Nielsen: Piano Works, Vol. 2

Whenever one gets the chance to hear it, the piano music of Carl Nielsen never fails to awe and amaze. The breadth, depth, power, range, and overwhelming strength of his writing for the keyboard is every bit as astounding as his writing for symphony orchestra. But one rarely gets the chance to hear Nielsen's piano music because it is so rarely programmed or recorded outside of Nielsen's native Denmark. Indeed, since John Ogden's single LP on RCA from 1968, no international label issued a recording of Nielsen's piano music until Naxos began releasing English pianist Peter Seivewright's recordings in 1994. This is the second and last volume in that edition, covering Nielsen's later and much more gnarly and gnomic works. Seivewright plays them with passionate commitment and more than enough technique to make every performance except one completely compelling. His Lucifer Suite, Op. 45, is colossal and stupendous. His Three Piano Pieces, Op. 59, is monumental and tremendous. His Piano Music for Young and Old, Op. 53, is charming and delightful. And even though Seivewright's performance of Nielsen's Festival Prelude "Turn of the Century" is restrained and solemn, the brief but bombastic piece is still sentimental dreck decked out with wrong-note harmonies. Naxos' sound is clear but a little hard and a bit distant.