Pettersson's Pavilion

[vandermolen]

Pulled out Symphonies 2 (CPO) and 3 (BIS)...

I've always liked No.3; it's structured in four movements, but has the blackest outlook, especially the last movement (which I didn't get to). No.2 is just such a stretch at one movement, and the cd player spit it out, so I didn't get too far; but this one I may have to try to give a little more due to one day.

Still haven't heard the 4th, but in a tantalizing mini clip on YT. Does anyone have a lucid thought on the 4th? (have I asked this before?)

My music-loving friend has a very high opinion of Symphony No 4. I will listen to it.

[snyprrr]

My music-loving friend has a very high opinion of Symphony No 4. I will listen to it.

Thanks. WHAT is up with BIS??? They're a Swedish company and they have by no means even cracked the Cycle!

[Lilas Pastia]

The violin concerto is indeed manly stuff. Curious that it's been recorded only by women.

I concur with Jeffrey, it's the most sheerly beautiful and beatific violin concerto of its century (along with the Berg, to which it resembles in more than one way).

Sarge, I don't think the recording is to blame for the violin's prominence. Miss Haendel sounds exactly like that in the concert hall. I've heard her a few times in both solo and concertante works, from the back of the hall or from about 30 feet distance. She is the Annie Fischer of female violinists. Her intensity switch is always on, and even the relaxed, lyrical  moments have that relentless quality that can surprise, even grate the ear.

[Lilas Pastia]

Ok, I downloaded an mp3 version of the Blomstedt/Haendel recording. Completely blown away by it, what I wonderful work. I listened to it, as I listen to most music, on an ipod with headphones, and didn't have any problem with the balance of the soloist and orchestra. Just loved it, as various people have said it's an hour of ceaselessly changing and endlessly fascinating variations on the basic material that don't get boring for a moment, and although grim, are not bleak. And then towards the end, though there are hints earlier, the music turns lyrical and beatific. A great violin concerto, one of the greatest, and amazing performance. I guess the recording was done in takes and I don't know if it has ever been given in a live performance, by Haendel or anyone else, but if it has been it would be one of the great feats of human endurance on the part of the soloist! Like running an ultra marathon. There are so few breaks in the solo part.

Excellent post, bravo ! For those interested there are lengthy and insightful reviews on Gramophone (1981) and Classicalnet.

The concerto was premiered in Stockholm by Haendel and Blomstedt in January 1981 and recorded imediately  afterwards. It was the last time Pettersson - who of course attended the premiere -  heard one of his works played in public. He died a few months later. The concerto was dedicated to Miss Haendel.

[vandermolen]

Excellent post, bravo ! For those interested there are lengthy and insightful reviews on Gramophone (1981) and Classicalnet.

The concerto was premiered in Stockholm by Haendel and Blomstedt in January 1981 and recorded imediately  afterwards. It was the last time Pettersson - who of course attended the premiere -  heard one of his works played in public. He died a few months later. The concerto was dedicated to Miss Haendel.

Am so glad that Pettersson was there to hear it Andre.

[Lilas Pastia]

For those interested there is a very interesting blog at www.allanpettersson100blogspot.com .
The blogger discusses all the works and their recordings. He does not disguise the fact that some works still elude his sensibilities. A trained musician, his musical descriptions often mystify me. I wish he would give timing references instead of writing '6 after rehearsal 42'. Useless without a score - assuming you find one and can read music in the first place, which is not my case . Anyhow, he is very perceptive and writes superbly.

Tonight I listened to symphonies 10, 3, and the viola concerto. Yesterday it was the 9th symphony.

Biefly: the 10th is a whopping musical nightmare à la Edvard Munch. I still hear music, but I think I now understand Pettersson' physical agony better. It is a painful experience: as much for the listener as it must be to the orchestral players. I loved it. Thankfully it's very short (25 minutes). What a work!

The viola concerto: not to sure what to think. That was my first listening to the work ever. Additional hearings are in order. I have another version of it, so that'll be an incentive.

The 3rd symphony. It's ending as I write. Although it's banded (4 sections lasting 38 minutes) it's actually a one movement work. Pettersson writes music in a kind of stream of consciousness. I recently read Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust and recall that style from Sartoris, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury and a few other works of Faulkner's. I have always been totally engrossed by the style. Maybe that's why I like Pettersson's music so much. You can't figure the destination nor the itinerary, so you can only let yourself be taken along for the ride and abandon rational musical thinking.

The 9th is one of Pettersson's best works IMO. I find it easily approachable inasmuch as I let go of my usual way of listening. Being a very analytic type of listener, Pettersson challenges me in that analytic faculties are downright useless when listening to his music. It really requires an act of faith. The 9th is IMO the most mahlerian work of Pettersson's I've heard. It's full of distorted band marches, grotesquely repeated over and over as if trapped in a dream that keeps taking you back to its beginning. This is very doloroso stuff. No respite, no consolation, no succour. Only the very end offers some kind of brief solace. This is one of Pettersson's works I keep returning to (along with 6-8 and the Mesto for strings). A great, intensely human work.

I'm still mystified by some works though (Vox Humana, the 2-violins sonatas)

[The new erato]

The 9th is one of Pettersson's best works IMO. I find it easily approachable inasmuch as I let go of my usual way of listening. Being a very analytic type of listener, Pettersson challenges me in that analytic faculties are downright useless when listening to his music. It really requires an act of faith. The 9th is IMO the most mahlerian work of Pettersson's I've heard. It's full of distorted band marches, grotesquely repeated over and over as if trapped in a dream that keeps taking you back to its beginning. This is very doloroso stuff. No respite, no consolation, no succour. Only the very end offers some kind of brief solace. This is one of Pettersson's works I keep returning to (along with 6-8 and the Mesto for strings). A great, intensely human work.

I agree. I takes quite some patience to listen to it (but hey; people here listen to Mahler), but it is not difficult to get into if you can handle that.  And the stream of consciousness metaphor you mention is pretty good I think, and perhaps especially for this work. But I still have quite some works of Pettersson I still haven't listened to.

[snyprrr]

For those interested there is a very interesting blog at www.allanpettersson100blogspot.com .
The blogger discusses all the works and their recordings. He does not disguise the fact that some works still elude his sensibilities. A trained musician, his musical descriptions often mystify me. I wish he would give timing references instead of writing '6 after rehearsal 42'. Useless without a score - assuming you find one and can read music in the first place, which is not my case . Anyhow, he is very perceptive and writes superbly.

Tonight I listened to symphonies 10, 3, and the viola concerto. Yesterday it was the 9th symphony.

Biefly: the 10th is a whopping musical nightmare à la Edvard Munch. I still hear music, but I think I now understand Pettersson' physical agony better. It is a painful experience: as much for the listener as it must be to the orchestral players. I loved it. Thankfully it's very short (25 minutes). What a work!

The viola concerto: not to sure what to think. That was my first listening to the work ever. Additional hearings are in order. I have another version of it, so that'll be an incentive.

The 3rd symphony. It's ending as I write. Although it's banded (4 sections lasting 38 minutes) it's actually a one movement work. Pettersson writes music in a kind of stream of consciousness. I recently read Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust and recall that style from Sartoris, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury and a few other works of Faulkner's. I have always been totally engrossed by the style. Maybe that's why I like Pettersson's music so much. You can't figure the destination nor the itinerary, so you can only let yourself be taken along for the ride and abandon rational musical thinking.

The 9th is one of Pettersson's best works IMO. I find it easily approachable inasmuch as I let go of my usual way of listening. Being a very analytic type of listener, Pettersson challenges me in that analytic faculties are downright useless when listening to his music. It really requires an act of faith. The 9th is IMO the most mahlerian work of Pettersson's I've heard. It's full of distorted band marches, grotesquely repeated over and over as if trapped in a dream that keeps taking you back to its beginning. This is very doloroso stuff. No respite, no consolation, no succour. Only the very end offers some kind of brief solace. This is one of Pettersson's works I keep returning to (along with 6-8 and the Mesto for strings). A great, intensely human work.

I'm still mystified by some works though (Vox Humana, the 2-violins sonatas)

I could probably sustain on Symphonies 10-11, especially 11. I don't have the time for the longer ones anymore. I've almost considered selling off, but, I paid good money! I feel like I've traded AP for Schnittke in this arena (at least Schnittke has banded movements (boy am I lazy!)). Still, I can only listen to either of them on heavy weather day,... just doesn't work when it's 100 degrees out.

[The new erato]

A new Pettersson 6!

[snyprrr]

A new Pettersson 6!

A?... new?... Pettersson?... 6th?...

hmm,... that last transmission is going to take a while to sink in...

I could have sworn I heard you say, A new Pettersson 6th, but,... haha, we all KNOW that good news doesn't happen in the Pettersson Thread...

Now?,... what was it you said?

[vandermolen]

A new Pettersson 6!

That's great  I do also wish that Sony would release Okko Kamu's fine old LP on CD 'The long struggle towards the sunrise...' Such a great work.

[snyprrr]

That's great  I do also wish that Sony would release Okko Kamu's fine old LP on CD 'The long struggle towards the sunrise...' Such a great work.

Maybe this new one will eclipse? I'm all for 'originals',... until 'perfection' is achieved. Let's hope and see/hear. Maybe we can start by criticizing the CPO!

[vandermolen]

Maybe this new one will eclipse? I'm all for 'originals',... until 'perfection' is achieved. Let's hope and see/hear. Maybe we can start by criticizing the CPO!

Hope so! Same orchestra I think.

[snyprrr]

Hope so! Same orchestra I think.

Well, it looks like BIS has their new strategy. Shall we be expecting further issues with Lindberg and Pettersson facing each other? It looks that way. Still, I would rather have the 9th,... but, I do look forward. THAT aught to be something, eh?

[Sergeant Rock]

Maybe this new one will eclipse?

I'll let you know soon. It's being released this week in Germany. I should have it in hand by Wednesday, I think (pre-orders usually arrive on the day of release, or even before).

Sarge

[The new erato]

I'll let you know soon. It's being released this week in Germany. I should have it in hand by Wednesday, I think (pre-orders usually arrive on the day of release, or even before).

Sarge

The Sarge to the rescue.....great!

[Lilas Pastia]

Curio: petterssonians are familiar with Mesto, the slow movement of his third Concerto for strings. A sighing 4 note motto pervades the movement throughout, a shaft of autumn light at sunset in a forest. As beautiful as could be in the context of a thick, sombre half hour long sombre elegy.

Recently I listened to the Beethoven C major Mass, op.86. Not a familiar work, even for Beethoven fans. In the last section, "Agnus Dei", a similar motif is heard a few times as an accompaniment figure. I may be wrong, but note values apart I'd swear it's the Mesto theme. Possibly half a tone up on the third note (?), but its melodic shape and role in the structure as a recurring motto struck me. Pure coincidence, or unconscious borrowing? The Beethoven snippet is a four note motif, Pettersson's taking five. But curiously they sound identical.
BTW the similarity is much more obvious in the Giulini recording of the Mass than in Colin Davis'. I will also check with The Karl Richter effort.

I'm pretty sure such occurences have happened time and again in the history of music. When I catch such similarities, the character of work A spills into that of work B - or vice versa - sometimes to surprising effect. I love it when connections between works are suggested through a brief, seemingly unrelated melodic theme or fragment of theme. Surely other listeners have noticed the similarity between the beginning of BWV 565 and the famous slow movement of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez? I never make the connection when listening to the Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor, but always make it when hearing the concerto. Which suggests to me that the Bach stands on its feet so securely that in my psyche the motto belongs to that work. When it's the Rodrigo concerto, much as I never tire listening to it, the same three-note interval automatically brings the imperious Toccata before my eyes.

In the case at hand, the Pettersson work has the upper hand over Beethoven's.  That may be by dint of sheer repetition. In Beethoven's Agnus Dei the classical structure brings the theme forward at defined intervals (ababacba), whereas the Pettersson has the theme occuring repeatedly but very freely, the writing seemingly unconcerned with any formal structure. Pettersson's mesto is an extraordinary work. The very concatenation of his musical style. To hear, understand and appreciate it is the door to all his symphonies.

[snyprrr]

Curio: petterssonians are familiar with Mesto, the slow movement of his third Concerto for strings. A sighing 4 note motto pervades the movement throughout, a shaft of autumn light at sunset in a forest. As beautiful as could be in the context of a thick, sombre half hour long sombre elegy.

Recently I listened to the Beethoven C major Mass, op.86. Not a familiar work, even for Beethoven fans. In the last section, "Agnus Dei", a similar motif is heard a few times as an accompaniment figure. I may be wrong, but note values apart I'd swear it's the Mesto theme. Possibly half a tone up on the third note (?), but its melodic shape and role in the structure as a recurring motto struck me. Pure coincidence, or unconscious borrowing? The Beethoven snippet is a four note motif, Pettersson's taking five. But curiously they sound identical.
BTW the similarity is much more obvious in the Giulini recording of the Mass than in Colin Davis'. I will also check with The Karl Richter effort.

I'm pretty sure such occurences have happened time and again in the history of music. When I catch such similarities, the character of work A spills into that of work B - or vice versa - sometimes to surprising effect. I love it when connections between works are suggested through a brief, seemingly unrelated melodic theme or fragment of theme. Surely other listeners have noticed the similarity between the beginning of BWV 565 and the famous slow movement of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez? I never make the connection when listening to the Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor, but always make it when hearing the concerto. Which suggests to me that the Bach stands on its feet so securely that in my psyche the motto belongs to that work. When it's the Rodrigo concerto, much as I never tire listening to it, the same three-note interval automatically brings the imperious Toccata before my eyes.

In the case at hand, the Pettersson work has the upper hand over Beethoven's.  That may be by dint of sheer repetition. In Beethoven's Agnus Dei the classical structure brings the theme forward at defined intervals (ababacba), whereas the Pettersson has the theme occuring repeatedly but very freely, the writing seemingly unconcerned with any formal structure. Pettersson's mesto is an extraordinary work. The very concatenation of his musical style. To hear, understand and appreciate it is the door to all his symphonies.

I hear a lot of Pettersson in Honegger, and since I've been listening to Roussel this week, I've been hearing things there too. But, definitely, I think AGP's and Honegger's melodic home turf is the same: bitterness & beauty side by side. Can't some of AGP's melodic islands be seen in the same light as the trumpet obbligato melody at the end of Honegger's Symphony No.2? Aren't the same feelings evinced in both AGP and the slow movement to Honegger's Concerto de Camera?

[Sergeant Rock]

The Sarge to the rescue.....great!

Recevied an email form Amazon today. They are now saying they don't have the new Pettersson 6th and can't predict when it'll be available  Checked Amazon France and UK and they don't have it either. Trying to decide now whether to cancel the order and try an Amazon seller; several claim to have it.

Sarge

[hemmesjo]

Recevied an email form Amazon today. They are now saying they don't have the new Pettersson 6th and can't predict when it'll be available  Checked Amazon France and UK and they don't have it either. Trying to decide now whether to cancel the order and try an Amazon seller; several claim to have it.

Sarge

FYI it should be released in the US on the fourth Tuesday in September.  But that doesn't mean that amazon will have it then.  They seem to have a hard time stocking BIS.  Qualiton is the US distributor and I'm sure would be glad to sell it at the full suggested manufacturers retail price.  Hopefully you'll be able to find it in Europe sooner.

Dan