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Jussi BJÖRLING - Till havs (Towards the Sea) Hugo ALFVÉN Jag langtar dig (I long for you) Så tag mit hjerte (Now take my heart) Wilhelm PETERSON-BERGER Bland skogens höga furustammar (Among the high fir trees in the forest) När jag för mig själv i mörka skogen går (When I walk alone in the dark forest) August KÖRLING Till havs (Towards the Sea)* Aftonstämning (Evening mood) Wilhelm STENHAMMAR Sverige (Sweden) Jean SIBELIUS Säv, Säv, susa (Sigh, Rushes, Sigh) Demanten på marssnön (The diamond on the March snow) August SÖDERMAN Kung Heimer och Aslaug (King Heimer and Aslaug) Trollsjön (The enchanted lake) Carl SJÖBERG Tonerna (Music) Ragnald ALTHÉN Land, du välsignade (Thou blessed land) Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Guds lov i naturen (Nature's Praise of God) Adolphe ADAM O helga natt (O holy night) Jussi Björling (ten) The Royal Orchestra/Nils Grevillius Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Stig Westerberg rec. 1957-59, Stockholm CD-ROM features including full texts and photographs. All texts and translation on both CD-ROM and booklet. Swedish Classics Series SWEDISH SOCIETY DISCOFIL SCD 1100 [52.07]

At this late stage in his career Björling's quick vibrato had developed an emphasis not quite so apparent in his earlier years. The ringing confidence of the voice however is blessedly undimmed - in fact stronger. Listen to him in the Nessun Dorma style Jag längtar dig and also in the Lehár-Tauber-style 'vehicle' of Så tag mit hjerte. There are moments when you catch yourself thinking that this collection is like a Nordic echo of the Neapolitan songs perpetrated by generations of Italan tenors and baritones but without the risible sobs and excesses and musically far more sustaining. However there are more sophisticated things here too all invigorated by Björling's erotically meaty delivery. It is sobering to think that he would die peacefully in his sleep at the age of fifty only three years after the earliest of these recordings. Björling is captured here in sound of startling immediacy. The Swedes always had a way with recording technology witness such classic albums as the first recording of Blomdahl's I speglarnas sal. The strengths are fully in evidence here in the work of Sixten Eriksson of Grammofon AB Electra and of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation. In Till havs waves crash heroically against the cliffs. Björling sounds in good voice with a rather Wagnerian helden-bark in there too. The two Sibelius songs, superbly orchestrated, are subtle and very finely crafted. A treasure snatched from last minute oblivion and a memorable memento of a great voice and personality in music both patriotic, sentimental and stimulating. Rob Barnett Error processing SSI file

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