Pettersson's Pavilion

[karlhenning]

'Hot Babes for Pettersson'!!!

Good luck with that!

[Dundonnell]

BIS is a law unto itself

I don't know how far Robert von Bahr is still involved with the company and I certainly have no wish to be sued for libel so I had better not say too much

Thir choice of repertoire is-how shall I say-somewhat eccentric and, yes, there are some very strange gaps in that repertoire. The Pettersson gaps mentioned above, the apparent disinclination to record much Hilding Rosenberg, the Kalevi Aho Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6(one of which, I can't remember which) was "too difficult" for the orchestra to perform(?)
And the company seems now to be recording music which is more 'mainstream' and for which there is more competition.

[CRCulver]

I don't know if Pettersson has much of a future even in Sweden. I was made a member of a Facebook group of the Pettersson Society by a Swedish friend. The appended photo doesn't bode too well...

Although the Society does make Pettersson's fanbase look like a bunch of aging old men, I know a lot of younger Pettersson fans who rave about his music.

I think the challenge for Pettersson's legacy surviving is that his music is almost entirely orchestral, and orchestras are declining with economic crises and the pressure to make more "accessible" programmes. If Pettersson had written more chamber music, that could continue to be performed by informal ensembles in conservatories and such, allowing him to be heard somewhat more often.

[The new erato]

That hasn't stopped us being deluged by Mahler and Bruckner!

[karlhenning]

I don't think that the problem with Pettersson is at all "accessibility" of his musical idiom; I don't think there's any "difficulty" in his musical language at all, at all.

[Grazioso]

Wow, that is one sad looking group of people!

'Hot Babes for Pettersson'!!!

New marketing strategy:



Pettersson CD's will get you laid!<sup>*



* This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Pettersson CD's are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. You should discuss the potential benefits and risks of Pettersson CD's with your doctor. Common side effects include depression, impotence, hair loss, and spontaneous combustion.</sup>

[karlhenning]

Pettersson CD's will get you laid!

Oh, I have my doubts . . . .

[Grazioso]

Oh, I have my doubts . . . .

You're just pessimistic from listening to too much Pettersson 

[karlhenning]

You're just pessimistic from listening to too much Pettersson 

Actually, my sunny optimism is intact, and Pettersson hasn't done much at all for me ; )

[Sergeant Rock]

New marketing strategy:



Pettersson CD's will get you laid!<sup>*




* This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Pettersson CD's are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. You should discuss the potential benefits and risks of Pettersson CD's with your doctor. Common side effects include depression, impotence, hair loss, and spontaneous combustion.</sup>

I agree a new marketing strategy is necessary and endorse the use of hot babes but I also think truth in advertising should be maintained.




Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

 

[snyprrr]

I agree a new marketing strategy is necessary and endorse the use of hot babes but I also think truth in advertising should be maintained.




Sarge

That's hilarious!!



You know, I haven't seen a naked woman in a long time.

[Mirror Image]

Actually, my sunny optimism is intact, and Pettersson hasn't done much at all for me ; )

All jokes aside, I think there is a lot of Pettersson that's not worth my time, but I still think Symphonies Nos. 6-8 are his masterpieces along with his Violin Concerto No. 2. Too much of Pettersson is meandering and it never gets to the point fast enough for me, but I think these works I mentioned are, by far, the only saving grace for Pettersson. If it weren't for these four works, I would have probably never bothered to listen to any of his music. All it took was me listening to his other symphonies outside of these works to come to this conclusion.

[karlhenning]

All jokes aside, I think there is a lot of Pettersson that's not worth my time, but I still think Symphonies Nos. 6-8 are his masterpieces along with his Violin Concerto No. 2. Too much of Pettersson is meandering and it never gets to the point fast enough for me, but I think these works I mentioned are, by far, the only saving grace for Pettersson.

I forget just which of those (6-8) best impressed me, but I expect your assessment is fair (though personally I shouldn't apply the word masterpieces to them).  I'll revisit the Second Vn Cto, but honestly, the first listen bored me pert near out of my skull.  For which reason, although in principle I will listen to it again some day, I'm in no great hurry : )

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I forget just which of those (6-8) best impressed me, but I expect your assessment is fair (though personally I shouldn't apply the word masterpieces to them).  I'll revisit the Second Vn Cto, but honestly, the first listen bored me pert near out of my skull.  For which reason, although in principle I will listen to it again some day, I'm in no great hurry : )

That sense of him going on and on can drive you mad, I agree. I had that with Sympnpny No. 9. Terrible. But I really love his three works for string orchestra, the Second Violin Concerto, symphonies 6-8 and 15. And his Barefoot Songs are beautiful, too. But I must admit that listening to Pettersson isn't my greatest pleasure in musical life, he's too depressing for that (most of the time).

[eyeresist]

I'm afraid I'm with Karl on this one. Pettersson mixes equal parts of Sibelius, Mahler and Shostakovich, but with very little of their structural finesse or memorable material.

[Lethevich]

I'd better make a showing, given how I seem to be one of the few who likes the composer's early and late works as much as the middle ones.

The 2nd is a remarkable statement of intent. It's also an interesting view onto Pettersson with his influences more clear - like Vagn Holmboe, the composer synthesises lessons from Sibelius into a provocative and strong symphonic structure. It also shines light on Pettersson's inherent "difficulty". I feel that this demonstrates that the difficulties people have with the composer's style is not just the crescendo-assaults of the later symphonies, which are just surface effects (albeit powerful ones), the key unease is in the musical structures as a whole, the outbursts just heighten the power of these transitions or movements when required. 3 and 4 are transitional, laboratory works in which the mature style of the composer is mapped out. No.4 in particular has many hallmarks of the later symphonies, and yet still lacks that sense of occasion, the elemental unfolding or unraveling of an enormous structure - the sense that at any point the entire symphony rests upon what is unfolding before you, as though on a needle-point. It's still all too ground-based, and yet by any other standard these are very potent works. The 5th is the first work in which Pettersson manages to apply these qualities, which then flower in Nos.6-8.

The 9th is rather unremitting, but at the same time a refreshing break from the overt sentimentality of the middle group. It's the composer at his least refined, most craggy and in some instances his most interesting. Nos.10 and 11 are a great little duo, each seem to be trying to find purpose after the 9th. The 10th finds the answer in even more concentrated hostility. At the very ending, with the swirling woodwinds caught in the gathering crescendo have parallels with motifs in the 7th, but taken to the brink and forcefully snuffed out. The 11th is more mercurial, especially in its ending.

The 12th is odd. It's not half as neurotic as I would like, its tempo often surges and soars with little wallowing or morbidity. The 12th more than the other works allows a rare glimpse of Pettersson as a thinker, and I feel that it says a lot about the composer that the texts he chooses were not set to endless musical dirges. By No.13, Pettersson feels secure to return to a work with the scope of the 9th, and overall the piece feels more successful. The method of the work involves less oppressive grinding, and more in the continual building and releasing of tension like a steam-powered engine filling and expelling. As so often with Pettersson, the ending is a great success and one of the highlights of the piece.

By the 14th, Pettersson has almost returned to the middle works in scale and tone. The work is tragic and with hints towards a potential return to the melodic nature of those earlier pieces (c.14:00-15:30 come close to offering memorable material in this manner, although harshly pared back. Ditto c.27:00-29:00, with chorale-style would-be melodies being mangled in a typically middle-trilogy manner). However, some elements of Pettersson's style have moved away from the quasi-Romantic sweep that makes those works (relatively) popular, and this offers as many plus as minus points to me. It enables the work to present its message with greater ambiguity through the complexity of the music, and I feel that it's this complexity - which replaces some of the "assaults" in some of the earlier works - which is the core to the composer's greatest talents. A weepy woodwind line can do its job, but to represent emotions on a tectonic level, with the orchestra making almost physically palpable shifts, I find effective.

Happily, the 15th is another evolution. I find this work to be more emotionally cool than the previous few, and the virtuosity of Pettersson's writing becomes fully abstracted and removed from the human condition. The 16th will always stand out, whatever peoples view of it. I view the composer's use of the soloist as a great idea, and remarkably well-integrated. There is a distinct decline in ambition after the previous couple of works, but considering the direction I perceive the composer's music to have been heading, it makes a lot of sense. It feels retrospective, personal on a renewed level, and perhaps more human because of the difficult steps taken to reach here.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Many thanks for that insightful overview of Pettersson's symphonic canon, Sara! I don't know if I'll ever be able to be so 'inside' this music as you obviously are or have been. It seems also to depend on your (my) mood. When I was in one of the toughest stretches of my mature life (end 2008- beginning 2009) a few of Pettersson's pieces spoke to me like they have never done since. The first movement of No. 8 struck me as among the most beautiful music I'd ever heard and No. 15 came across as the belated sequel to Bruckner's Ninth, I found it that sublime. But I haven't been able to recapture that feeling. Very strange.

[karlhenning]

Very interesting, Sara & Johan both.  I can only listen with my own ears, of course . . . but I do find it interesting and rewarding when an alternative view is expressed so well.

[Mn Dave]

But I haven't been able to recapture that feeling. Very strange.

You are not the same person from one moment to the next.