This
is in some respects a brave selection if it’s aimed at
someone new to Scandinavian classical music. It’s true
there are no symphonies but otherwise the choices encompass
both the mainstream obvious and the neglected subtle -
orchestral, chamber, song and solo piano.
In
the case of Sibelius we have
Finlandia,
The Swan and
Karelia but
we are challenged by
Luonnotar and two of his songs.
Nielsen is there but no sign of
Helios or
Sagadrøm;
instead there is the
Little Suite, some songs and
a lot of the solo piano music. The choice of Grieg is pretty
much as expected – generous and all the key works are represented.
Surprising - but pleasing all the same - that of all the
works Berwald’s little Piano Concerto should have been
chosen. Larsson’s
Pastoral Suite and
Lyric Fantasy are
very welcome as are songs by Rangström and Peterson-Berger.
Good also to see that the lighter confections by Lumbye
appear alongside pops by Wirén, Sinding, Järnefelt, Svendsen
and Alfvén. Stenhammar’s wonderful
Serenade is a
substantial offering to compare with his Ballad –
Florez
och Blanzeflor. With the Larsson, Stenhammar and Wirén
it’s a shame that space could not have been found to represent
Erland von Koch (1910-2009) who died recently.
Overall
this is a pretty intrepid sampling across EMI's Scandinavian
music treasury. It's mostly 20
th century stuff
and mostly orchestral. The recordings are from between
1960 and 2002 - many from the 1970s. It's a box for the
neophyte adventurer and the explorer new to Scandinavia
and its musical heritage. At this price it encourages taking
a speculative flier and offers a great deal of reward in
potential.
Gade's Echoes
of Ossian gets a zestful
reading - a piece clearly fashioned around the Mendelssohn
overtures – especially
The Hebrides. The compact
Berwald
Piano Concerto is from a complete 4 LP set of the
Berwald symphonies which held sway in the catalogue
for many years and can still be had in EMI's Triple
series. The Concerto is gently and romantically gracious
with none of the distressing tawdry one occasionally
gets from Liszt. The finale looks forward to Saint-Saëns.
Järnefelt's
jolly and jaunty
Praeludium is good to have
and is taken from tapes made for a mixed Scandinavian
LP when Berglund and his Bournemouth band were at the
apex of their fame.
After
all that orchestral stimulation time for some fifteen
songs variously
by
Nielsen and
Grieg with
Barbara
Hendricks and by
Rangström and
Sibelius by
Solveig Kringelborn. Hendricks has been criticised for
lack of feeling. Here however she avoids the generalisation
that has been her critical ‘downfall’. They’re really nicely
done with great attention to word-meaning and enunciation.
We get six of Rangstrom's most masterful songs as well
as two of Sibelius's most famous.
The
first disc ends with
Stenhammar's Tchaikovskian
Florez
och Blanzeflor. The gentle and distant analogue
hiss is common to all the orchestral tracks on this disc.
Svendsen's Carnaval
in Paris has rarely
sounded as rumbustiously good as this. It doffs its
hat to Rossini and more obviously to Berlioz's
Roman
Carnival. That recording was made in 1994. The
next eight tracks are of dances by
Lumbye and
they were made in 1960. Despite sounding good and very
immediate with lots of impact-enhancing spotlighting
they are not free from a more assertive mattress of
analogue hiss. Lumbye is a master of the light Straussian
manner and can be bright and breezy as we hear in the
explosive
Champagne Galop complete with deafening
xylophone! After such unwavering in-your-face brilliance
it is good to return to the more suave tones of
Nielsen's Little
Suite in a justly award-winning performance
directed by the late Iona Brown. The
Intermezzo recalls
the Sibelius
Melisande music - a silvery delicate
dance. The last track on CD 2 comes from the same Berglund
sessions as the
Praeludium on CD 1. The BSO
wind principals do
Alfven’s Swedish Rhapsody
No. 1 great credit and the big-band
sound secured at Guildhall Southampton can at last
be unleashed without fears of distortion or stylus
jump.
After
two discs where there is a strong orchestral presence CD
3 is entirely piano or duo with piano included. After the
dignified and characteristic
Nielsen pieces from
Andsnes we
hear
Nielsen's two Fantasy Pieces for a rather key-clicky
oboe played by Albrecht Meyer. Ogdon's
Rustle of
Spring is a commanding classic though its piano
is beginning to sound dated and claustrophobic. Stib Ribbing's
1972 recordings of
Peterson-Berger's Frösöblomster introduce
us to a composer who produces gracious miniatures rather
like
Grieg whose
Lyric Pieces are
presented in selection played by Andsnes. The
Frösöblomster are
pleasing but this composer really shone in his second and
third symphonies which Swedish EMI recorded but which are
not here.
CD
4 combines famous with known but rarely heard. We ended
the last CD with
Grieg piano solos. We now move
to Marriner's version of the
Peer Gynt incidental
music. It's very clearly done if not specially sensitive
or nuanced. I enjoyed the upfront impact of
Dance of
the Mountain King's Daughter for its lapel-gripping
immediacy. The cheeky piccolo and jingle of Arabian Dance
has its otherworldliness accentuated by the stirring recording
yet softened by the sound of the well sung and muscular
Ambrosian Singers. So more OK than superb then. After this
it was a delight to hear
Lars-Erik Larsson's Pastoral
Suite for full orchestra in a recording from1968.
It's a fine work in cool mezzotint shades in the hands
of Bjorlin and the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The
lights come up with the succinct and joyous
Allegro finale.
There’s lovely and bubblingly distanced playing from the
flutes, oboes and clarinet. More of the same is heard from
Wirén in
his
Serenade for Strings. This is a 1975
recording. Hiss is an issue but not much, simply because
the music itself and its interpretation and recording have
such lissom vigour. The pizzicato is superbly captured.
The skip and slur of the
Scherzo and of the famous
Marcia are
among the very best. This is a work that will have you
tapping your feet and smiling.
CD
5 launches with the most famous of Scandinavian piano concertos
in a celebrity performance by Andsnes. Kitaenko gives the
Grieg
Piano Concerto a Tchaikovskian accent but it comes
up smelling of roses and listen to the split-second torque
of Andsnes' playing at the launch of the finale. Glorious.
After the famous comes the excellent but neglected in the
shape of
Stenhammar's large-scale five movement
Serenade from
EMI Svenska. It’s a lovely piece, nostalgic, rapt, effervescent
and entertaining as you might expect from a Serenade. It's
a big work and should appeal if you have any feeling for
the Sibelius incidental music. It can be compared with
a version by Andrew Davis (
Warner
Apex) and another by Järvi (
Bis).
I was glad to hear the rest of the EMI Svenska LP
contents that accompanied the
Larsson Pastoral
Suite in the shape of the
Lyric Fantasy for
small orchestra. The 1968 recording is a mite enclosed
but is powerful with horns and woodwind registering with
great command. It doesn’t sound like a small orchestra
- not at all. This is a big slow-blooming piece suggestive
of some sunny Norwegian woodland realm basking in the blessing
of sunshine. It's a lovely piece.
The
final disc in this beguilingly calculated set includes
the red-blooded Iona Brown version of the
Holberg
Suite. It matches the Nielsen
Little Suite in
its upfront power and vivacity. For the rest of the disc
we turn to the obvious and not so obvious by
Sibelius.
The famous
Swan has rarely sung as glowingly
as here in a version plucked from the complete 1979 Ormandy
Lemminkainen
Legends and still to be heard as a complete sequence
on EMI Encore. Though recorded with less subtlety than
Ormandy the 1965 Mravinsky
Swan recorded with the
Leningrad Phil at a Moscow concert is superior to this
in its taut and almost neurotic intensity. Ormandy remains
however a wonderful complement to that. After such famous
Sibelius we get one of his finest yet most obscure tone
poems,
Luonnotar, with a bell-clear Gwyneth
Jones. This was one of the pioneering recordings of the
piece and dates from the early 1970s. It can be heard alongside
its other bedfellows on
EMI
Gemini. It's a stormy minimalist piece, epic in quintessence
yet short in duration. Barbirolli in
Karelia and
Finlandia hits
the mark especially in the dark intensity and anger of
Finlandia.
Berglund's
Tapiola with the
Helsinki
Phil is rather slack by comparison with say Ashkenazy
(
Decca)
and especially alongside Van Beinum (
Eloquence).
Barbirolli's EMI
Finlandia from 1966 is imposing
and angry. It shakes the rafters alongside the best - namely
Horst Stein on Decca with the Suisse Romande.
There
are no texts and translations for the songs and
Luonnotar and
Florez.
We are provided instead with a shortish but very well constructed
overview by Daniel Grimley.
A
joyously miscellaneous Scandinavian collection at bargain
price.
Rob Barnett
Full Tracklist
CD 1 [78.12]
Niels
W. GADE Efterklang af Ossian (Echoes of Ossian) – Overture in A minor, Op.1
The Royal Danish Orchestra/Johan
Hye-Knudsen
Franz
BERWALD Piano Concerto in D
Marian Migdal (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Ulf
Björlin
Armas
JÄRNEFELT Praeludium
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Paavo
Berglund
Carl NIELSEN
[6] Æbleblomst
[7] Skal blomsterne da
visne
[8] Sænk kun dit hoved,
du blomst
[9] Den første lærke
Edvard GRIEG
[10] Våren
[11] Med en vandlije
[12] Jeg elsker dig
Barbara Hendricks (soprano);
Roland Pöntinen (piano)
Ture RANGSTRÖM
[13] Den enda stunden
[14] Flickan under nymånen
[15] Bön till natten
[16] Melodi
[17] Villemo
[18] Pan
Jean SIBELIUS
[19] Svarta rosor
[20] Diamanten på marssnön
Solveig Kringelborn (soprano);
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Wilhelm STENHAMMAR
[21] Ballad – Florez och
Blanzeflor, Op.3
Ingvar Wixell (baritone)
Swedish Radio Symphony
Orchestra/Stig Westerberg
CD 2 [75.19]
Johan
SVENDSEN Karneval i Paris (
Carnival in Paris), Op.9
Trondheim Symphony Orchestra/Ole
Kristian Ruud
Hans Christian LUMBYE
[2] Drømmebilleder – Fantasie
[3] Dronning Louise – Vals
[4] Københavns Jernbanedamp – Galop
[5] Salut for August Bournonville – Galop
[6] Columbine – Polka Mazurka
[7] Amelie Vals
[8] Britta Polka
[9] Champagne Galop
Copenhagen Tivoli Orchestra/Lavard
Friisholm
Carl
NIELSEN Little Suite for string orchestra, Op.1
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Iona
Brown
Hugo
ALFVÉN Swedish Rhapsody No.1, Op.19 '
Midsummer Vigil'
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Paavo
Berglund
CD 3 [76.47]
Carl NIELSEN
[1-6] 6 Humoreske-bagateller,
Op.11
No.1 Goddag! Goddag! 0.49
No.2 Snurretoppen 0.45
No.3 En lille langsom vals
1.27
No.4 Sprællemanden 0.47
No.5 Dukkemarch 1.15
No.6 Spilleværket 0.54
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
[7-8] Two Fantasy Pieces,
Op.2
I Romanze (Andante con
doulo) 3.38
II Humoresque (Allegretto
scherzando) 2.25
Albrecht Mayer, Markus
Becker
Christian
SINDING The Rustle of Spring, Op.32 No.3
John Ogdon (piano)
Wilhelm
PETERSON-BERGER Frösöblomster
I
No.1 Rentrée 3.00
No.2 Sommarsång 2.24
No.3 Lawn Tennis 2.20
No.4 Till Rosorna 3.35
No.5 Gratulation 3.27
No.6 Vid Fröso Kyrka 4.22
No.7 I Skymningen 3.26
No.8 Hälsning 3.43
Stig Ribbing (piano)
Carl
NIELSEN Chaconne, Op.32 (FS79)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard GRIEG
[19-23] Lyric Pieces, Op.43
No.1 Sommerfugl 1.40
No.2 I Hjemmet 2.32
No.4 Liden Fugl 1.36
No.5 Erotikon 2.53
No.6 Til Foråret 3.06
[24-27] Lyric Pieces, Op.54
No.1 Gjaetergut 4.19
No.2 Gangar 3.24
No.3 Troldtog 3.05
No.4 Notturno 4.17
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
CD 4 [76.32]
Edvard
GRIEG Peer Gynt – incidental music
Prelude (Act 1) – Wedding
Scene 5.11
Wedding March 3.08
Prelude (Act 2) – Abduction & Ingrid's
Lament 3.48
In the Hall of the Mountain
King 2.40
Dance of the Mountain King's
Daughter 1.39
Aase's Death 5.46
Prelude (Act 4) – Morning
4.16
Arabian Dance 4.47
Anitra's Dance 3.24
Solveig's Song 5.45
Prelude (Act 5) – Return
of Peer Gynt – Storm Scene 2.24
Solveig's Cradle Song 4.52
Lucia Popp (soprano), Ambrosian
Singers
Academy of St Martin in
the Fields/Neville Marriner
Lars-Erik
LARSSON Pastoral Suite, Op.19
Stockholm Philharmonic
Orchestra/Ulf Björlin
Dag
WIRÉN Serenade for Strings, Op.11
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth
Montgomery
CD 5 [76.05]
Edvard
GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitri
Kitayenko
Wilhelm
STENHAMMAR Serenade in F, Op.31
Sveriges Radio Symfoniorchester/Stig
Westerberg
Lars-Erik
LARSSON Lyric Fantasy for small orchestra
Stockholm Philharmonic
Orchestra/Ulf Björlin
CD 6 [76.25]
Edvard
GRIEG Suite for strings (in olden style from Holberg's time), Op.40
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Iona
Brown
Jean SIBELIUS
Four Legends from the
Kalevala, Op.22 – No.2 '
The Swan of Tuonela'
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene
Ormandy
Luonnotar,
Op.70
Gwyneth Jones (soprano)
London Symphony Orchestra/Antal
Dorati
Karelia Suite, Op.11
Hallé Orchestra/Sir John
Barbirolli
Tapiola,
Op.112
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Paavo
Berglund
Finlandia,
Op.26
Hallé Orchestra/Sir John
Barbirolli