Today I bought a second hand copy of a CD conducted by a man whose CDs are only just now coming into the second hand market at prices I will pay, namely Osmo Vanska. Please sprinkle dots over both the 'a's in Vanska.

The music was Carl Nielsen's Symphonies Number 3 and Number 4, with 3 being a particular favourite of mine. I particularly like this comment here, to the effect that …

His brass choruses make this "Bruckner meets Charles Ives."

This is especially true for the first movement of Number 3, the so-called 'Espansiva'. When I first acquired a CD of this piece, the DECCA one by Herbert Blomstedt (again, weird modifications are required for the 'o' there) with the San Francisco Symphony (the recording that gave rise to the above comment about Bruckner and Ives), I went crazy for this particular movement. When that happens with a piece of music, you are seldom subsequently ever quite satisfied with any later performance, no matter how much it is admired by others. I just sounds wrong, to the exact degree that it differs from your First Love.

So it was with Vanska's performance of this movement. It just didn't sound right, given that my idea of what does sound right has already been fixed irrevocably for me by Blomstedt. But the subsequent three movements of Vanska's Number 3 made a big impression, especially the second, slow movement, which I think I actually prefer to Blomstedt. It certainly sounded great to me, especially the doleful yet assertive string harmonies, immediately recognisable as Nielsen. This guy didn't think this Nielsen 3 of Vanska's was all that good, but (my earlier love affair with Blomstedt in the first movement aside) it sounded wonderful to me, and certainly well worth the way less than half price I paid for it.

I let the CD run to the end, i.e. to the end of Number 4, but frankly I had only so much attention to give to this music, and it snapped at the end of Number 3.

It was actually worse than that, because I found myself taking an early evening nap during Number 4, even though I was wearing headphones, turned up quite high, and even though this is extremely passionate, not to say violently loud music. I often slumber during performances, including quite loud ones, as do many others I'm told. And then later you lie in bed, in complete silence, wide awake. What's that about?