The first Caballé recording that I bought, back in the 1960s,
was a collection of Granados songs (with orchestra). I was totally
enchanted – by the songs as well as the singing. Since then
I have often come back to these songs and heard them in many
versions. However good the readings have been I have always
returned to Caballé. The first love is always difficult to separate
from. On this very mixed recital Tina Kiberg opens with four
of these Tonadillas and memories of Caballé are again
evoked. Naturally Kiberg has quite a different voice type, having
since her debut at Det Konglige Teater (The Royal Theatre) in
Copenhagen in 1983, steadily developed towards the dramatic
Fach. Today Brünnhilde, Isolde and Elektra are her bread
and butter. Such a diet can easily damage the voice, but there
are few signs of wear and tear: a slightly widened vibrato is
present but pretty unobtrusive. The other side of the coin is
far more important. Kiberg boasts brilliant and beautiful fortes,
a fine sense for softer nuance and good legato. We hear an experienced
singer who can communicate.
After the delightful Granados songs we are served a substantial
helping of Danish songs. Carl Nielsen is represented. He is
internationally known as one of the great 20th century
symphonists but in his native land he is remembered just as
much for his many songs, many of which were memorably recorded
by Aksel Schiřtz in the 1930s and 1940s. They gave the Danish
people a national identity during the Nazi occupation. We more
or less take Nielsen for granted in this genre – at least in
Scandinavia – but there are other gems. One of the finest is
no doubt Lange-Müller’s Aakande (By the Side of the Brook),
where the singer meditates on why the flowers along the brook
close at night. Do they sink down to the land of dreams? Skin
ud, Du klare Solskin! (Shine, you bright Sunshine!) is another
melodic gem. Lange-Müller is very much the great song composer
the Danish have kept to themselves, whereas Nielsen at least
occasionally can be heard abroad.
Leo Estvad was a multi-artist, best known as author and painter
but Det er igen den fine lyse nat (It’s again the nice,
light night) is a truly beautiful and simple picture of Nordic
nature. Coincidentally I typed this review just before midnight
on 21 June, the night that is the lightest of the year and even
in central Sweden it is possible to read the headlines of the
local paper at midnight. Above the Arctic Circle the sun never
sets during those summer weeks. Estvad paints this in beautiful
colours and more of the same is to follow: simple, beautiful,
melodious songs that can’t fail to make an impact on everyone
– well, bar those with hearts of stone. Carl Mortensen’s Sov,
mit Barn, sov laenge (Sleep, my Child, sleep long) goes
directly to my shortlist of beautiful songs for late night listening!
Open your heart, dear reader, and fill it with this song’s warmth
and unaffected sentiment.
While most of these songs may be a well hidden Danish secret,
the folk song I Skovens dybe, stille Ro (In the deep,
still Calm of the Woods) is well known in the rest of Scandinavia.
Tina Kiberg sings it exquisitely.
Moving across Öresund we can also savour Hugo Alfvén’s Så
tag mit hjerte (So take my heart), still with one leg in
Denmark since the poem is Danish. This late composition by the
doyen of Swedish national romantic composers was also a favourite
with Jussi Björling. We don’t need to make comparisons. Tina
Kiberg has her own integrity and sings it with great feeling.
There is an old tradition of Allsång (community
singing) in Sweden and one of the most popular TV programmes
for many summers has been Allsång på Skansen.
Skansen is an outdoor museum where there is also a big open-air
stage. Jussi Björling appeared there many times before audiences
of 20,000 listeners. Every week people gather there to listen
and take part in the singing and on such occasions Bengt Ahlfors’
Har du visor min vän is very popular. The message
of the song is: You have to sing your songs while you can. Tomorrow
it may be too late ... Tina Kiberg sings it a cappella and
this is the most moving rendition of the song I’ve heard. It
goes direct to your heart.
Ture Rangström was one of the most prolific Swedish song composers
of the 20th century, and beside Strindberg, his favourite
poet was Bo Bergman. The two songs here were both composed in
1924 and rank among the best.
The folk song Uti vår hage (Out in our grove), where
the unknown poet lists several flowers and berries, is said
to be a secret recipe for a concoction that, ages ago was thought
to be abortive for young girls who had become pregnant. It is
best known in Hugo Alfvén’s arrangements for nixed choir or
male choir, but in the olden days it was no doubt sung by a
solo voice. Tina Kiberg sings it simply and beautifully with
excellent Swedish diction.
Internationally Gösta Nystroem, who like Hugo Alfvén and Leo
Estvad was also a painter, is best known for his Sinfonia
del Mare from the mid-1940s. There he employed poems by
Ebba Lindqvist and a few years later, in 1952, he returned to
her poetry for the song-cycle Själ och Landskap
(Soul and Landscape), which also has references to the sea.
These are deeply intense songs with a rather bold harmonic language.
The postlude to the cycle is a graphic illustration of the sea.
For the finale of this delectable recital we leave the Nordic
landscape for the Central European art song tradition – though
it should be said that Nystroem’s music is more French-oriented
than characteristically Nordic. With all respect for Tina Kiberg’s
well conceived and insightful readings of Schubert, it is the
Strauss songs that make the deepest impression. Where in Schubert
one all the time feels that this is an older woman trying to
sound youthful, her Elektra-voice is better attuned to Strauss.
Allerseelen, one of my absolute favourites in the Strauss
oeuvre, is sung with inward glow. In Morgen she scales
down her dramatic voice even further and her excellent accompanist
really makes the silences speak. An exuberant Zueignung
is a worthy encore to this admirable recital, superbly recorded.
The song texts can be found on Danacord’s homepage but the address
didn’t work for me, so I had to go Danacord’s catalogue. There
I could access the catalogue in numeric order and then scroll
down to 685, where the Danish/Swedish texts and the English
summaries are on separate documents. The liner-notes are in
Danish only which may reduce the international appeal. This
is a pity, since the songs and the music-making are on a truly
high level.
Göran Forsling
Track-listing
Enrique GRANADOS (1867 – 1916)
From Coleccion de Tonadillas (Fernando Periquet):
1. El Majo Timido [1:09]
2. El tra la la y el punteado [1:15]
3. La Maja Dolorosa II [2:48]
4. El Majo Discreto [1:53]
Carl NIELSEN (1865 – 1931)
From Sange by Ludvig Holstein, Op. 10:
5. Aebleblomst [2:34]
6. Sommersang [3:01]
7. Studie efter Naturen (H.C.Andersen) [1:34]
Peter Erasmus LANGE-MÜLLER (1850
– 1926)
8. Aakande (V. Bergsöe) [1:58]
9. Skin ud, Du klare Solskin! (Old German poem, transl.
Thor Lange) [1:19]
Leo ESTVAD (1902 – 1986)
10. Det er igen den fine lyse nat (Hans Hartvig Seedorff)
[1:55]
Johan Christian GEBAUER (1808
– 1884)
11. Hist, hvor Vejen slår en Bugt (H.C.Andersen)
[2:11]
Christoph Ernst Friedrich WEYSE
(1774 – 1842)
12. Barcarole (Natten er saa stille) (J.L.Heiberg) [1:20]
Carl MORTENSEN (1832 – 1893)
13. Sov, mit Barn, sov laenge (Christian Richardt) [3:34]
Melody from Langeland
14. I Skovens dybe, stille Ro (Fritz Andersen) [2:12]
Hugo ALFVÉN (1872 – 1960)
15. Så tag mit hjerte (Tove Ditlevsen) [3:22]
Bengt AHLFORS (b. 1937)
16. Har du visor, min vän (Bengt Ahlfors) [2:54]
Ture RANGSTRÖM (1884 – 1947)
17. Pan (Bo Bergman) [2:20]
18. Vinden och trädet (Bo Bergman) [2:10]
Trad. from Gotland
19. Uti vår hage [2:19]
Gösta NYSTROEM (1890 – 1966)
Själ och Landskap (Ebba Lindqvist):
20. No. 1 Vitt Land [3:37]
21. No. 2 Önskan [2:51]
22. No. 3 Bara hos den [2:58]
Franz SCHUBERT (1798
– 1828)
23. Frühlingsglaube (Ludwig Uhland) [3:23]
24. Lachen und Weinen (Friedrich Rückert) [2:15]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 – 1949)
25. Allerseelen, Op. 10 No. 8 (Hermann v. Gilm) [3:18]
26. Morgen, Op. 27 No. 4 (John Henry Mackay) [4:04]
27. Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1 (Hermann v. Gilm) [1:56]
Tina Kiberg (soprano), Tove Lřnskov (piano) 
