Adolf Fredrik LINDBLAD (1801-1878)
Selected Piano Pieces
Oscar Ekberg (piano)
rec. Aula Medica, Solna, Sweden, 2016
DAPHNE 1059 [63:48]
Lindblad was a Swedish composer of the nineteenth century. His name, if not his music, will be well enough known in most in-depth music-enthusiast circles. His songs have been recorded and Sterling have let us hear his Second Symphony as have Marco Polo who also recorded the First Symphony. Caprice recorded the First Symphony with Okko Kamu.
After school and college years in Uppsala he continued his studies in Berlin. Returning to Sweden, he established a music school which attracted pupils from among the Swedish Royal family; not to mention Jenny Lind for whom he wrote many songs. There is also an opera and chamber music.
Pianist Oskar Ekberg has made a special study of Lindblad's sixty piano pieces, most of which exist in manuscript. Daphne step forward with what is the first recorded anthology of Lindblad’s piano music and have let us hear it in warmly wafted sound. Ekberg has made the first recording of Elfrida Andrée's piano music - also for the Daphne label.
There's no doubting Lindblad's fluency of invention but none of this music is especially groundbreaking. What we hear comes across as a blend of Mendelssohn and Grieg although some harks back to Haydn and even Mozart. These are the romantic effusions of a seemingly quiet soul not that Lindblad fled from prestos. Even so, the mildly melancholy, the chimingly nonchalant, the murmurously plangent, the thoughtfully musing, the ripplingly urgent or idyllic are the currency of these twenty-two pieces. Is that the shadow of the Dies Irae in Chimes (tr. 2)?
The excellent liner note (in English and Swedish) is work-specific and is nicely designed. The note is by Calle Friedner.
As expected, this unassuming but skilled music has little or no national flavour. It belongs in the European German mainstream of the nineteenth century.
Rob Barnett
Contents
1: Allegro G Major
2: Chimes, Largo, A Minor
3: Song without words, Più allegro, G Minor
4: Andante F Major
5: Allegro vivace A Major
6: Formerly, A Major
7: Now, A Minor
8: Allegro, G Major
9: Song without words, Andante con moto, E Minor
10: Allegretto, G Major
11: Moderato quasi allegretto, A Minor
12: Andante, C Minor
13: Allegro molto, E Minor
14: For Malla's calm hand and mild touch, not fast, F Major
15: Andante con moto, A Minor
16: Allegro B Major
17: Andante G Minor
18: Allegro D Minor
19: Toothache Fantasy, Allegro, B Minor
20: Dedication, Intimate and Warm, E flat Major
21: Andante con più moto, F Minor
22: Farewell, Adagio, A flat Major
