Nielsen: Symphony No. 2, Op. 16, Pan & Syrinx, Op. 49 & Alad

Salonen shows nobility and dignity in this eloquent performance of Nielsen. ...In all three pieces [Esa-Pekka Salonen] gets very responsive playing from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra... [I]t is a pleasure to welcome the present well-characterized performance... I rather like Salonen's youthful, impulsive opening [to The Four Temperaments], which plunges us straight into the action, breathless with anger. It is brisker than the rival versions from Chung and Ole Schmidt... Even if he could afford to give himself more space (and he does steady himself a little later), he captures the choleric character perfectly. He also gives an idiomatic account of the second movement, a lazy waltz-movement portraying a phlegmatic youngster without any apparent care in the world... The most impressive of the four, however, is the melancholic where Salonen shows both nobility and dignity, and secures eloquent and expressive playing from the orchestra... [T]his is without doubt the best thought-o