BIS are currently recording
a series of CDs by Saeverud, Norway’s
pre-eminent composer, who died in 1995.
He had a long and musically active life,
writing easily assimilated modern works
which have competed for popularity with
works by Sallinen, Kokkonen, Vagn Holmboe
and Leif Segerstam. Five discs in this
series have already been issued and
all have been welcomed. This disc is
certainly no exception.
Saeverud is the composer
of nine symphonies. BIS is in the process
of committing them to CD and thereby
earn our gratitude. Some of the symphonies
have been available previously, but
the current series outclasses the earlier
recordings. As couplings, BIS is also
including other Saeverud works, so that
we gain a rounded picture of his output.
This disc features
the Fifth Symphony, written in Norway
during the Nazi occupation. This is
counted as the first in Saeverud’s war
trilogy (Symphonies 5 – 7). The composer
freely admitted that their content was
influenced by the conditions then prevailing
in Norway. This work was received by
the audience at its first performance
as a statement about the occupation
but influenced by the title "Quasi
una fantasia". After the war the
composer admitted that the symphony
was a ‘resistance symphony’. Its first
performance in Bergen on the 6th
March 1941, with the composer conducting,
was an exclusively Saeverud affair.
The Fifth made a great
impression at the first performance,
and was greeted in the press as follows:
"It has a national appeal unequalled
in Norwegian music. It will be of historical
consequence to the extent that our young
people are able to experience art and
feel national values. It will inspire
faith, perseverance, gentle deeds and
bold actions." The symphony is
like some of Saeverud’s other symphonies,
i.e. in one movement, although four
sections are clearly discernible within
the whole. The development section consists
of a series of 26 variations, each of
them lasting four bars, and taking the
initial themes as the starting point.
The powerful emotional content of the
work is clearly evident, and it was
this that made such an impression in
1941 in Bergen.
The Symphony was dedicated
to the Slovak painter Bozidar Jakac,
a close friend of Saeverud since their
student days in Berlin. When Saeverud
heard that Jakac’s native country had
been similarly occupied by the Germans,
he resolutely wrote the dedication on
the title page.
The Oboe Concerto was
written in the 1930s - happier times.
Saeverud had Swedish oboist Rolf Lannerholm
in mind when writing this work which
was intended for performance at the
third music fair in Gothenburg. The
event was sponsored and performed by
the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted
at that stage by Tor Mann. The concerto
was not written around traditional structures,
although it was in the usual three movements.
The composer said: "It was my intention
not to fill a given form with tunes
and suitable figures for an oboe, but
to let the oboe itself determine the
form by letting its characteristic voice
choose its themes and by then letting
these themes grow freely through their
own strength and their own possibilities
of development." This is not strictly
true as the theme for the lovely Adagio
was inspired by the composer’s then
to be wife, Marie.
The two short pieces,
Entrada Regale in the style of
this composer’s Peer Gynt, and
Sonata Giubilata, characteristic
works which enhance the more substantial
pieces, but do not substantially alter
my very positive reception to this disc.
Superb recordings in
the normal BIS manner, with similarly
excellent performances from the Stavanger
Symphony Orchestra. More please!
John Phillips
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra/Ole Kristian
Ruud.