Allan Pettersson for Newbies

Started by John Copeland, July 04, 2009, 06:00:13 PM

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just Jeff

Quote from: springrite on August 16, 2010, 12:48:30 PM
Excellent! I have ontroduced Pettersson to a couple of friends, both said Pettersson is their most exciting discovery since ... well, in a long time!

I will be checking his stuff out more as well.  Thanks for your interest.

Quote from: vandermolen on July 16, 2010, 03:41:47 AM
Also don't forget his Symphony No 6 with its 'long struggle towards the sunrise' - it's one of his works (like VC No 2) in which the redemptive conclusion places a kind of retrospective glow on the earlier, more doom-laden, material. There was a great old LP with Okko Kamu conducting (CBS) which never made it to CD.

It will be on CD-R when I am through with my current needle dropping projects.
20th Century Music - Ecrater Storefront:
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Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 16, 2010, 12:50:47 PM[...] and since I'm a pretty cynical person, his music hits home for me. I dislike people who aren't honest. You can't blame Pettersson for not being honest.
Yup. Everybody should make exactly that music, which is coming from his heart. Period. :)
I think he was dishonest with the final (positive) moment of the ninth Symphony. I don't like it at all. Maybe he did it for the critics? Because of the "suffer, pain" blahblah?

Mirror Image

#42
Quote from: Wurstwasser on August 17, 2010, 08:49:25 AM
Yup. Everybody should make exactly that music, which is coming from his heart. Period. :)
I think he was dishonest with the final (positive) moment of the ninth Symphony. I don't like it at all. Maybe he did it for the critics? Because of the "suffer, pain" blahblah?

There's some Pettersson music I don't like, as with all composers. I wasn't impressed with his Symphony No. 2 at all, which I have recently heard. It seems like his later symphonies are much better than his earlier ones.

As far as the positive movement in the 9th, I haven't heard this symphony yet, but I can say judging from hearing the 6th and 7th that a positive resolution isn't necessarily a bad thing in a Pettersson symphony. I don't think Pettersson gave into peer pressure from critics. If you look at his musical history as a composer, he never really compromised his musical vision to make a few bucks or please a critic. That just doesn't sound like something he would do. Symphony No. 7 is about the closest he ever got to pleasing anybody. This symphony was a success of course, but even this symphony has its difficult moments that would send somebody who listens to nothing but Bach or Mozart all day crying for their mommy.

His music is intense and is very much an inward journey. A quest for trying to find the good in this world. And with those moments of light in his music, we hear somebody who never gave up hope.

karlhenning

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 20, 2010, 08:50:08 PM
His music is intense and is very much an inward journey. A quest for trying to find the good in this world. And with those moments of light in his music, we hear somebody who never gave up hope.

I'm sure he had a tough row to hoe.  FWIW, I just hear the music . . . and (while I make cautionary note that perhaps the individual performances may be to 'blame') I've found the music a mixed bag. And a large bag, possibly an impractically large bag (to extend the analogy).

Some very nice passages in the Seventh Symphony, indeed.  I need to revisit the Sixth . . . .

Octo_Russ

Just finished listening to the Seventh Symphony on YouTube,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bMNzqMkW3U

This is from someone who has never listened to any Pettersson before, so here are my thoughts,

Yes it's bleak-ish, certainly tonal, but a degree of discord, it's definitely relentless, quite repetitive, reminds me of the first movement of Shostakovich's Tenth in a way, it's a 45 minute one movement work, therefore it's hard to find your way around, it would have been better to compose it in say four sections, there's a lovely quiet string section about 30 minutes in, it's breathtaking, the very best bit of the Symphony.

My conclusion is that i like it!, i guess he sounds like Robert Simpson to a degree, or a suicidal Sibelius  :D
I'm a Musical Octopus, I Love to get a Tentacle in every Genre of Music. http://octoruss.blogspot.com/

Mirror Image

#45
Quote from: Octo_Russ on August 21, 2010, 10:05:25 AM
Just finished listening to the Seventh Symphony on YouTube,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bMNzqMkW3U

This is from someone who has never listened to any Pettersson before, so here are my thoughts,

Yes it's bleak-ish, certainly tonal, but a degree of discord, it's definitely relentless, quite repetitive, reminds me of the first movement of Shostakovich's Tenth in a way, it's a 45 minute one movement work, therefore it's hard to find your way around, it would have been better to compose it in say four sections, there's a lovely quiet string section about 30 minutes in, it's breathtaking, the very best bit of the Symphony.

My conclusion is that i like it!, i guess he sounds like Robert Simpson to a degree, or a suicidal Sibelius  :D

I'm not sure if the Robert Simpson comparison is a fair one considering that Pettersson's 7th is much more melodic and contains much more memorable musical passages at least in my opinion.

Anyway, you should really hear his 6th and 8th next. These are also considered his masterpieces and I can certainly understand why. All of his music is bleak, so this is a sound your ears will have to get accustomed to, but like the famous 7th, 6 and 8 have moments of gorgeous light, especially the last 8 or 9 minutes of the 6. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 29, 2010, 10:00:16 AM7th, 6 and 8 have moments of gorgeous light, especially the last 8 or 9 minutes of the 6. Absolutely gorgeous.
Symphony No. 6, cpo release, 37:37 ff. maybe is the centre of the universe.

Lethevich

Quote from: Wurstwasser on August 30, 2010, 10:29:46 AM
Symphony No. 6, cpo release, 37:37 ff. maybe is the centre of the universe.
This is interesting. Since I first heard Pettersson, I have had strong mental associations of his growling or droning brass as being deep under sea or far into space - that certain you-against-enormity-and-how-you-deal-with-it feel that is so typical of his classic trilogy, especially 6 and 7, is really cool. Many composers can conjour up feelings of the elements, but few in such a primordial form (perhaps Wagner, Feldman).
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Wurstwasser on August 30, 2010, 10:29:46 AM
Symphony No. 6, cpo release, 37:37 ff. maybe is the centre of the universe.

I'm not sure the centre of the universe, but it's a great symphony nonetheless.

david-jw

Interesting thread.

I'm listening to the 7th via the link Octo Russ kindly provided.

I am not familiar with this composer at all.

To those that are, would you say his outlook is completely nihilistic?

Mirror Image

Quote from: david-jw on August 31, 2010, 08:21:25 AM
Interesting thread.

I'm listening to the 7th via the link Octo Russ kindly provided.

I am not familiar with this composer at all.

To those that are, would you say his outlook is completely nihilistic?

Pettersson's music is quite pessimistic, because he thought of the world as something that was inhumane. The way people do wrong to their fellow man is what his music is about. Yes, most of his music is bleak and dark, but not without moments of light. Symphonies Nos. 6-8 are his best symphonies in my opinion. They are also recognized as his masterpieces. You should definitely hear 6 and 7.

david-jw


Mirror Image

Quote from: david-jw on September 02, 2010, 08:45:39 AM
^ thanks MI.

You're welcome. Pettersson is a very difficult composer to get into, but like I said I think everybody interested in 20th Century symphonic music owes it to themselves to at least hear his Symphonies Nos. 6-8.

DavidW

I've ordered the 6th, I hope to enjoy it. :)

Mirror Image

Quote from: DavidW on September 26, 2010, 07:45:56 AM
I've ordered the 6th, I hope to enjoy it. :)

The 6th is a very disturbing work, as with most of Pettersson's music, but the last minutes of the symphony makes the journey all the more sweeter.

Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich


DavidW

Quote from: Wurstwasser on October 18, 2010, 10:45:40 AM
And, did you, DavidW?

I absolutely love it! 0:)  I can't get enough, I listen to it over and over.  I'm going to explore more of Pettersson's symphonies as a result. :)

Mirror Image

Quote from: DavidW on October 18, 2010, 11:31:49 AM
I absolutely love it! 0:)  I can't get enough, I listen to it over and over.  I'm going to explore more of Pettersson's symphonies as a result. :)

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the rest of Pettersson's symphonies other than 6, 7, and 8. I find that balance between light and dark not as compelling in the others. Some of them just sound like pure note-spinning. In all honesty, I think he should have stopped at the 8th, but that's just my own opinion.

Scarpia

Recently listened to the 7th and found it very interesting.  Another thing from Pettersson that I found very good was the concerto for string orchestra No 1.  He wrote three of them (available together in a 2cd set from cpo) but I found that the quality of the music went down as he went from #1 to #2 to #3.

DavidW

Quote from: Mirror Image on October 18, 2010, 01:27:42 PM

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the rest of Pettersson's symphonies other than 6, 7, and 8. I find that balance between light and dark not as compelling in the others. Some of them just sound like pure note-spinning. In all honesty, I think he should have stopped at the 8th, but that's just my own opinion.

Well #7 is what I'll go for next.  I won't try anything outside of #6-8 until I've explored all three since you and a couple of other posters shared the same sentiment.