Swedish music

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Dave, for uploading Pettersson 7 in such an excellent radio broadcast. Much appreciated!

[Amphissa]

Note the date of the performance/broadcast. Just last weekend. Both the audio and the performance are excellent to my ears.

[eschiss1]

By the way there have been two broadcast performances of Pettersson 7 in the last month, I think, both may be still available online if one "acts fast"- the recent BBC Radio 3 one (Scottish Symphony) and an older one on P2 Sweden broadcast on August 29th (and still online for maybe 5 or 6 more days? -- unless the weekend interferes though it shouldn't, 9-29 is in the middle of the week; in other cases it does) - at Klassisk formiddag (see the bottom of the page. you may need the right software to hear this, of course...) - a  2009 performance conducted by violinist-conductor Tobias Ringborg, Helsingborgs symfoniorkester at the Helsingborg Concerthouse. Should probably be in the Radio Broadcasts forum (though can be used to extract something for the Downloads forum, possibly- don't know. Don't know of a CD release of that recording, anyway. Don't think I knew of the Kofman performance. Thanks! Kofman's name rings a bell- I believe I recall a very positive review of a Shostakovich CD of his in Fanfare awhile back, and between Pettersson's muse and Shostakovich I hear some kinship...)
Eric

[eschiss1]

Also, as to the Wiklund, movement headings on the tracks are always appreciated if reasonable to obtain (I've been trying for the Hiller but for the time being admit I've given up. For now. This though took me 5 seconds ) (at least, if they're for the same revision of the works) - but here they are at least according to a recent CD (and according to CDUniverse - Westerberg and Panula conducted recordings)-
Wiklund concerto no.1 in E minor, Opus 10-
I. Allegro energico
II. Andante ma non troppo
III. Allegro vivace

Wiklund concerto no.2 in B minor, Opus 17-
1. Allegro moderato - (attacca?)
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Allegro ma non troppo

(ok, I see the 2010 version has, though the 1959 version doesn't, for concerto 1, and concerto 2 does. Spoke much too soon. Sorry )
Symphony - Op.20, ?

from a 1923 Swedish Journal of Musicology about the Wiklund symphony op.20 someone wrote-
"Den hade den egendomligheten att sakna egentlig final; som sådan fick den scherzo-artade tredje satsen gälla."
"three movements" or "third movement" I get, scherzo-something, the rest...

Thanks for the uploads- of course and no less so for any gripes- and looking forward to hearing them. (I think I've heard the first concerto in the Westerberg recording years ago-relative to my early middle age- on an at the time much better US radio station. Not since. Didn't know my luck in hearing such things so paid it less attention than I might have...)

[eschiss1]

The Stenhammar 3 recording I uploaded, I'm almost positive from my memory of taping it anyway, is not the one from the 1980s session they recorded for LP, but a 1958 concert broadcast that contained Stenhammar, Shostakovich and Beethoven played by the Borodin quartet of the time (different constitution- Dubinsky etc. ...) - see Euroclassic Notturno February 10 2005. Recorded in Stockholm also. Have uploaded ZIP files of the quartets 3 (attempted to. failed. trying again - ok, apparently had to double compress - .zip.gz - it for it to upload - if that's a problem I will try something else...) and 4 of Stenhammar to the respective folders for somewhat easier downloading... (as against 10, 21 files apiece...)

[Amphissa]

By the way there have been two broadcast performances of Pettersson 7 in the last month, I think, both may be still available online if one "acts fast"- the recent BBC Radio 3 one (Scottish Symphony) and an older one on P2 Sweden broadcast on August 29th (and still online for maybe 5 or 6 more days? .......
Eric

Maybe someone would be so kind as to upload one or both of these performances. I'd be interested in hearing the nuances different conductors/orchestras bring to Pettersson's music.

[lechner1110]

  Dear Amphissa and eschiss1

  I recorded many broadcasts of Swedish radio.
  But I forgot to record  Pettersson 7 at 8.29.
  Sorry!


  A.S

[semloh]

A.S. - thank you for uploading the Wiklund. It's the first time I've heard his music, and I am just amazed that these beautiful compositions are so rarely heard. They are a real treat.

[eschiss1]

anytime between 8/29 and 9/29 would have worked I think - hopefully it will be broadcast again before too long.  Have discovered/had pointed out to me some other stations too that broadcast/webstream interesting stuff (Croatian Radio, Hungarian Radio...) - fortunately the list in another subforum here is in progress (sorry, tangent, that!)

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, A.S., for the upload of Norman's 2nd Symphony!

[Dylan]

Wonderful to see the Okko Kamu recording of Pettersson 6 again; had the LP, foolishly sold it, never thought I'd see it again. The best performance yet, to my mind, of this terrifying work; many thanks!

[britishcomposer]

Thank you very much for the Melchers Violin Concerto, Eric!!!
I like the quirky 3rd movement best but I have the feeling that he is not quite at home with writing for an orchestra. His tendency to meander dominates the first two movements, a tendency which is also obvious in the Piano Concerto. One tends to assume that he lacks dramatic sense but then there is this gorgeous string quartet...

I've tried to find a store which still offers the CD but couldn't find one, not even used.
It would look like this:
http://www.amazon.de/Streichquartette-G-Lysell-Quartett/dp/B000025478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317649688&sr=8-1

If the moderators agree I will upload my recording from Swedish radio which is taken from the CD.

[Sicmu]

Wonderful to see the Okko Kamu recording of Pettersson 6 again; had the LP, foolishly sold it, never thought I'd see it again. The best performance yet, to my mind, of this terrifying work; many thanks!

You are welcome, I also think the Kamu recording is better than the CPO one. I will  upload the 8+9 in the Commissiona recordings and the first recording of the 16th as well : the latter is especially interesting as the soloist of the new CPO recording made several changes to the original version.

[eschiss1]

Cauthen's Pettersson site I think had reports that at one point there were efforts to reissue Kamu's recording of the 6th symphony but that they came close to fruition - I think- but only close, not quite. I'll give the Kamu recording another listen as it's wholly possible that my problems with the work result from overexposure to Trojahn's interpretation.

[Dylan]

Do try the Kamu: it's one of those cases where Trojahn and his Berlin musicians dutifully (indeed heroically!) play all the notes, without the performance ever quite cohering or coming to life...whereas with Kamu it's less like listening to a performance of a symphony than to some kind of living, breathing entity struggling for life. Indeed Pettersson's music has always seemed to me to embody quite literally Nielsen's dictum about music being "the sound of life" - and at its most naked and exposed. The first time I heard the 6th there were moments where my body actually ran cold with a sense of dread - for example, a little figure for xylophone and piccolo about 20 mins in, which in the CPO performance just sounds like an interesting orchestral effect, but in Kamu's takes on an almost supernatural effect...if sounds from "the other side" ever reached us, I'm sure that would be one of them! The symphony as a whole communicates a sense of both the most terrible isolation and the struggle against it that I find more viscerally involving than almost any other music I know...