Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Fabio Luisi and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra hit the ground running in the first of a three-album cycle of Carl Nielsen’s symphonies. Their red-blooded reading of the composer’s *Symphony No. 4*, the aptly named *“Inextinguishable”*, gains from the conductor’s expertise in the music of Nielsen’s close contemporary, Richard Strauss. The first movement teems with life, its vital spirit reinforced by strikingly present recorded sound. Luisi and his Danish orchestra revel in the folklike simplicity of the work’s second movement and charm the ear with their affection for the whole work. They raise a storm in the finale, with its thrilling duel between two sets of timpani, before voyaging into the altogether more mysterious world of *Symphony No. 5*. The *Fifth*’s ceaselessly shifting moods inspire an outstanding, edge-of-the-seat performance, quite overwhelming in its cumulative power.