Carl Nielsen: Aladdin Incidental Music, Op. 34

Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducts the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir in the incidental music that Carl Nielsen composed in 1918 for an elaborate production of Oehlenschläger’s fairy tale play at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Full of exotic delights, the colourful score is reminiscent of both Prince Igor and Sheherazade, but still very much Nielsen’s own. First released by Chandos in 1993, this was the first recording of the complete score. The Musical Times commented at the time, ‘the special value of such a recording is enhanced by the quality of the performance, for the exotic character is well suited to Rozhdestvensky’s larger than life musical personality’. The Daily Telegraph wrote, ‘Nielsen at his symphonic best… you will be thrilled and captivated throughout’. The recording is here re-issued on the Classics label at mid price.