Selim PALMGREN (1878-1951)
Piano Concerto No. 2 op. 33 The River (1912) [23:19]
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor op. 13 (1903) [14:44]
Piano Concerto No. 3 op. 49 (1915) [18:36]
Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 78 (Prelude [2:06]; Humoresque [2:07]; Canzonetta [2:41]; The Fiddler [1:08]; Finnish Romance [1:49]; Oriental Serenade [1:23]; Preghiera [3:12]) [14:28]
Henri Sigfridsson (piano); Jan Söderblom (violin)
Pori Sinfonietta/Jan Söderblom
rec. 11-12 September 2014, Promenadisali, Pori, Finland
ALBA ABCD385 SACD [71:52]
I knew of Palmgren because his West Finnish Dance
had been recorded by Benno
Moisewitsch during the days of the 78 and Myra
Hess had recorded his Cradle Song. It wasn't these works
that did it for me. It was a Radio 3 broadcast of the Piano Concerto No 2
The River (20:50) on 26 February 1977 that won me over. The pianist
was Izumi Tateno with the Helsinki PO conducted by Jorma Panula. This was
a broadcast either from a Fennica LP (SS4) or more likely from the Finnish
HMV variant: 5E 063-34 471 - a pretty exotic beast in the UK at that that
time. That Palmgren album coupled Einar Englund's Piano Concerto, also
played by Tateno. That LP saw good service on the BBC in the 1970s-80s with
at least half a dozen broadcasts - many of them listener request programmes.
In a break from the predictable the BBC even commissioned a completely new
studio broadcast to mark the centenary of Palmgren's birthday on 16
February 1878. This involved the pianist Philip Challis with the BBC Concert
Orchestra conducted by its usual stalwart of those years, Ashley Lawrence.
As for Tateno he went on to record no fewer than three CDs of Palmgren's
solo piano music for Finlandia although not the other four piano concertos.
Finlandia however did not finish there. In 2007 they released Palmgren's
Daniel Hjort - an Opera in Six Tableaux (1907 rev. 1932) with the
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Ulf Söderblom. In the 1980s a 2 CD set from
Finlandia and Warner coupled all five piano concertos and the orchestral Pictures
from Finland with a selection of the solo piano pieces including the
Piano Sonata, the solos all played by Tateno. An honour roll of pianists (Juhani
Lagerspetz, Matti Raekkalio, Eero Heinonen, Raija Kerppo) played the concertos
alongside the Turku orchestra conducted by Jacques Mercier. Its most recent
avatar was an inexpensive Warner Ultima twofer. Those recordings were made
1989-2000.
Like the other two concertos, here the Second is in one movement. It's
very likeable and would fit well with you if you have a taste for the Grieg
Concerto. You'll need to embrace 'modern' insurgencies
from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and woodwind writing from
early Sibelius. It's a most poetic and romantic piece with a decorative
singing quality and plenty of swirling arpeggiation that carries over into
its most outgoing pages. The First Concerto also uses that liquid arpeggiation
from the soloist and over it drapes summery-sleepy woodwind writing. This
transforms into some deliciously dancing, perky and alert writing which sometimes
calls to mind the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. Although the Third Concerto
has some more darkly flecked moments broadly we are still in the same region
with plenty of lissom melody, fantastic dancing and glittering writing. Other
carefree piano and orchestra works spring to mind as parallels including the
Litolff concertos, the five Saint-Saëns concertos, the Arensky and Bax's
Maytime in Sussex. The Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 78 are salon
charmers and a little more. These run to an introspective Prelude,
a hearty Humoresque, a thoughtful Canzonetta which is more
of a lullaby, The Fiddler which suggests the Grieg of the Slåtter,
a rather English-pastoral Finnish Romance, a sinister cold-hearted
Oriental Serenade and a final drowsy Preghiera.
Henri Sigfridsson is the brilliant pianist for this well recorded disc of
these truly attractive pieces. Sigfridsson is no stranger to Palmgren. His
disc of the composer's solo piano music came out on Ondine in 2012
(review).
Violinist Jan Söderblom (also the conductor) has just the right steady touch
for these miniatures. He lets them bloom modestly without trying to make more
of them than they can sustain. The Finnish composer, pianist, and conductor
Selim Palmgren was born in Pori so there is a symmetry in the orchestra for
this disc being the Pori Sinfonietta.
Palmgren studied at Helsinki Conservatory in from 1895 to 1899 then furthered
his gifts with years spent working in Berlin with Busoni. In 1921 he moved
to the USA for a spell teaching composition at the Eastman School of Music.
Palmgren wrote extensively for solo piano and for voice. In addition there
are suites of incidental music for orchestra, patriotic cantatas (the title
of one of these looks promising: Väinämöinen ja karhunkaato), a couple
of military/municpal marches, a concert-fantasy for violin and orchestra,
a ballade for orchestra and an unfinished clarinet concerto.
The very full liner-note is by Kimmo Korhonen and is in Finnish and English;
the latter running to six pages.
This is a delightful disc and surely the forerunner to a volume 2. We must
hope for the next disc to include the last two Palmgren piano concertos: No.
4, April (1928) and No. 5 (1940). Perhaps the line-up will bring
us some of the other orchestral treasures not previously recorded commercially
including the Exotic March and the Cinderella Suite. Then
how about a reissue of that Daniel Hjort opera.
Rob Barnett
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