For a while in the '60s, it looked like Danish fin de siècle symphonist
Carl Nielsen was going to hit it as big as his Austrian contemporary
Gustav Mahler. His six symphonies got a fair number of recordings by such international conductors as
Bernstein,
Ormandy,
Horenstein,
Previn, and
Barbirolli and received a fair number of positive reviews from international critics. But the '60s ended, and while
Mahler's symphonies have become part of the standard international repertoire,
Nielsen's have remained the almost exclusive property of Danish conductors, though the Finns have made successful forays into his music.