Fairytales
Nordic Light Duo
Josefine Andersson (mezzo soprano), Daniel Beskow (piano)
rec. 2022, Kulturzentrum Immanuel, Germany
Sung texts with English translations and fairy tales with lavish illustrations enclosed in booklet.
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
ARS PRODUCTIONS ARS38354 [57]
Swedish pianist Daniel Beskow released a recording of Schubert’s Winterreise together with baritone Johannes Held some years ago. It was most likeable, but the most interesting aspect was something that the listener to the recording didn’t notice: they had performed Winterreise around 50 times during a period of four years in a staged version, obviously to great acclaim. It would have been a nice idea to release a performance on DVD to get the visuals as well. Actually it is available on YouTube, and it is well worth a visit.
Now that Beskow releases a new concept album, together with mezzo-soprano Josefine Andersson, the visuals are well catered for in the lavishly illustrated booklet. It turned out that Beskow’s great-grand mother was Elsa Beskow, a very popular author and illustrator of fairy-tales from around the turn of the century 1900 and several decades onwards. Several generations of Swedish children (and from adjacent Nordic countries as well) have grown up with these fairy-tale books – and they are still being issued in new editions. Andersson and Beskow, who founded Nordic Light Duo in 2014, have since 2018 given some 100 concerts with the title “Fairy-tales” around Sweden, based on the tales and illustrations by Elsa Beskow. The programme is divided in five fairy-tales: Flower’s Festival, The Curious Perch, Putte’s Adventures in Blueberry Land, The Journey to the Land Long Ago and The Sun Egg. The texts and Elsa’s original pictures are accompanied by songs and piano pieces that match the storyline. There are even two pictures that have never been published before, thanks to Daniel’s family connections.
The music is primarily by Nordic composers: Swedish (Alfvén, Peterson-Berger, Sjögren and Stenhammar); Danish (Lange-Müller); Norwegian (Grieg) and Finnish (Sibelius), but there are also a couple of Central European names: Mozart, Schumann, several songs by Schubert, and Fanny Mendelssohn. The latter’s Italien was however published under her brother’s name.
There are some well-known songs here. Schubert’s Heidenröslein and Die Forelle, Mozart’s Goethe setting Das Veilchen, and for Scandinavians two Peterson-Berger settings of Nobel Prize Winner Karlfeldt belong to the canon of romanser. But a lot is lesser known, including Sibelius’ “Flower Songs” Op. 88, which belong to his very last compositions for voice, written in 1917. Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller is largely unknown outside his native Denmark, but he wrote some 250 songs, many of which are still performed in Denmark. The song in this collection might well entice readers to investigate his oeuvre further, and I’m sure there will be many nice surprises among the other pieces.
Let me also say at once that the interpretations of the songs and four piano pieces are fully worthy of the occasion. I have heard both musicians in the flesh and knew their capacity. Josefine Andersson was the winner of the desirable Jenny Lind scholarship some ten years ago and I heard her during the obligatory recital tour throughout Sweden. I realised then that here was a worthy winner and an exceptional talent, and her singing on this disc confirms that early impression: A beautiful and, when needed, powerful voice , employed with taste and a wonderful feeling for the texts. Daniel Beskow, both as accompanist and solo player, has a fine combination of technique and musicality.
The disc can have more than one function. One can sit down, why not together with a child of suitable age, booklet in hand and read the tales one by one – the texts are printed in both the original Swedish and in English translation – look at the wonderful pictures and listen to the music at the places indicated in the texts. At other times one can skip the stories and the pictures and just listen to the disc as an independent song recital – and the song texts with English translations are readily available as a bonus. The first alternative is recommendable as a starter – with or without children – and I do love both pictures and stories that transported me back to my childhood. A trip of nostalgia in these times of unrest is certainly not unbecoming. Buy and enjoy!
Göran Forsling
Contents
Hugo Alfvén: Två fjärilar
Edvard Grieg: Sommerfugl (piano solo)
Jean Sibelius: 6 sånger Op 88 “Flower Songs”:
Blåsippan
De bägge rosorna
Vitsippan
Sippan
Törnet
Blommans öde
Franz Schubert: Heidenröslein
W.A. Mozart: Das Veilchen
Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller: Aakande
Franz Schubert: Fischerweise
Franz Schubert: Die Forelle
Jean Sibelius: Granen (piano solo)
Jean Sibelius: Vilse
Emil Sjögren: Skogen sover, ängen drömmer
Wilhelm Stenhammar: Jungfru Blond och jungfru Brunett
Edvard Grieg: I Dovregubbens hall (piano solo)
Edvard Grieg: Killingdans ur Haugtussa
Robert Schumann: Der Sennen Abschied
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: Intet är som väntans tider
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: Böljeby vals
Jean Sibelius: Dementen på marssnön
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: Sommarsång från Frösöblomster (piano solo)
Franz Schubert: Kennst du das Land
Fanny Mendelssohn: Italien
Published: November 2, 2022
