The most important Danish composer of the first third of the twentieth century, Carl Nielsen was prolific in almost all genres. The six Symphonies are essentially tonal, emotionally direct works, which alternate long lines of melody with passages of blazing energy. Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’, his most dramatic, conveys ‘the elemental will to live’, while in his Symphony No. 5, written after the 1914–18 war, Nielsen develops new and stronger rhythms and more advanced harmonies. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6 (8.570737) and Nos. 2 and 3 (8.570738) are also available.