Nielsen Rating

I'm old enough to remember the tail-end of the Nielsen revival of the 1960s and 70s, so when Alex Ross recently opined that Nielsen was his choice for "most underrated composer of the twentieth century," I thought ... well, I won't say what I thought, except that I felt there might have been worthier candidates.

Thus you can imagine the jaundiced eye I gave Ross's recent New Yorker piece on Nielsen. But you know how it is with Ross: his brilliantly apt descriptions of the music get into your head, and you start hearing things differently. I just listened to a live performance of Nielsen's Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra conducted by Nielsenist Paavo Järvi, informed by Ross's portrayal of Nielsen's aesthetic. The abrupt shifts of mood and rhythm, the echoes of folk music, the "blazing individuality"--they were all there, but I must thank Ross for allowing me to actually hear them, whereas before Nielsen's music only sounded like a very good example of the usual neo-Romantic sumptuosity.

The New York Philharmonic's conductor designate, Alan Gilbert, is, according to Ross, a Nielsen booster, so perhaps we New Yorkers have some exciting performances to look forward to.