Hans Eklund(1927-99): a second Swedish Allan Pettersson?

[Dundonnell]

Well I had to get your attention somehow, didn't I

Eklund is a Swedish composer of whom I know very little. He was a pupil of Lars-Erik Larsson and of Ernst Pepping in Germany. He taught at the Swedish State Academy of Music.
I read that he was heavily influenced by Hindemith.

Eklund wrote thirteen symphonies.

These have titles as follows:

Symphony No.1 "Sinfonia Seria"(1958)
Symphony No.2 "Sinfonia breve(In Memoriam"(1964)
Symphony No.3 "Sinfonia Rustica" (1967-68)
Symphony No.4 for narrator and orchestra "Hjalmar Branting In Memoriam"(1973-74)
Symphony No.5 "Quadri"(1977)
Symphony No.6 "Sinfonia senza Speranza"(1983)
Symphony No.7 "La Serenata"(1983, rev. 1992)
Symphony No.8 "Sinfonia Grave"(1984)
Symphony No.9 "Sinfonia Introvertita"(1992-93)
Symphony No.10 "Sine Nomine"(1994)
Symphony No.11 "Sinfonia piccola"(1994-95)
Symphony No.12 "Frescoes"(1995-96)
Symphony No.13 "Sinfonia Bianca-Nera"(1997-98)

The only one of these ever to be recorded was Symphony No.6 "Sinfonia senza Speranza" on a Swedish Society Discofil LP with Yuri Ahronovitch conducting the Stockholm Philharmonic(1984).

The coupling was Allan Pettersson's Symphony No.16....and here we get to the real point I have only just listened to this symphony for the first time and..wow!! I am impressed   The Eklund has that same dark, grim, forbidding countenance of quite a few other much more famous Swedish and Scandinavian composers but the composer who immediately sprang to mind was Pettersson himself.

How fickle is the hand of Fate that Pettersson should now be the subject of so much attention from recording companies like BIS and CPO and of discussion at considerable length on forums like this, discussion which is in-depth analysis of the symphonies, and yet Eklund is a composer of whom I, at least, had never heard until a few weeks ago.

And now, when I hear the music, I sit bolt upright with astonishment  at how good it sounds to my ears, certainly in the same class as composers like Pettersson or Karl-Birger Blomdahl.

[Lethevich]

I can only hope for more recordings to come out at some point. An Amazon search brings up two discs, one "Music for Orchestra" on Swedish Society and a lengthy Requiem on Phono Suecia. The former has a lack of information that could deceive a would be-buyer, the "Music for Orchestra" title is after a piece with the same name, but the disc also contains a string quartet amongst other things. I bookmarked the Swedish Society disc, as it looks rather neat - either a dip in price or rise in my budget will result in me snapping it up.