to pick from the shelves, Berglund, Blomstedt (San Francisco Symphony), Paavo Jarvi, Neeme Jarvi - one of those will join an old favourite recording I haven't played for a good while:
> 
> View attachment 101992


Listening to this recording as I type this, one of my favorite recording of this symphony.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Some months ago I did some extensive Nielsen listening to find alternatives to the Blomstedt/San Francisco set. I ended up with a mix of Bernstein, Schonwandt, Barbirolli & Schmidt ... the latter for the 6th. This set has appeared in many guises over the years, this seeming to be the most current...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I am going with the Salonen recording.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Oramo and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Blomstedt for me. Had this set for many years.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Merl said:


> Blomstedt for me. Had this set for many years.
> 
> View attachment 101997


I'm with you on this, my choice too.


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## LP collector (Aug 6, 2016)

Becca said:


> Some months ago I did some extensive Nielsen listening to find alternatives to the Blomstedt/San Francisco set. I ended up with a mix of Bernstein, Schonwandt, Barbirolli & Schmidt ... the latter for the 6th. This set has appeared in many guises over the years, this seeming to be the most current...
> 
> View attachment 101995


Coincidently I have just posted a cover photo of a Schmidt recording from this set over on the vinyl thread. The musical advisor for the recordings is a major authority on Nielsen's music, the composer, Robert Simpson.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

^^^^^ what gives with the avatar 'LP Collector' ?.....came on here to make a post regarding Nielsen and instead I am reminded of our disastrous season under Moyes......anyway onto musical things (apologies to non football fans)........

Nielsen is one of my favourite composers and I therefore have a number of choices, this is however my least favourite of his symphonies so this will encourage me to give it a closer listen-Berglund and the Royal Danish (with the 3rd as well!)


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Anyone care to discuss the piece itself, or should we start a separate thread for that? I have always considered it the most enigmatic, and the least successful of Nielsen’s 6. The swipe at Modernists is amusing but like many a joke pales after a few retellings. The rest of it just seems like a descent from the considerable heights that the Composer previously had scaled. It sounds like a transitional work, with the Composers demise depriving us of what the other side of the transition would have sounded like


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Triplets said:


> Anyone care to discuss the piece itself, or should we start a separate thread for that? I have always considered it the most enigmatic, and the least successful of Nielsen's 6. The swipe at Modernists is amusing but like many a joke pales after a few retellings. The rest of it just seems like a descent from the considerable heights that the Composer previously had scaled. It sounds like a transitional work, with the Composers demise depriving us of what the other side of the transition would have looked like


cannot disagree-I have just listened to the 6th in response to this thread-1-5 are some of my favourite pieces of music and I continue to find difficulties with this work. At the risk of invoking criticism for a rather narrow minded view I can say that whatever it is that appeals in the first five symphonies is wholly absent here!....I also happen to agree with your point about the 'humour' involved....

will however listen again later today to an alternate recording-Paavo Jarvi and the Frannkfurt RSO


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

I'm familiar with the Blomstedt, so for a change I think I will play Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra. I got this set recently.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Triplets said:


> Anyone care to discuss the piece itself, or should we start a separate thread for that? I have always considered it the most enigmatic, and the least successful of Nielsen's 6. The swipe at Modernists is amusing but like many a joke pales after a few retellings. The rest of it just seems like a descent from the considerable heights that the Composer previously had scaled. It sounds like a transitional work, with the Composers demise depriving us of what the other side of the transition would have sounded like


Triplets, and Jim Prideaux too; I can very much see your point, but would you say the same for, say, Shostakovich's Fifteenth? There are plenty of Nielsenesque touches in this work, some even come across as oblique self-quotes, and for me this work represents a conscious change of direction, perhaps necessitated by the health issues he was facing. But it is still clearly him writing it, and for me it doesn't feel transitional.

True, this piece does take a bit of "getting", took me ages, and I am still occasionally "ungot" by it. And the subtitle is misleading to say the least!

For me this is a bleak, unfunny, sardonic stare at Death. Inextinguishable ? Nope, the very opposite. Fragile, trying to like humour in the face of mortality. Sorry to be flowery in my description, sometimes it helps?

Of course I could be wrong, but so little of Nielsen's music is ephemeral, why would he effectively sign off with a half-baked set of jokes?


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

^^^^^^great post 'Bobby Pickett'!......will reflect on your perceptions on listening again.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

jim prideaux said:


> ^^^^^ what gives with the avatar 'LP Collector' ?.....came on here to make a post regarding Nielsen and instead I am reminded of our disastrous season under Moyes......anyway onto musical things (apologies to non football fans)........


Moyes is my favourite manager. 'The Chosen 'One' reduced that lot from Stretford to a laughing stock. What a simpleton. Much prefer laughing at him than lsughing at thr Portuguese Eye-Gouger.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

A bit late to the party. Blomstedt for me ...










My first Saturday Symphony.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

a pleasant symphony, I liked it. At times reminded of Shostakovich (evoking absurdist carneval atmosphere). Since it was the first Nielsen symphony I heard, I cannot really compare it to any of the previous ones.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I really enjoyed this work with its contrasting whimsical and anguished elements. I thought the recording was quite good (I listened to Colin Davis/LSO). I've not been a fan of some of the LSO Live recordings but this one sounded great and the orchestra was in top form, led convincingly by Davis.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

Once again to Denmark for Nielsen

Paavo Berglund and Royal Danish Orchestra


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

Jacck said:


> At times reminded of Shostakovich (evoking absurdist carneval atmosphere).


This is certainly true, though nowhere near as masterful, grand or unified as the great works of Shostakovich. I did enjoy this element of the work, but I found it over all to be disjointed and eclectic. Nonetheless, Blomstedt and the SFSO (in my case) did a fine job of teasing out its better elements.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Earlier this afternoon I tried two accounts the Jensen I mentioned in my earlier post and I opted to revisit the Paavo Jarvi recording - the old and the new if you like.
Jensen is a trusted guide which I enjoyed greatly, the Paavo Jarvi recording I thought spectacular - the recording on this set is first rate and the detailed woodwind sound was most enjoyable. I will also say the detail wasn't at the expense of the whole
.
Two enjoyable recordings, I can't argue with comments made in posts above as to how good technically this Symphony is - I will stick to my basic philosophy - listen and enjoy, lifes too short!

View attachment 102010


View attachment 102011


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Douglas Bostock, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic:










This is my choice for this weekend.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Robert Pickett said:


> Triplets, and Jim Prideaux too; I can very much see your point, but would you say the same for, say, Shostakovich's Fifteenth? There are plenty of Nielsenesque touches in this work, some even come across as oblique self-quotes, and for me this work represents a conscious change of direction, perhaps necessitated by the health issues he was facing. But it is still clearly him writing it, and for me it doesn't feel transitional.
> 
> True, this piece does take a bit of "getting", took me ages, and I am still occasionally "ungot" by it. And the subtitle is misleading to say the least!
> 
> ...


I think that your analysis is very cogent. I never considered as coming from the perspective of an older man facing mortality. Not only perhaps ready to physically die, but also seeing his own place in history about to be erased by Modernism, which perhaps instead of satirizing, he is lambasting. How about the ending though. Is it Nielsen's way of saying What the Hell, it's been a Great Ride?
I also like your comparison to The Shostakovich 15th. DS was dying and facing the unknown with puzzlement if not with fear. His extensive Wagner quotes are also an interesting puzzle...
I am going to listen again.. Probably Blomstedt/DNRSO
Thanks, Jim and Robert


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

This morning I started a post in which I was saying that Nielsen needed to move in a different direction after the 4th & 5th ... but I deleted it as I couldn't really express why I thought so. In listening to it again this afternoon, my feeling is that it is some of what Robert was saying (especially that f/u snarl at the very end) but is also a (semi-)logical continuation of the 5th symphony, particularly the 1st section which I have always thought of as coalescing from formless chaos.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I have enjoyed reading the insights above.
Yes, I have similar feelings listening to this with an overall sense that it is a bleak work despite the often lyrical softer passages.
I was not aware that he had significant health issues at this point which may go a long way to explaining this
A work for me to listen to on a more occasional basis I think


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I absolutely agree with some of the comments above, this symphony cries out Nielsen from the start - those undulating woodwinds are such a signature for him and the symphony as a whole, far from being 'semplice' offers a complex set of puzzles, the music initially sending us in the simple direction - the jaunty little tune near the start - but which becomes darker as it's repeated throughout the first movement, for example. Then I hear many elements from both the preceding symphonies in this first movement, in tone and in style; especially from the 5th but the strangest thing for me is that after a lot of somewhat anxious music it ends in a gentle major tone.
The combination of snare drum, triangle and glockenspiel in the second movement echoes the percussion orchestration in the first movement fo the 5th, but without the menacing rhythm; it's almost like we glance through a window at that movement some time later to find it playing merrily, the horrors and concerns having gone. The whole orchestra (minus strings obviously) is completely self-absorbed, just like a playing chid.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Triplets said:


> Anyone care to discuss the piece itself, or should we start a separate thread for that? I have always considered it the most enigmatic, and the least successful of Nielsen's 6. The swipe at Modernists is amusing but like many a joke pales after a few retellings. The rest of it just seems like a descent from the considerable heights that the Composer previously had scaled. It sounds like a transitional work, with the Composers demise depriving us of what the other side of the transition would have sounded like


Just for reference, discussing the work (especially after someone listens to it ;-) is "very much encouraged" on these threads. You're welcome to discuss the pros/cons of the particular recording or recordings you listened too as well as your feelings on the work itself. No need to start a new thread. 
Indeed I'm very happy to see so much discussion as well as so many participants this week, thank you all :tiphat:


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## LP collector (Aug 6, 2016)

Ormandy is not the first name that comes to mind for Nielsen but his recording with the Philadelphia of the 6th is rather good.

Different, but I don't find "Sinfonia Semplice" to be sub-standard Nielsen. An intriguing symphony.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Robert Pickett said:


> For me this is a bleak, unfunny, sardonic stare at Death. Inextinguishable ? Nope, the very opposite. Fragile, trying to like humour in the face of mortality. Sorry to be flowery in my description, sometimes it helps?


Thanks Robert, very thought-provoking post, which I shall bear in mind, when I very soon listen to this symphony again.


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