Pay-off time for those
who were prepared to ‘play the long
game’ and wait for this boxed set to
appear. CPO issued these five discs
individually at full price between 2000
and 2003. Now they appear as a bargain
set first on the shelves only a month
after the thirtieth anniversary of Atterberg’s
death.
Atterberg, a Swedish
composer, is the very model of the late-romantic
Scandinavian. Writing from the perspective
of 1974, John H. Yoell in his book ‘The
Nordic Sound’ (Crescendo Press, 1974)
said that Atterberg was "listed
among the casualties buried beneath
the avalanche of non-tonal music engulfing
the world since 1950. But tides of fad
and fashion ... did not erase what Atterberg
managed to accomplish nor quench his
impulse to keep working at an age when
most men sit rocking on the porch."
Indeed Atterberg had to contend with
another burden: that of spending a goodly
part of his very long life watching
the musical world reject his lovingly
crafted lyrical works on the waxing
moon of dodecaphony.
Atterberg’s winning
and even compelling ways show him to
be an adept of orchestral colour and
seething incident. His scores are of
the romantic-folk-impressionist type.
Yoell considered him the equal of Stenhammar
and a cut above Alfvén and Rangström.
Personally I would place him above Stenhammar
alongside a Swedish symphonist not mentioned
by Yoell but also celebrated by CPO
(and Sterling!), Wilhelm Peterson-Berger.
His biography can be
summed up rather brusquely as follows:
Initially studying as a civil engineer
and then working in the Patent Office
(1912-1940). Gave up engineering for
music. Studied with Hallén in
Stockholm. Continued his education in
Munich, Berlin and Stuttgart (the scene
of some of these recordings). Became
a solo cellist. Then took up conducting
at Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm
(1913-1922). Longstanding music critic,
writing for the ‘Stockholms Tidningen’.
Held many official posts in Swedish
musical academe and other artistic institutions.
Conducted internationally. Famously
won the Schubert Centenary Columbia
Graphophone competition with his Sixth
Symphony in 1928.
Atterberg seems to
have sided with the Nazis during World
War Two and his symphonies 7 and 8 were
premiered in Germany. This did little
to help him secure performances post-1945
when a generation of priests of dissonance
were newly risen to eminence. Atterberg’s
musical style was certainly backward-looking
and folk-centred so this approach will
have appealed to the Third Reich’s ‘establishment’.
When Atterberg recorded the Sixth Symphony,
shortly after it had won him the Columbia
competition, he went to Berlin to make
the recording with the Berlin Phil.
In all fairness we should also recall
that in Nazi Germany the most frequently
played non-German composer was Jean
Sibelius. However Atterberg’s music
has about it a lambent lyrical life
partly tapped from Swedish folk sources.
That ebullient life transcends the sympathy
it evoked from Nazi sources.
Atterberg's symphonies
on record have, until CPO and Ari Rasilainen
set about them, been patch-worked across
labels. No. 2 on Swedish Society Discofil.
No. 3 on Caprice (still a very fine
recording by the way). Nos. 1 and 4
on Sterling. No. 6 is multiply recorded
on dell'Arte, Koch and most accessibly
on Bis. Numbers 7 Romantica and
8 are also on Sterling. We should remind
ourselves that the CPO cycle while premiering
on record only the Ninth presents in
most cases only the second CD
appearances of all these works and the
first in full digital format (excepting
only 3, 6, 7, 8).
CPO Disc 1 couples
symphonies 1 and 4; the selfsame works
harnessed on Sterling CDS-1010-2 at
full price. Sterling rescued an LP recording
of the Fourth Symphony from oblivion
and coupled it with the First Symphony
- the results of sessions in the Berwald
Hall, in Stockholm on 3-5 November 1986.
One difference between the two recordings
is that Frank Hedman who produced the
Sterling discs back in 1989 streamed
the Adagio and Presto of
the First Symphony together into a single
track (tr. 2) while CPO keep the two
separate. The Fourth had been recorded
back in 1976 in Norrköping where
the control room was in the hands of
a certain Robert von Bahr now better
known now as the presiding angel of
BIS. Sterling were unable to track down
the master-tape of the Fourth Symphony
so what we hear is overdubbed from a
vinyl disc.
The Sterling First
Symphony is conducted by Stig Westerberg
and the orchestra is the Swedish Radio
Symphony. The timings of the two versions
are only minutes apart with Westerberg
being a few seconds quicker than Rasilainen.
This work is a lanky great 40 minute
symphony full of Rimskian colour, subtle
textures, heroic turbulence akin, in
the tempestuous finale, to Howard Hanson’s
first two symphonies. When the supremely
confident French horns sing out in Tchaikovskian
warmth over the top of the aspiring
strings (at the climax of the finale)
you know that you are confronting a
seriously-intentioned symphonist. You
also know that the CPO engineers have
done well to capture such virile playing
with natural fidelity. Both versions
are good at putting across the exhilarating
spasm and majesty of the final five
minutes. The only differences I noted
between the two versions was that the
violins of the Frankfurt orchestra sounded
sweeter than those of Swedish Radio
and generally there seemed a more naturally
spacious effect on the CPO. It was,
after all, made fourteen years after
the Sterling sessions. Otherwise there
is little to choose between the two
except of course that the Sterling is
at premium price.
The Fourth Symphony
was completed in 1918, the same year
that Atterberg finished his first opera,
Hårvard Harpolekare. It is splashed
with many Sibelian touches especially
in the bristling tense high writing
for violins redolent of the Finn’s light-suffused
Sixth Symphony itself recorded by Georg
Schneevoigt who in 1919 premiered the
Atterberg in Stockholm.
The Fourth is much
more concise than the First and runs
to just over twenty minutes. Sten Frykberg
for Sterling is perhaps a minute quicker
overall. The spirit of folksong is there
in full and a life-enhancing tune courses
through the first movement. The andante
second movement is simply magical
with a Grainger-like folk-tune intoned
smoothly and lovingly by the clarinet
over the gossamer glow of ppp
strings - we will meet that effect again.
In the Sterling version such is the
whisper-quiet of the music you can hear
the light bristle of groove noise both
here and in the finale. The scherzo
is all over in less than 1½ minutes
recalling, along the way, Dvořák’s
New World. It ends with a veritable
wink.
Rasilainen is a mite
more heavy-handed than Frykberg who
is closer to the music’s Mendelssohnian
faery-lightness and strangely enough
his sound-stage is kinder to this spirit
than the grand hall ambience achieved
by Hessischer Rundfunk for CPO. The
finale is lively with the Swedish equivalent
of a lesghinka and the stompingly triumphant
dances that Atterberg became adept at
turning to symphonic gold in his finales.
Listen to the way the orchestra’s leader
launches and sustains a touchingly yielding
obbligato half sob, half cry at ppp
at 2:45 continuing for many bars. The
exuberance and exhilaration of the finale
recalls Lemminkainen’s Homecoming,
Smetana’s Bartered Bride furiants
and Rimsky’s Capriccio Espagnol.
The piece ends with the usual affirmative
blows topped off with a high squeal
from the first violins. This sounds
for all the world like the village fiddlers
dashing off one last stratospheric stab
and slash with the triangle resounding
as the dancers fall exhausted to the
floor. A lovely work this. Some vinyl
wear can be heard in the demanding finale
of the Symphony in the Sterling version.
No such problem in the CPO.
The second disc couples
symphonies 2 and 5. The Second Symphony
was recorded by Stig Westerberg
in October 1967 and first issued on
LP SLT 33179. It runs to 39:19 as against
Rasilainen’s 41:00. The Westerberg is
on Swedish Society Discofil CD SCD1006
and is coupled with Atterberg’s famous
Suite No. 3 for violin, viola and strings;
itself the acme of the Nordic crepuscular
romance and not to be missed. Rasilainen
clearly warms to the beauty of this
softly singing music contrasted with
a slammingly sanguine epic-triumphant
spirit. His version reminded me at times
of Howard Hanson’s First Symphony Nordic
which dates from about eight years
after the Atterberg. The Westerberg
still sounds the business but his violins
while having a more supple victory in
their weight lack the silky gleam of
the Hannover NDR orchestra nor does
the brass sound as cleanly emphatic
and free from that hint of surface spall.
Interestingly the music reminded me
occasionally of Richard Strauss and
in the swooning ebb and flow of the
first movement of Louis Glass’s masterful
Symphony No. 5 Sinfonia Svastica
again lying about eight years in the
future. Westerberg scores for additional
hushed enchantment in the wonderful
Adagio.
The Fifth Symphony
is the Sinfonia Funebre.
It may be dark but it doesn’t sound
funereal to me. In the Fifth’s first
movement there is a prominent part for
orchestral piano. This is a most impressive
movement with strong Sibelian credentials
- music of bardic surging confidence
likened to the first movements of the
Stenhammar Second Symphony and the Moeran
G minor Symphony as well as the finales
of the first four Joly Braga Santos
symphonies. Before Atterberg succumbs
to a lush Korngoldian luxuriance in
the second movement he write music that
links directly with Nystroem’s much
later Sinfonia del Mare in its
magical redolence of the endlessly murmuring
sea miles. This is saturatedly romantic
material and its neglect in the face
for example of the understandable popularity
of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony is
incomprehensible. The finale has a fugal
character and there is some wonderfully
pointed fast writing for the violins
at 5:20 on CPO. Again the piano adds
another voice to the texture. It is
oddly in tempo di valse with
possibly a cloaked reference to Sibelius’s
Valse Triste and even to the
eruptively orgasmic pages of Ravel’s
La Valse. Samuel Barber, many
years later, does something similar
in the orchestral version of the Tango
from Souvenirs. This waltz
can also be compared in subtlety with
its use by Prokofiev who infuses a psychological
message - here the ‘strapline’ is one
of brooding and inimical fate. At 12:10
there is a return to the intimately
consolatory rocking motif noted before
as a precursor to the Nystroem Sinfonia
del Mare here touched with the passion-spent
exhaustion of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s
Pathétique. The Symphony
ends in a quietly dismissive pizzicato
- almost impassive. Both Rasilainen
and Westerberg are impressive. Westerberg’s
engineers lent his recording an additional
cosiness that perhaps slightly muffles
the many instrumental strata.
Westerberg conducts
the Stockholm Philharmonic on Musica
Sveciae MSCD620 recorded in August 1990.
He brought out for me the fury of the
writing in the first movement just as
much as Rasilainen. Incredibly some
of this prefigures Vaughan Williams’
snarling Fourth Symphony from a decade
later. Once again there is little difference
between the timing adopted by the two
men.
The Third Symphony
is in the usual three movements.
Subtitled West Coast Pictures this
is a classic of Scandinavian marine
poetry. It’s the place to start any
exploration of Atterberg. The music
is copiously romantic but here delicate
and limpid impressionism is an important
element. This is the most impressionistic
of all the Atterberg symphonies. The
murmurous first movement Sun Haze
once again predicts Nystroem's Sinfonia
del Mare and unknowingly parallels
Bax's Tintagel. Storm
is the central movement. There's a real
surging urgency about this music which
crashes, swells and thunders in oceanic
glory. Wonderfully raw and brawnily
Odyssean writing for the horns adds
distinctively to the aural pantone.
The schema of the piece is worth noting:
two largely placid and poetically self-absorbed
movements flanking a feral storm.
Ehrling's pioneering
version with the Stockholm Phil on Caprice
CAP21634 can still be had. It is very
effective and lovingly recorded. Ehrling
is a minute or so brisker than Rasilainen
in the outer movements. But frankly
Rasilainen's slower pacing suits the
music better in those movements. Try
the great slow unleashing of the world-conquering
melody at 4:09; why are we not hearing
this at the Proms? CPO's recording is
also more attentive to detail. Time
after time solos emerge with greater
command. Were this a one-to-one confrontation
I would still prefer Rasilainen. As
it is, this CPO set is available
at what amounts to bargain price per
disc for the complete cycle. I would
not want you to miss even one of
these fine symphonies.
The Sixth Symphony
has had reams written about it most
of which detracts from its considerable
intrinsic attractions. The tripartite
movement pattern is followed. Once again
Rasilainen is faster than the main modern
competition (we'll ignore Beecham and
Toscanini). That competition is from
Jun'Ichi Hirokami and the Norrköping
orchestra on BIS-CD-553. Bis or Hirokami
failed in their courage and so the coupling
there is not one of the other symphonies
but A Vårmland Rhapsody and
Ballad Without Words. Even so
Hirokami's reading and Bis's refined
and highly detailed recording is not
to be dismissed easily. You just have
to listen to the hushed enchantment
of the start of the middle slow movement
and Johnny Jannesson's clarinet solo
to know that you are in the presence
of estimable music-making. CPO, by contrast,
have one of Atterberg's finest symphonies
as a coupling: No. 3. Apart from some
false-sounding braggartry in the first
and last movements the whole of the
Sixth works well as another example
of Atterberg's folksy-poetic drama.
Folksong always buoys up his inspiration
as in that sad-joyous clarinet solo
in the Adagio. To a lapidary diaphanous
ostinato Atterberg delivers yet more
fine melodic inspiration in the finale
with Mahlerian grandeur being not a
stone's-throw away.
If you were considering
buying CPO 999 641-2 (symphonies 7 and
8) by itself it would be up against
direct competition from Sterling CDS-1026-2
(Malmö SO/Michail Jurowski). In
both works Rasilainen is not in fear
of pushing forward. He is almost five
minutes faster than Jurowski in No.
7 (four of those five minutes quicker
in the big Drammatico first movement).
In No. 8 he is three minutes shorter.
After the Mahler 5-style
start of the Sinfonia Romantica
(No. 7) there is the usual fine
skein of folk-accented melodic impressionism.
The finale is almost warlike (rather
like Bax's Northern Ballad No. 1)
and the music takes on the character
of a crushing giant's jig with some
rawly raucous work delivered from the
brass benches. On balance the Sterling
is probably more sumptuously recorded
not that the CPO is not excellent.
The Eighth Symphony
is
an exercise in joyous folk grandeur
- in fact Atterberg in this mode strikes
me as the Scandinavian Dvořák.
His treatment of simple folk melodies
is always dignified and never pompous.
He excavates the latency each folk dance
and song has for the epic and for dramatic
effect. In this work he makes delightful
use of pizzicato and woodwind in a way
familiar from Sibelius in The
Tempest written two decades earlier.
In the finale the main theme sounds
a little like 'There was a jolly miller
once ...' Intriguingly the stuttering
trumpet motif from the start of Mahler
5 (already noted in the Atterberg Seventh)
can also be heard in the background
in the finale of Atterberg 8 (tr. 7
7:55 on CPO). Also very obvious are
the passing quotes, in the first movement
of No. 8, to the Schubert Great C
major (tr.4 1:58 Sterling). The third
movement molto vivo reminds me
of Sibelius's lighter theatre music
mixed with Mahlerian ländler. Then
again Atterberg
rises to a syncopated majesty at 1:08
(tr. 6) that transcends any influences.
There are regal moments in Dvořák
7 and 8 that this at the very least
equals: that's how good this music is.
Back to comparisons:
once again the Sterling coupling including
No.8 shades the CPO in refinement and
transparency of sound. Then again the
second movement in Jurowski's hands
is taken a mite too languidly - the
bassoon and cuckooing flute almost coming
to a standstill - although it does make
mesmerising listening.
And now to the final
disc; the only one I have reviewed to
date.
After the strongly
tuneful Nordic romantic-impressionism
of the earlier scores some listeners
are in for a culture shock with the
Ninth Symphony. All the auguries
are promising. The text is from the
Voluspá ('The Face of the Prophetess'),
part of the Icelandic Edda - a creation
epic. The Vanir and Aesir are mentioned
in the sung text as are Odin, Midgård,
Yggdrasil, Heimdall, Thor, Loki and
Frigg. Is this going to be a vivid nationalistic
score? Well actually, no. The contours
undulate, the approach is narrative
rather than dramatic and the music is
sombre, concentrated, serious and broad.
It is determinedly tonal but it is as
if the composer no longer sees any compulsion
to create magical effects or diaphanous
brilliance. It is predominantly meditative
music with animation only entering in
Med spjut sprängde Oden, Rym
styr un östern and Nu stundar Friggas
movements (trs. 6, 11, 12 - the latter
two being choral). The Symphony ends
after the words:-
"The sun blackens
the land sinks into the sea
The sun blackens
winter's frost in summer
From heaven fall
flaming stars.
...
Much I've experienced
I see far into the future
...
Now the Vala is silent."
Certainly a downbeat
ending ... 'not with a bang but a whimper'.
None of the visionary exaltation of
Rosenberg's Johannes Uppenbarelse,
Martinů's Epic of Gilgamesh
nor the monumentalism of Goossens'
Apocalypse or Schmidt's Book
with Seven Seals.
The performance history
of this Ninth has been predictably sparse.
The premiere was given in Helsinki in
1957 when the conductor was Nils-Erik
Fougstedt and the orchestra was the
Helsinki Symphony. There was a performance
in Dortmund in 1962 and another in Göteborg
in 1975 on the anniversary of the composer's
death. A tape of the 1957 premiere gave
the symphony a kind of half-life on
the tape underground. Michael Kube's
note is typically helpful and provocative
comparing Visionaria with Karl
Weigl's Apocalyptic Symphony;
Korngold's Symphony in F sharp and Hindemith's
Die Harmonie der Welt. The booklet
prints the full text as sung and in
English and German translation, side
by side.
As a balm to those
bruised by the sustained sobriety of
the Ninth Symphony, Älven
- från fjällen till havet
(The River - from the Mountains
to the Sea) is a symphonic poem
written in the wake of the worldwide
success of the Sixth Symphony. It was
commissioned by the Göteborg Orchestral
Society (who revived it in the 1980s
with Norman del Mar). It is in seven
continuously-played episodes: Through
mountains and forests; The great
lake; The waterfalls; The
quiet, wide stream; The harbour;
View from the mountains over the
sea; Out to the sea. There
is an even more detailed verbal account
given by the composer and quoted in
the booklet. The musical idiom is comparable
with the Third Symphony - alive with
colour and contrast as well as being
rich in melodic resource. The music
moves through cinematic grandeur to
impressionistic filigree (à la
Bantock's Pierrot of the Minute),
to malcontented nightmare rising to
a deeply impressive rolling brass theme
- more Korngold than Strauss (tr.16).
Restless activity is punctuated with
a jerkily emphatic romantic motif that
suggests the Third Symphony (West
Coast Pictures). The star-glimmer
of The Harbour is made distraught
with some very 'modern' wailings and
groans (Ruggles and Varèse perhaps).
These give way to an unusually twee
Swedish folksong and then to the Delian
nobility of the view from a mountain
eminence across the sea's miles. In
the final episode the sea shouts in
a triumph touched on in the Third Symphony;
compare also the gale in Bax's November
Woods.
The CPO cycle of symphonies
can still be purchased separately but
at this price why sample. However here
are the details if you need them:-
Numbers 1 and 4 CPO
999 639-2
Numbers 2 and 5 CPO
999 565-2
Numbers 3 and 6 CPO
999 640-2
Numbers 7 and 8 CPO
999 641-2
Number 9 and Älven
CPO 999 913-2
This is the first cycle
on one label, by one conductor but with
orchestral service divided between two
orchestras: Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester
Frankfurt, Radio-Philharmonie Hannover
des NDR, SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester
Stuttgart.
Rasilainen inspires
his orchestras to readings of great
intensity and poetry. If you read some
of the Atterberg literature you might
easily misread these symphonies as pictorial,
shallow, technically accomplished but
without depth and far too reliant on
borrowed folk tunes rather than his
own inspiration. Both in hearing these
readings and the preparation I made
in advance by listening to the other
recordings of the first eight symphonies
I have no doubt that Atterberg has every
right to stand with such symphonists
as Bax, Ropartz (whose five are rumoured
already to be ‘in the can’), Moeran,
Stenhammar and Louis Glass. He is a
supremely imaginative virtuoso writer
for the orchestra and his sense of symphonic
trajectory, mood and scenario matches
his extraordinary technical gifts. His
inspirations are of the finest quality
and if he relies on folk material it
is adeptly resolved into the symphonic
fabric rather than seeming to be grafted
on.
The complete Atterberg
symphonies? Well, not quite. It’s a
bit like Malcolm Arnold in fact. Atterberg
wrote nine numbered symphonies. Arnold
wrote nine numbered symphonies. Both
wrote a Symphony for Strings but unlike
Karl Amadeus Hartmann and William Schuman
they did not include them in their numbered
canon. This has tended to leave both
works out in the cold. As it is, the
Atterberg has never been commercially
recorded although an athletic and exciting
radio studio recording (S-A Axelsson
and Malmö Radio Orchestra) has
for many years done the rounds among
tape and CDR collectors. It was a lost
opportunity that it was not added to
the Visionaria disc instead of
the symphonic poem. All in due time.
There is plenty more Atterberg to be
recorded. There is for a start the awesomely
attractive Three Nocturnes from
his ‘Arabian Nights’ opera Fanal;
not to mention a systematic recording
of the nine orchestral suites. We have
most of the concertos but let’s not
forget the Double Concerto (violin and
cello). And that’s without looking at
a Requiem, two string quartets, four
ballets, and five full-length grand
operas: Hårvard Harpolekare
(1918, Harvard the Bard),
Bäckahasten (1925), Fanal
(1934 - given the extraordinary
quality of the Three Nocturnes this
should be revived first), Aladdin
(1941 - yes, the very same Oehlenschlager
drama that inspired Nielsen in his incidental
music and Busoni in the finale the Piano
Concerto) and The Tempest (1948).
As an anhang to this
set don’t forget CPO 999 732-2 which
has the Piano Concerto; Rhapsody; Ballade
and Passacaglia. However if you are
curious about the Piano Concerto you
can also hear it in a more substantial
coupling on Sterling CDS-1034-2 coupled
with the Violin Concerto (1913-14).
So far as presentation
is concerned the set simply fits the
five individual CDs as issued into a
light card slip case. This tends to
be CPO’s practice - compare their Korngold
and Frankel symphony sets. This differs
from the practice of BIS who usually
repackage such sets (Alfvén symphonies,
orchestral music of Stenhammar, Nielsen
symphonies and Vänskä’s Sibelius
symphonies) into slimmer line multi-CD
boxes with a new booklet. I have no
substantial complaints about CPO’s decision;
certainly not at this price - in the
UK £25:50 for 5 discs.
For now we should focus
on having such a sympathetically recorded
and magnificently conducted cycle at
our finger tips in return for what amounts
to Naxos price for the five discs. To
enthusiasts who in the 1970s and 1980s
moved heaven and earth, bank balances
and tape machines to get to hear the
full cycle this box represents riches
unimaginable.
Rob Barnett
COMPARATIVE REVIEWS OF THE CPO ATTERBERG
SERIES as they were released.
All very well worth reading. However
do take time to have a look at Lewis
Foreman’s highly informative reviews
especially the review of symphonies
3 and 6 as well as at Ian Lace’s vividly
descriptive general article on Atterberg.
My recommendation is that you start
with the Third Symphony and then find
your own way reserving 9, 5 and 4 towards
the end of the listening experience.
Ian Lace on Kurt Atterberg
http://www.musicweb-international.com/film/2000/mar00/ifonly.htm
Symphonies 1 + 4. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/apr00/atterberg.htm
Symphonies 2 + 5. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Jan01/atterberg.htm
Symphonies 3 + 6. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Jan01/atterberg.htm
Symphonies 7 + 8. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Dec01/Atterberg78.htm
Symphonies 9 + Älven. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Atterberg9.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/atterberg9.htm
Piano Concerto. CPO
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Mar02/Kurt%20ATTERBERG.htm
Concertos: Violin; Piano - Sterling
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/nov99/atterberg.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/oct99/atterberg.htm
Satu Vihavainen (mezzo) (9) 
