Composer: Allan Pettersson
Orchestra: Norrköpings Symfoniorkester
Conductor: Christian Lindberg
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2240
Release: 2018
Size: 1.38 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 5
01. Beginning
02. Figure 17
03. Figure 43
04. Figure 129
Symphony No. 7
05. Beginning
06. Bar 53
07. Bar 172
08. Bar 255
09. Bar 311
10. Bar 389
11. Bar 432
12. Bar 450
13. Bar 512
14. Bar 564
15. Bar 613
16. Bar 648
17. Bar 707
The symphonies of Swedish composer Allan Pettersson cannot easily be classed as conservative or progressive, and it is no surprise that they have been gaining new performances outside Sweden. They are monumental, rather dark, and suggest the sound of a Mahler who had lived to hear atonality more than an avatar of the Scandinavian tradition: Pettersson organizes works around large-scale contrasts and an attempt to encompass vastly different materials. The two works here are quite different but are representative of his style, and they receive fine performances from the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under Christian Lindberg. These works, like most of Pettersson’s other symphonies, are in a single movement: the track listings on the album denote mere breaks in the music. The Symphony No. 5, however, retains aspects of the traditional four-movement form. Sui generis as far as form is concerned is the Symphony No. 7, from 1967. Early commentators took it as a throwback to tonality, and in fact it works toward tonal resolution at the end. But the earlier instances of tonal chords are not resting places at all, but moments that point toward someone else, and there are passages of vast, dark, Mahlerian chaos. Sample the section denoted Bar 255 here for an idea of Pettersson’s orchestral canvas. The key to interpretation of his music is a sense of the long line, and here Lindberg excels; moreover, he gets from the Norrköping Symphony a bright edge in the very high string writing that Pettersson favors, just one of the superb regional ensembles Sweden has produced over the years. Strongly recommended for those enamored of the Scandinavian school.
A characteristic trait in Allan Pettersson’s music is the use of strong contrasts – shifts between an enormous intensity and calm relaxation, between complex and violently dissonant passages and peaceful, simple melodies and harmonies. This certainly applies to both works recorded here by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Christian Lindberg – the composer’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies. Premièred in 1963 and 1968 respectively, these two symphonies contributed substantially to Pettersson’s public standing during the 1960s. The Fifth earned him the music prize of the newspaper Expressen, while at the same time Pettersson’s extensive use of traditional harmony, particularly in the slow ending of the work, caused a number of commentators to criticize it as ‘outmoded’. In 1964, the symphony probably contributed to Pettersson being selected as one of the first recipients of a public remuneration scheme for composers which guaranteed them a lifelong minimum income. Four years later, the first performance of Symphony No. 7 was conducted by Antal Doráti, the dedicatee of the work. The event is often described as Pettersson’s ‘breakthrough’, and Doráti’s recording of the work in 1969 with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra earned the performers and the composer a ‘Swedish Grammy’ Award each. Pettersson’s Seventh remains the most recorded and most frequently performed of all of his works. It is heard on disc in a performance from what are widely regarded as the leading Pettersson interpreters of our time.