Knut HÅKANSON (1887 - 1929)
En gång i bredd med mig (One day, beside me)
Songs and piano works
see end of review for track listing
Gabriel Souvanen (baritone), Solveig Wikman (piano)
rec. Dal Segno Studio, May 2011
sung texts with English translations enclosed
ALTFIOL I VÄST AIVCD006 [74:50]
Knut Håkanson is probably an unknown name to international readers but
even Swedish readers probably may raise an eyebrow or both. I believe, though,
that to many Scandinavian choir-members the name will ring a bell: Brusala,
a setting of a poem by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, is in the standard repertoire. It
is a masterly composition. Why isn’t he better known?
There may be several reasons. One is that he was an outsider, who walked his
own path off the beaten track. Another is that he lived most of his life in
the provinces, not in Stockholm or Gothenburg where the music establishments
were. He also suffered from weak health and spent long periods in hospital.
He died when he was only 42.
Brusala was written during a short period of intense activity just before
his death on 13 December 1929. His creativity also brought forth three sets
of solo songs and the Ten Variations and Fugue Op. 37 recorded here,
which is a true masterpiece.
On this disc we can follow Håkanson’s development from the late-romantic
language of the songs Op. 1, written during the first decade of the 20th
century to the late piano works where he combines Swedish folk music with Bach-inspired
polyphony. Hearing the Twelve Two-Part Inventions (trs. 20-31) from 1925
made his composer colleague William Seymer call him ‘a Bach in Swedish
broadcloth’. It’s elegant and cleverly constructed though by necessity
quite simple. Most of the individual parts are very brief and all draw on melodies
from the vast treasury trove of fiddle tunes from various parts of Sweden. This
is entertaining music. His magnum opus, the Ten Variations and Fugue,
op 37, is more than that. Here the inspiration flows and there is power and
intensity. One is flabbergasted at his ability to transform the rather simple
basic theme, a popular folk song that Gabriel Souvanen sings without exaggerated
artfulness as the opening number.
Midsummer Garland and From the Sylvan Temple are inspired by Swedish
nature and six of them allude to poems. The Sylvan Temple was a guest
chalet which he had built high up on a hill close to his home near Borås
in south-west Sweden. There he could sit in peace and compose, secluded from
the world around him. He lived for shorter periods in bigger cities but he always
longed to go back to his Sylvan Temple. ‘Give me the solitude of
the countryside, by the road of the waterfall in the conifer woods, in the shade
of “the Temple” beneath a starlit sky’, he wrote. Scandinavian
nature has been an important source of inspiration for many Nordic composers.
We need only mention Grieg, Peterson-Berger and Sibelius. Håkanson can
be added to that list.
As a song composer Knut Håkanson was very discriminating in his choice
of poems. Two of his favourites were Karlfeldt and Ola Hansson, the latter ‘the
poet who has most intensely and spiritually taught me to comprehend the nature
of poetry and dream’, he once wrote. Without being an epigone he also,
in this capacity, follows the likes of Grieg, Sibelius, P-B and Stenhammar.
He considered his songs an important part of his oeuvre, wrote around one hundred,
which were frequently performed at the time. Kirsten Flagstad sang several of
them during her recitals.
Solveig Wikman has for quite some time been one of the foremost Swedish pianists.
She is often found together with her husband Bertil as a piano duo. She was
born in Borås, close to which town Håkanson also lived for many
years. She has been active as chamber musician, accompanist and soloist. Her
playing is characterized by great clarity and technical command. Gabriel Suovanen
has been busy in opera houses in Finland and Sweden for more than a decade but
he is also a renowned recitalist. His warm tone and verbal excellence make him
well suited to Håkanson’s songs. The concluding piece, the setting
of Karlfeldt’s Slottstappning (Château bottled) is magnificently
sung with wit and intensity. His tone is a little grittier here than I remember
it from earlier, but these are good readings even so.
The technical quality is splendid. The liner-notes by Solveig Wikman - in Swedish
and English - are exemplary.
This disc represents a laudable initiative by the little record company Altfiol
i Väst and the two artists to bring Håkanson’s music to a wider
audience. It is to be hoped that other musicians will follow suit. Knut Håkanson’s
music is worth a renaissance.
Göran Forsling
Knut Håkanson’s music is worth a renaissance.
Track listing
1. En gång i bredd med mig (One day, beside me) [1:20]
2. Ten Variations and Fugue on a Swedish Folksong, Op. 37 [12:53]
From Five Songs, Op. 1
3. Lutad mot gärdet (Leaning on the fence) [1:40]
4. Som blommornas doft (Like the fragrance of flowers) [2:30]
5. De väntande (Those who wait) [2:18]
6. Midsommarkransen (Midsummer garland) [5:03]
De bägge viljorna och andra dikter av Ola Hansson (The two wills
and other poems by Ola Hansson) Op. 4
7. De bägge viljorna (The two wills) [3:10]
8. Du livets eviga röda flamma (Eternal red flame of life) [3:47]
9. Dragspelet vinade (The accordion whined)[1:33]
Skogstemplet (The sylvan temple) Piano-miniatures, Op. 13
10. Vårbräckning (Break of spring)[2:20]
11. Björken susar (The birch whispers)[1:44]
12. Forsen (The rapids) [2:20]
13. Prinsessan och Bergtrollet (The princess and the mountain troll)[1:19]
14. Myggen dansa över ån i sommarkvällen (The mosquitoes
dance above the brook in the summer evening) [2:10]
15. Beväringen tågar förbi (The conscript marches by)
[2:02]
16. Det förgångna (The past) [1:08]
17. Stormnatt (Stormy night) [3:22]
Två dikter av Ernst Norlind (Two poems by Ernst Norlind) Op. 22
18. Någon har kysst min panna (Someone kissed my brow) [2:55]
19. Ögat skall slockna (The eye will grow dim) [2:33]
Tolv små tvåstämmiga svenska inventioner (Twelve small
Swedish two-part inventions) Op. 26
20. Gånglåt från Norrland (Marching-tune from Norrland)
[0:46]
21. Polska från Sörmland (Polska from Sörmland)[1:31]
22. Polska från Dalarna (Polska from Dalecarlia) [1:16]
23. Polska från Småland (Polska from Småland) [0:52]
24. Polska från Sörmland ”Tyska klockorna” (Polska
from Sörmland ”The German Bells”) [1:04]
25. Polska från Uppland (Polska from Uppland) [1:00]
26. Polska från Sörmland (Polska from Sörmland) [0:54]
27. Polska från Värmland (Polska from Värmland) [0:56]
28. Polska från Norrbotten (Polska from Norrbotten) [0:27]
29. Marsch från Uppland (March from Uppland) [0:36]
30. Polska från Gotland ”Sanda-polskan” (Polska from
Gotland ”Sanda-Polska”)[1:20]
31. Polska från Västergötland (Polska from Västergötland)
[0:44]
Two songs
32. Fall, fall, ymniga snö (Fall, fall, copious snow) Op. 23 No.
2 [2:39]
33. Slottstappning (Château bottled) Op. 40 No. 2 [4:09]