Carl Nielsen - Reception

Reception

Unlike his contemporary, the Finn Jean Sibelius, Nielsen's reputation abroad did not start to evolve until after World War II. For some time, international interest was largely directed towards his symphonies while his other works, many of them highly popular in Denmark, have only recently started to become part of the world repertoire.

Writing in the New York Times on the occasion of Nielsen's 125th anniversary in 1990, Andrew Pincus explained that 25 years earlier Leonard Bernstein had believed the world was ready to accept the Dane as the equal of Sibelius. He had spoken highly of "his rough charm, his swing, his drive, his rhythmic surprises, his strange power of harmonic and tonal relationships — and especially his constant unpredictability." But even in 1990, despite sporadic performances of his works, this "constant unpredictability" was still a bit too much for foreign tastes.

In London, the symphonies at least now appear to be well accepted. Paul Driver comments enthusiastically on the Colin Davis and London Symphony Orchestra performance of the Inextinguishable in May 2010: "Movement boundaries have become fluid; the expressive raison d’être is an evolving structure articulated by its emotional necessities rather than an externally valid architecture; and the journey from harmonic ambiguity at the opening to a stable key at the end is no mere vehicle for carrying ideas, but the whole point of the piece."

Within two months of its successful premiere at the Odd Fellows Concert Hall in Copenhagen on 28 February 1912, the Third Symphony was in the repertoire of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and by 1913 it had seen performances in Stuttgart, Stockholm and Helsinki. The symphony was the most popular of all Nielsen's works during his lifetime and was also played in Berlin, Hamburg, London and Gothenburg.

An international breakthrough came in 1962 when Leonard Bernstein recorded the Fifth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for CBS. This recording helped Nielsen's music to achieve appreciation beyond his home country, and is considered one of the finest recorded accounts of the symphony.