Let the Magic Begin!

Today my new Xindak MT-1 tube amplifier arrived. After some cable mangling it vent into the system just to the left of the turntable. And it is playing beautiful already. I am not sure how much burn-in time it will need but 30-50 hours or more should not be impossible.

I have only heard a few records yet, but the sound is definitely  more relaxed and smooth than thru the solid state amp. The small harshness that occasionally could be heard from the combination of a lively SS amp and the whizzer cone of the full range units is gone. Both the soprano soloists and the choir of "Il trionfo del tempo et del veritas" by Händel are wonderfull in the large church accoustics where it is recorded. 

And now - back to lots of music in the soft glow of the P14 (Chinese version of EL84)! 

I took the plunge!

And ordered a Xindak MT-1 tube amplifier. It is also payed, so where is that postman? ;-)

The Xindak MT-1 is a 12,5 W amplifier with the 6P14 power tubes - as far as I can see they are the Chinese equivalent of the well known EL84. This amplifier is hard-wired and has got 3 line-level inputs. Just the right number for the DAC, the phono pre-amp and a direct connection to the tube output stage of the CD-player. 

I have ordered it at the Danish shop Now-in-Stereo, Kurt is a very nice man to deal with. My expectations to this little gem are indeed high - perfect synergy with my full range driver equipped TQWT's are a natural thing. I hope that the little almost-sharpness in the upper mid / lower treble the combination of solid-state amplification and a full-range speaker with whizzer-cone can give will be tamed. Stay tuned - I hope to be able to tell you more soon.

Treasures from the second-hand market

A week ago Jette and I went to a second-hand market in the next little village. My plan was to find some classical LPs. And I did - 12 LPs (one double) for a total of 100 Kr (less than 20$). Most of them in very fine condition (and a couple with scratches was left behind, even thou they were quite interresting).

2 recordings of Mozart piano concertos (15+21 and 20+23) with Alfred Brendel and Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Neville Marriner. The great Haffner Serenade with Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra (first time I have heard that). Mozarts concertos for 2 and 3 pianos with Ashkenazy, Barenboim anf Fou Ts'Ong as soloists and again the English Chamber Orchestra. Violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Max Bruch (first time I heard the Bruch concerto - very good indeed!) with Perlman as soloist and LSO lead by Previn. The Beethoven violin concerto in a tru classic recording - Menuhin as soloist and Klemperer conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

Another number one for me is Fauré's Requiem with Victoria de Los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra lead by André Cluytens. This recording is from 1963 but in perfect state. A truly wonderful piece of music in a marvelous performance and recording!

Trumpet concertos by Haydn, Torelli, Viviani, Telemann and Franceschini. Trumpet and Obo concertos by Albinoni. The opera La serva padrona by Pergolesi in an East German recording with Staatkapelle Berlin from 1972. And not least the Symphony nr 7 - Leningrad - by Shostakovich in a Soviet recording with Svetlanov conducting the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. Not only a Russian recording, but still with the original price label of 5,60 Rubels on the cover.

I haven't heard all yet, but what I have heard is ranging from interesting to very good. And that at a price of 5 or 10 Kr for each LP! That was not my last visit at a second-hand market.

NOS - LPs

New Old Stock - or maybe just NIB - New in Box - can be used not only when talking of tubes, but also LPs.

Today we went to a rather large local flea-market to look for something quite different. I noticed a guy whith a trailer full of boxes of LP records. One of these boxes had classical records. Many of them where collections in the "Best of -" and "Most beloved -" genre, but there was also a box-set of all the Beethoven symphonies played by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig lead by Franz Konwitschny. They were on Fontana K 71 BA 600 and the box looked very fine. A closer look - all 6 records in mint condition, maybe had one of them been played once, the rest was never played before. The price? - 60 Kr something like 11$ - bought!

This afternoon and evening Symphony no 1 and 2 have been on the platter. Marvelous - very good recording without any surface noise and a fine performance without the over romantic soundcarpet of Karajan - much more like modern performance practice. A fine catch - maybe I should go to more flea-markets?  

The case of the disappearing headphones

As Arthur Conan Doyle would have let Dr. Watson title it - or why I love my Denons. 

I have just heard Händels oratorium Athalia thru the digital chain (FLAC file - Squeezebox - DacMagic - Argon HA-1 - Denon AH-D2000) and the headphones did their eminent trick - they disappeared and just left me in the middle of pure music. Other headphones create the music inside your head but really good headphones like the Denons create a large soundscape all arround you.

Last time I wrote that vocal music had not been on the digital menu yet but the old master of vocals saw to this and made a very good impression. Both solo parts and large complicated choruses are delivered with wonderful clarity, air and body. No sibilance or any form of constraints. I certainly look forward to some Mozart. Solo arias, duets and the unbelievable beautiful and complicated quartets, quintets and sextets of some of the operas must be stunning on this rig! 

Head-Fi and DacMagic

The chain from FLAC files thru the Squeezebox - DacMagic - Argon HA-1 - Denon AH-D2000 is just getting better and better. The Cambridge DacMagic has opened a lot since it got out of the box less than two week ago, and I still expect even more from it. The sound of the full chain is now very open and precise, without any harsh edges. The soundstage is broad and deep with a good definition of both instrument placement and room accoustics. It is a genuine pleasure with both chamber music (I just heard Pianosonate no 2 by Beethoven with the Danish pianist Anne Øland), medium size orchestras (Pianoconcerto no 22 by Mozart) and large orchestras (Symphony no 8 by Dvorak). I haven't heard much vocal thru the digital chain yet - that must be next (after the first string quartet by Beethoven that is ready on the Squeezebox right now).

Substituting the Exposure 2010 amplifier and the Fostex equipped TQWT's for the Argon and headphones gives equally good results. A soundstage reaching outside the position of the speakers and far behind. A lean and deep bass, detailed middle and clean treble - pure bliss. I have experimented with connecting the digital output of the CD-player thru the DacMagic to compare the upsampled 24/192 DAC's and solid state analog output stage of the DacMagic with the more normal DAC's but tube output stage of the Njoe Tjoeb 4000. Well, I must admit that I haven't found the difference yet! It might be there, but masked by the slight niveau differences of the two analog stages. Or it might be masked by the solid state amplification later in the chain. Until now I have only compared thru the Exposure and speakers, maybe the headphones will be more revealing?

Talking of tubes (an old and never realized dream of mine) the other day I stumbled upon the chinese brand Xindak (and a couple of Danish dealers! for example Now-in-Stereo). Xindak is producing several interesting tube amplifiers - and that to a quite reasonable (OK - low!) price. For example the MT1 can be had for just arround 4000,- DKR. With 12,5 W it could be a fine match to my TQWT's with their quite good sensitivity of 94 dB. Another interesting model is the V15 ( 5999,- DKR). This one has got EL34 power tubes and can either run in triode mode - giving 18 W - or in linear mode giving 40 W per channel. Both will give the genuine tube sound (and hopefully tame the top end of the Fostex units just a trifle) and also be a lot easier to adjust the volume with. Due to the sensitivity of the speakers the volume control of the Exposure must be handled with great care today - a turn of a few degrees give a large variation in the sound level. That might be the project for the fall?

Magic is in the air

There is magic in the air. The DacMagic arrived today and went straight into action as soon as I got home from work. It has only been playing with the Squeezebox as source this evening. Even now - after a few hours of power - it is a great match. Chamber music is still a little sharp in the top (I heard the Pastorale sonata by Beethoven and the first piano trio by Brahms thru the loudspeakers), but I expect that to settle in the next days or maybe weeks.

The large orchestra is just marvelous. I heard Symphoni no 1 by the Danish composer Ludolf Nielsen (no, not Carl Nielsen and they are not family - Ludolf is a late romantic composer waiting in the shadows for a broader acclaim) on the Denon AH-D2000 headphones and that was fantastic. Clean, clear, finely defined instruments precisely placed on a large soundstage. Deep slender bass without any boom, airy treble. The Squeezebox never sounded anything near this good.

The analog rig certainly got competition - enough of this and on with the music!

Analogue is still here

The Cambridge 640P phono pre-amplifier has now been powered up for more than 96 hours and I have heard 23 LP sides thru it. It is just getting better and better - now it is marvelous. The definition of the single instruments, their placement, the total soundstage and the dynamics are far above anything I have ever heard on vinyl before - and much better than my digital rig (which is no slouch at all).

By coincidence it has become a small Barbirolli revival. Yesterday I heard A London Symphony by Vaughan Williams with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. As far as I can see this pressing is from 1968 (HMV Concert Classics on EMI SXLP 30180), but the recording is from 1958. And you can't hear that age at all! This recording is so clear, clean and dynamic that few modern recordings can stand up to it.

Today I have just heard Sibelius Symphony no 2 in D major, Opus 43 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - also conducted by Sir John. This recording is on RCA Gold Seal GL25011 produced 1976 (but could be a reissue of an older recording?). Again - clean, powerfull, dynamic - a perfect reproduction of the large orchestra and the ambience of the concerthall.

Another wonderfull record that got a spin today was the Waldstein piano sonata by Beethoven played by Vladimir Ashkenazy from the "Favourite Piano Sonatas" box set on Decca London. The grand piano has never been better and more natural on any of my stereo setups thru the last nearly 40 years. Neither on CD. It is just marvelous. The two symphonies where bought many years ago but I found the Beethoven set at a (now sadly closed) record shop in Copenhagen a few years ago.

A couple of days ago I got a mail from my dealer that they will get a large load of Cambridge DacMagic's mid April. I ordered mine January 1. It has been a long wait. I realy look forward to hear what the DAC can do to both my Squeezebox and the CD player - maybe the grammophone will get some competition? ;-)

Well the gramophone has got one area where it surpasses the CD-player (and any other digital media) - it can play the 500 LP's on my shelves. And the CD player certainly wins for playing the 6 shelf meters of CD's!

The 640P has arrived!

This afternoon the Cambridge 640P phono pre-amp arrived. I was still working, so it got the time for gaining room temperature before any power was allowed to enter. Even as Cambridge tell the user to allow it 36 hours of continous use to reach the best performance it is already very good. After just 6 hours of power and 6 LP sides (from a Birthday Ode to Queen Mary by Purcell to the last half of Gurrelieder by Schönberg) a lot of the quality is present. The single instruments are placed very precise and rock solid in a vast soundscape. The bottom is deep, precise and controlled. The top is smooth and yet sparkles as it should. Violins - also en masse - are wonderfull. The whole scale is clean, detailed and a joy to listen to without any sign of hiss or hum.

And it will be even better during the next days and weeks!

Phono pre-amp

There was in fact an alternative to the somewhat priced Pro-Ject Tube Box I wrote of lately. I found a lot of reviews - bot at TNT-Audio and several others - giving high praise to the Cambridge 640P RIAA. Capable of handling both MM and MC pick-ups and at a price a good medium price pick-up lower than the Tube Box it was a no-brainer. It got ordered tonight ;-) 

Now I am waiting impatiently to hear it compared to the phono stage of the Exposure 2010 - that will be interesting!

And the next question? - Hm, the Denon DL 160 high output MC pick-up get many fine comments? But then there is also the DL 103R, the DL 304, some Ortofons, some Bentz ....

The bug returns

I am starting to feel it again - Audiophilia Nervosa - the bug that brings upgraditis. It can be catching among audiophiles. During the last couple of weeks I have started listening to and considering my analog rig a lot more. Vinyl has something of its own. It can be hard to explain but there is some sort of "rightness" about the sound from the LP's that is not to be found in the digital media. I am not dismissing any media - they have all their advantages. One of the great advantages of vinyl is for me the 500 LP's on the shelves.

My turntable - a Pro-Ject RPM 4 - and its arm are good. What I am considering is the pick-up and the phono preamplifier. The pick-up is a Tekni-Fi K3 (or more precisely a K1 upgraded with the K3 needle). Outside Denmark I think it is known as a Tom Fletcher (or Nottingham Analogue) construction from around 2001. The phono preamp is a build in MM module in my Exposure 2010 amplifier. These days I find the combination a bit to the muscular and rough side and not as refined as I could want.

Alternatives? Well many years ago I had a very good moving coil pick-up,  I think it was from Koetsu or some other Japanese manufacturer. It was spectacular for large orchestral music (I used a Stanton 681 EEE for smaller ensembles and the more baroque and chamber like music at that time). This pick-up was sold around 1980, together with the battery driven Mark Levinson MC preamp. Reading of Koetsu today place it far out of reach, but the idea of moving coil is still much to my liking. A viable alternative could be the Denon DL103, DL103R, DL304 or maybe some Ortofon. As a matter of fact even being Danish I have never owned an Ortofon pick-up - could the time have come to remediate that?

Speaking of MC brings up the next problem - pre-amplification. My present phono stage is not able to handle MC pick-ups. The solution that seems most appealing right now is the Pro-Ject Tube Box II. Being able to handle both MM and MC pick-ups and having a fine reputation among reviewers on the net this might be the first step even giving a lift to the present K3?

The Tube Box would also fulfill some of my both sonic, visual and principal fascination of tube equipment. Around the time I got the Pro-Ject turntable I borrowed a tube based phono preamp for a couple of days. It was the best and most magic sound I ever had from an analog source. But I had to balance the Hifi budget otherwise at the time.

Inspiration - from Nielsen to Tippet

Inspiration for what to hear can comme from many different places. A couple of days ago our clock-radio woke us by playing the middle movement of Little Suite for Strings by Carl Nielsen. It is a wonderfully light swirling and airy waltz that could only be the start of a beautiful sunny day. 

I had to hear the complete suite the same evening. It was a fresh sounding but quite old Danish recording with Carl Garaguly leading the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra from Copenhagen. A very good recording and a fine piece of music. The old LP (TF 121) is from the somewhat unexpected label Fona (a Danish company, today a chain of Radio/TV shops). On the same LP is another recording of the 2.symphony by Carl Nielsen I totally forgot when listing my recordings of the symphonies some days ago.

The Little Suite is Carl Nielsens opus 1 and composed 1883 when he was 18 years old. It is a charming and deligthful piece with promisses for things to come.

Hearing the Little Suite got the inspirations flowing and I remembered the Little Music for String Orchestra by Michael Tippet. Back to the shelves to find the 1972 recording with Neville Marriner conducting Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields. It is on side two of an Argo LP (ZRG 680) together with Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli. The Little Music is a more strict and strong piece of music than the Nielsen Suite, but it was very interesting to compare the two. The very young Nielsen had already found some of the style that would later come into full bloom for the mature artist. The experienced Tippet was in 1946 at the start of a new style - still a little stiff but leading to the high point later in The Midsummer Marriage (well, yes - I have also got that in the first complete recording with Colin Davis and Covent Garden. This was my introduction to Tippet, and the start of a fine little collection - and fascination). On side one of the recording is the Concerto for Double String Orchestra from 1938-39. This is a masterpiece from the first period of Tippets compositional styles. That recording must get som playing time one of the next days.

But I must admit - the Corelli Fantasia from 1953 is the wonderful jewel compared to Little Music. It is a complex, beautiful and very interesting piece of music. The grand fugue in the 5.part of the Fantasia is nothing but a breathtaking masterpiece. Many years has passed since I last heard this piece, but the magic struck with full power already during the build-up to the fugue - I knew precisely what was comming and it was even better than I remembered. Marvelous! And the Denon headphones made it shine in full glory. For me they are perfect for all the types of classical I have heard on them, and they still grow better with more hours of playing time.

My friend Gustav

This is a translation of a posting in Danish from February 4. 2009

My friend Gustav has written a lot of wonderful music. Well – he is not a personal friend I have met and his last name is Mahler. But I have been a great fan of his music since way back.

It has been a while since I last listened to any Mahler. It takes really good speakers and understanding surroundings to get the full benefit of the large orchestras in the Mahler symphonies.

Yesterday evening he got some playtime again and it was a great return.


It was the Symphony no 7 in a recent recording with Valery Gergiev leading the London Symphony Orchestra. I bought this recording at the iTunes shop sometime during the last fall and have it on my iPod. It sounds good here, but really good it became last evening when I connected the iPod to the stereo kit. When cranked up somewhat the TQWT's (my homebuild quarter-wave horns with Fostex FFE166e units) can shine in their handling of the deepest bass and the complex soundscape at the same time. And without loosing either the air or the details in the recording or compressing everything to one compact lump in the powerful passages. Pure delight.

And so is the music!

That wets the appetite for listening to more of the recordings I have. Most of them are older and on LP. For example no 1, 3, 4 and 9 with Jasha Horenstein. No 5, 6 and 7 with Bernard Haitink. The adagio from no 10 with Boulez or the dublicates: no 1 with Klaus Tennstedt, no 4 with Karajan and no 9 with Klemperer. For some reason I have never got hold of no 8 – even not on CD. I have only got a few of the symphonies on CD – no 1 with Petroschof, no 2 with Neumann and no 5 with Wit. Not any of these recordings can reach the knees of the old LP's. My favorites for Mahler is without any doubt Horenstein and Haitink.

We must not forget the songs with orchestra. On the LP shelves we find Das Klagende Lied in the first complete recording with Boulez as conductor and Evelyn Lear, Elisabeth Söderström, Grace Hoffman, Stuart Burrows, Ernst Häfliger and Gert Nienstedt as singers from 1970 (on CBS). It is a marvelous recording giving wonderful shivers and deep oppression. Das Lied von der Erde is with Haitink at the front and Janet Baker and James King as singers. On CD I have got 2 Rückert Lieders with Robert Wagner conducting the Symphonieorchester Innsbruck and Maura Moreira singing the alto voice. Well yes – quite a suspect recording – the label also hints in that direction “The Rose Collection”.

One thing that fascinate me by Mahler is his way to have multiple things going on in the orchestra at the same time and in a way that every instrument is totally audible almost without regard to what else is going on. For example can a solo oboe have its own private comments contrary to the rest of the orchestra – and be totally audible. In this Mahler in fact reminds me of one of my other favorites in the large scale symphonic repertoire – Carl Nielsen. He has got a little of the same (some times a lot) quirky way of letting a single instrument stand up against the rest of the orchestra. By Nielsen the clarinet and the side drum are typical examples, but they are not the only ones.

Another parallel to the Mahler way of using the orchestra I find in the Gurre Lieder by Arnold Schönberg. There is in fact quite a lot here reminding of Das Klagende Lied. Gurre Lieder is on my shelves in the classic LP version with János Ferencsik leading the Danish Radio (DR) Symphony Orchestra and with Martina Arroyo, Alexander Young, Janet Baker, Odd Wolstad, Niels Møller and Julius Patzak as soloists. The recording was made March 18., 1968 in the DR concert hall – and it was not released until 1974. We waited a long time for that! It is almost symbolic for the time that Schönberg used to finish the composition (and very typical for the unbelievable problems DR always had to get their recordings release during those years – that almost could be the basis of a major historical posting). I am not quite sure if I attended that concert myself. But I am sure that I attended a couple of the great DR concerts in 1972 that first was release on LP in 1976 – more of this another time.

Well isn't it quite a while since I last heard some Carl Nielsen? - I have got a nice handful of the good classic recordings on CD also, they might be put on the music server so the Squeezebox can have a chance? There is the very classic recordings of Symphony no 3 and 5 with Bernstein – those that made Carl Nielsen known outside tight circles abroad and a fine lineup of other older and newer recordings of mainly the symphonies. The classical recordings are naturally also found on the shelves in LP version bought (very) early in the 1970's. In fact there is 11 single LP's with music by Carl Nielsen plus two box sets and 12 CD's. That could be the ground for a new posting ;-)

And that in fact came the 18. and 22. of february and was translated on the 23. of February.
This will be the last of the old postings I translate. Stay tuned for new postings in both Danish and English.

Dette var det sidste gamle indlæg jeg oversætter – hæng på for nye indlæg på både dansk og engelsk.

Nielsens nr 1 (english)

This is a translation of a posting in Danish from February 22. 2009.

- from Nørresnede, as my late dad would have added. But it is long since I could share my musical experiences and discoveries with him. Now I must share with you!

In the recent days I have heard two other recordings of the Carl Nielsen Symphony no 1. Both with Danish conductors, but very different. And both very right and not as I had remembered or expected them.


First Thomas Jensen and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (LP, Decca Eclipse ECS 570, copy from 1970). It is both factually and audible the oldest one. Technically the quality is good, but the soundstage is a little compressed and not as broad and expansive as later recordings – and that is quite natural. I have not been able to date this recording precisely. It must be not earlier than 1957 when Jensen moved from Aarhus to Copenhagen, and not later than 1963 when he dies. This is well in line with the recording being in stereo. The first recordings Thomas Jensen made of the Nielsen symphonies are dated from 1944 and into the early 1950's and all in mono. The major difference to more modern recordings is the tempo. The tempo is faster and more insisting than I have ever heard on any other recording. It is absolutely worth hearing as a fresh wind thru well known music, and not just as a historical document. When you have in mind that Thomas Jensen studied under Carl Nielsen at the academy of music and that he played all of the symphonies as a cellist with Nielsen himself conducting the orchestra it is not strange that the daughters of Carl Nielsen said that Thomas Jensen was the conductor that came closest to their farther in his performances of the symphonies.


The contrast of the day is the Ole Schmidt recording of no 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) (LP, Unicorn RHS 324-330 box-set with all 6 symphonies from 1973-74). Here the technical quality is at the top, the orchestral play is marvelous and the tempo somewhat slower. I thought I remembered Ole Schmidt as very temperamental and almost violent? It must be time and memory playing around here ;-)

In short – this is Nielsen to my taste!


It is much fun to compare the performances from different times and different countries of the same piece of music. If I myself must conclude anything it will be that Schmidt and Ormandy has got the solid mainstream offerings of this symphony. Jensen has the very interesting alternative – and maybe more original – performance. While Bostock not quite gets it. But it is the differences that enrich.

I wonder if not the next project in comparative record listening must be the Symphony no 5 by Carl Nielsen? Not just because it for many years has been my top favourite symphony but also because I have a whole lot of (very different) recordings – and it is years since I last heard any of them.

Head-Fi - Denon AH-D2000 (english)

This is a translation of a posting in Danish from February 21. 2009.

It had been simmering for a while. Since I got the Argon HA-1 headphone amplifier - or soon after. Maybe the old Sennheiser HD-570's was growing to old? They had a lot of loose - boomy? - bass and missed something in the high end. That inspired a lot of searching and reading on the net.

I quite soon found two decent candidates for a major improvement. One is a true classic – Sennheiser HD-650. They get rave reviews everywhere. But several mention that they first really sing with a good tube amplifier. For example the Little Dot MK III or IV. Well, I have just bought an amplifier? The other candidate that came more and more into focus was the Denon AH-D2000 (the greater siblings are also very tempting but with prices 2 and 3 times higher they are way out of reach).

The Sennheiser can be found at reasonable prices around the net, although is not that easy to get to listen to in this corner of the world. But they have got the Denon at the HiFi-Klubben stores – also in Holbæk, so I dropped in to listen today.



The sound is terrific – and as you can se in the picture they had to come home with me. They didn't have a boxed sample in Holbæk and the demo kit had a scratch, so I had to go to Roskilde to fetch it. It was definitely worth the ride. The good people told me to let them play for a couple of hours before I even listened to them. I could not wait! Right from the beginning they sound really good. If they will get much better in a few hours and perfect after 100 or more then great things are coming.

Even now the bass is more tight and the mids and treble are silky and precise at the same time. As the Denon's are closed they also isolate much better for the sound – both inward and outward – than the totally open Sennheisers. At the same time they are perfectly comfortable to wear. The thick cable is very convincing. It's also nice that it won't tangle and twist every time you get them on or off.

But I am still waiting (not at all patiently) for my DacMagic...

Nielsen then and now - a small composers theme

Translation of a posting in Danish from February 18. 2009.

Carl Nielsen can be played in many ways. Some days ago I listened to the first two movements of Symphony no 1 in g-minor (Opus 7) in a near recent (2001) recording with Douglas Bostock leading the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Classico Classcd 299). Something was wrong. Especially the first movement was not at all right to my ears. It was disordered and uneasy. Not tense, on the edge, brooding even ominously uneasy as Nielsen not just can, but almost must be in some places. It was just messy and uneasy, as there was no overall thought and understanding behind the performance. The second movement was better, but still not quite right.

I have to admit that the Bostock recordings of the 6 symphonies with accessories never quite has hit the high marks for me.

Some days later I heard an older (1967) recording with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra (Sony Classical SM4K 45 989). Thats Nielsen! Here everything finds the right place and sound right and logical. I have this recording on CD in a box set with all 6 symphonies conducted by Ormandy and Bernstein – including the really classic Bernstein recordings of no 5 with the New York Philharmonic from 1962 and no 3 with the Danish Royal Chapel from 1965. This is the necessary set for anyone interested in hearing how the Carl Nielsen symphonies became known outside our local Danish circles.

I have to get some LP's spinning soon – it could be interesting to compare both the oldest recording I have got of no 1 (Thomas Jensen and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. I don't know exactly when it was recorded. My sample is on Decca Eclipse from 1970, and this is Decca's rerun label as far as I know) and the somewhat newer with Ole Schmidt and the London Symphony Orchestra on Unicorn from 1973-74.

Another interesting project is the different versions of no 5 – Thomas Jensen and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic (on both LP and CD), Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Jasha Horenstein and the New Philharmonia Orchestra, Ole Schmidt and the LSO and as the last one Douglas Bostock and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (on CD).

Well – 6 different, that sure looks like collecto'mania? The 3.symphony I only have got in 3 different versions (I think – Bernstein, Schmidt and Bostock). The symphonic music of Carl Nielsen has always been very dear to me, but I have never got the hang of his songs.

I just got to mention another of my favorites – Jasha Horenstein. That man can bring orchestras that are not super top notch to play much better than they (or anyone else) think. It is nothing short of magic at the right occasion. I guess we have to return to that another time.