Nielsen & Sibelius: Violin Concertos

Dalene has a strong command of long evolving lines – crucial in both composers – but he balances that with a fine feeling for ‘speaking’ phrasing and articulation...The expression can certainly... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2022, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Apr 2022
Catalogue No: BIS2620
Label: BIS
Length: 73 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

April 2022

Editor's Choice
Presto Recording of the Week

1st April 2022
Gramophone Awards

2022

Shortlisted - Concerto
International Classical Music Awards

2023

Nominated - Concerto
Presto Recordings of the Year

Winner 2022
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2023

Nominated - Concerto

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Nielsen: Violin Concerto, Op. 33 (FS61)

Work length39:22

$9.00

$11.60

$15.75

Johan Dalene (violin)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds

Ia. Praeludium

Track length7:12

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Ib. Allegro cavalleresco

Track length13:58

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

IIa. Poco adagio

Track length6:43

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IIb. Rondo

Track length11:29

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47

Work length33:50

$8.00

$10.35

$14.00

Johan Dalene (violin)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds

I. Allegro moderato

Track length16:45

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

II. Adagio di molto

Track length9:24

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

III. Allegro, ma non tanto

Track length7:41

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

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Recording of the Week, Johan Dalene performs violin concertos by Nielsen & Sibelius

1st April 2022

The Swedish violinist offers a characterful performance of Sibelius's concerto alongside a virtuosic account of the piece that swept him to victory at the 2019 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition.

"Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, alongside Grieg the two giants in Nordic classical music, were both born in 1865. Both also received their first musical training on the violin, earning valuable insights when it came to writing for the instrument. Their respective violin concertos were composed some six years apart – Sibelius’ in 1904-05 and Nielsen’s in 1911 – and belong to the most performed works of either composer. They are nevertheless as different from each other as are the artistic temperaments of their makers. While retaining the traditional three-movement concerto form, Sibelius composed something closer to a Late-Romantic orchestral tone poem giving the orchestra unusual prominence. Nielsen on the other hand opted for an unconventional form, reminiscent of the Baroque concerto grosso: the spiky, neoclassical work is nominally in two movements, but with each movement having a slow and a fast section. These works are here performed by Johan Dalene, the Swedish-Norwegian winner of the 2019 Nielsen Competition. The present disc is the 21 year old violinist’s third release on BIS, following a recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto described as ‘one of the finest violin débuts of the last decade’ in BBC Music Magazine, and an all-Nordic violin-and-piano recital awarded distinctions such as Diapason d’or and Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. Dalene is given the expert support of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor John Storgårds, incidentally a violin soloist in his own right."

Reviews

May 2022

Dalene has a strong command of long evolving lines – crucial in both composers – but he balances that with a fine feeling for ‘speaking’ phrasing and articulation...The expression can certainly be full-toned and red-blooded, but what I like most of all are his pianissimos: how can tone that’s so delicate, fragile almost, also be so full of feeling?

July/August 202

Johan Dalene’s playing has about it an aspect of wizardry, much in the way we may imagine the playing of Paganini. Dalene seems to breathe a spark of life into both the Nielsen and Sibelius concertos that transforms them into sentient beings with a spirit and a soul.

April 2022

For my money, there’s no finer coupling of these highly contrasting yet much-associated concertos on record. I suspect the individual performances could well prove superlative for many listeners, too.

1st April 2022

As beguiling a performance as the Sibelius is, I think it's the Nielsen that is the star of the show, with a splendidly authoritative reading backed up by outstanding orchestral support...full credit should go to John Storgårds (himself a violinist) for ensuring that even in the most precariously intricate sections, the precision of the interplay between Dalene and the players of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is upheld to a most impressive standard.

3rd April 2022

Playing a 1736 Stradivarius, Dalene returns to a work we already know he excels in, and this deeply intuitive, instinctive and empathetic recording again demonstrates his remarkable touch and feel, and the way he balances discipline and playfulness — nowhere more so than in a sublime poco adagio and an unfettered final movement

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Nielsen & Sibelius: Violin Concertos

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Recording of the Week, Johan Dalene performs violin concertos by Nielsen & Sibelius