Scandinavian and Finnish composers.

[vandermolen]

Just listened to Englund's Symphony No. 2 two times. Excellent piece, with raw and lovely passages in about equal measure. The opening is magical, evoking wide open spaces. Englund scores with the utmost clarity and delicacy. I like it.

"Wide open spaces" captures it exactly. Glad you like this work Havergal 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, Nikolai, Havergal here is even more impressed by Myaskovsky's Sixth (Kondrashin) - that's not a piece of music, that's Russian history made audible. That last movement (with chorus) is incredibly moving.

[Dundonnell]

Now, now, chaps...Miaskovsky is neither Scandinavian nor Finnish, so let's keep him out of it

"Wide open spaces"-that was what I was trying to allude to when I mentioned Englund's study with and influences from Copland.

Regarding Norwegian music, the Norwegians seem more reticent in promoting their music than the Finns. There was(is?) a label called Aurora which issued quite a lot of interesting stuff-Klaus Egge's Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 4, Piano Concerto No.2 and Cello Concerto, Conrad Baden's Symphony No.6, Bjarne Brustad's Symphony No. 2, Hallvard Johnsen's Symphony No.3, and Eivind Groven's big choral 'Draumkvaedet" -but these were all issued twenty years ago.
Simax(which definitely is still going strong) has issued Groven's Symphony No.2 and Piano Concerto, Olav Kielland's Symphony No.1 and Ludvig Irgens Jensen's huge choral 'Heimferd', Symphony, Tema con variazioni and Japanischer Fruhling(Jensen's Passacaglia and Partita Sinfonica-both fine works-were also on a twenty-year old CD) but, again, these were issued over 15 years ago. Apart from the new Braein CD discussed above I can't think of much else.

In the last decade BIS has seemed to take over with its Saeverud cycle, CDs of music by Geirr Tveitt, Groven's Symphony No. 1 and the new Fartein Valen cycle. Even the indefatigable CPO seems to have restricted its output to the Christian Sinding symphonies.

Two very fine living Norwegian composers-Halvor Haug and Ragnar Soderlind-are under-represented in the catalogues. (Arne Nordheim lies outside my area of taste!). On a visit to Oslo a couple of years ago or so I was disappointed to find little recently recorded music by Norwegian composers.

Contrast this with the efforts of Ondine in Finland or Dacapo in Denmark(although Ondine is branching out into music from other countries).

Of these composers-apart from Saeverud-the most interesting I think are Klaus Egge and Ludvig Irgens Jensen. As I remarked above it is sad that there has not been a modern set of the Egge symphonies. Egge was a composer of considerable musical craftsmanship and his music is at least interesting. The four purely orchestral works of Jensen I have heard(I am not sure that he wrote much else?) certainly deserve modern recordings and I am sure that Saraste intended to record some with the Oslo Philharmonic.

Oh..stop..I do have a tendency to write overly long posts here and I apologise

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The post didn't outstay its welcome, Colin. It's all new(s) to me. The symphonic world is getting bigger and bigger. 

[The new erato]

Oh..stop..I do have a tendency to write overly long posts here and I apologise

You could perhaps have mentioned Terje Rypdals (also  a major jazz guitarist) 5 Mahlerian symphonies.  The BIS issue of the two Groven symphonies is very fine BTW. But Norway haven't promoted their classical heritage as efficiently as the Finns and Danes, though we haven't as strong a tradition. Irgens Jensen is a major orchestral composer, but typically with no symphonies to his generally limited worklist, he was active as a conductor.

[Christo]

Two very fine living Norwegian composers-Halvor Haug and Ragnar Soderlind-are under-represented in the catalogues.

Great post, Dundonnell, and you won't bore me with even much longer stories of this kind.

As to Ragnar Söderlind: at least three of his symphonies are in the Aurora catalogue. I myself happen to own an Aurora CD with his Fourth Symphony and a Cello Concerto - bought after I read an interview with Söderlind in the Gramophone. And in the Internet I found another Aurora with his Second and Third symphonies:

[Lilas Pastia]

When you think you've heard it all... Halvor Haug and Söderlind are TOTALLY new names to me. Any comments about these discs??

Fernström is not totally unknown, but little of his output is on records (have two discs). Anyone likes him?

[The new erato]

Halvor Haug:

http://www.ballade.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2002101119365043956511

[Lilas Pastia]

Thanks, that definitely looks like my kind of stuff - if one can discount the occasional exaggeration (his orchestration is "revered").

Another scandinavian composer I like a lot is the Swede Anders Eliasson. I have his first symphony and some other stuff. Anybody knows if he wrote other symphonies, and if they're available on disc ?

[Dundonnell]

Jezetha(Johan)-thank you!

Erato-I had never heard of Terje Rypdals. Five Mahlerian symphonies, you say? A Google search seemed to reveal that he wrote some(all?) of the music for the film 'Heat'(must admit that is one of my favourite films-it has an almost operatic sweep and tragic grandeur) but refers to at least one of his symphonies(No.2) as a fusion of rock and symphonic music: that sort of thing always makes me a bit sceptical!
I think that BIS only issued Groven's 1st symphony while it was Simax which did the 2nd(just for the sake of absolute accuracy )
You are obviously Norwegian yourself and I see that you do agree that your country has not promoted its music as efficiently as the Finns or the Danes. Btw I have spent holidays in Norway every couple of years for the last decade and will be flying to Tromso and visiting Vesteralen and the Lofotens again in August. Can't wait to be in such spectacular landscape again soon

Christo(Johan)-thank you also! I have these 2 Soderlind CDs also and bought them for exactly the same reasons as you! There is also an old Aurora CD which has Soderlind's short orchestral pieces 'Polaris' and Trauermusik, 'Il Poema Battuto' for percussion ensemble and Elegia I for cello, coupled with Haug's Symphonic Picture and Poema Patetica. Yes-with three of his symphonies on CD-Soderlind has fared better than most but I would like to hear more of his work. He does seem to be a composer of substance, working within an essentially tonal idiom.

Halvor Haug is a composer whose music does really appeal to me(at least what I have heard of it!). I became intrigued by him when I read that he had studied with Robert Simpson and that Simpson esteemed Haug's music. Simax reissued his Symphony No.3 "The Inscrutable Life" coupled with short tone poems "Silence", "Insignia" and "Song of the Pines". These are all works of great power and demonstrate Haug's great love for his native landscape and his despair at damage to the natural environment.
The lst Symphony used to be available but I have never been able to lay my hands on it. Robert Layton refers to it in terms which make me long to hear it-"great concentration of atmosphere", "breadth that is almost Sibelian", "recalls Reger or Bruckner", "brooding intensity that betokens a kinship to the great symphonic adagios that open Shostakovich 6 or 8". Sounds just up my street!!

[The new erato]

I think that BIS only issued Groven's 1st symphony while it was Simax which did the 2nd(just for the sake of absolute accuracy )

You are absolutely right, and I have them both...

I have spent holidays in Norway every couple of years for the last decade and will be flying to Tromso and visiting Vesteralen and the Lofotens again in August. Can't wait to be in such spectacular landscape again soon

My father actually is from Vesterålen - a couple of pictures from where he spent his first 18 years (Bleik on Andøya - and I've visited lots of times):





And Lofoten - a few miles further south is even more spectacular!

[The new erato]

Re Rypdal:


http://www.furious.com/Perfect/terjerypdal.html

I'll quote the following: "He's placed within the pantheon through accomplishments as an extremely iconoclastic musician who spent two decades constantly polishing and extending a niche all his own, excelling within it like few have anywhere, even in much more familiar derivative milieus. Only the tiniest fraction of players can claim to have produced as unique a sound as Terje Rypdal: Holdsworth, Fripp, Hendrix, and not many others beyond".

AFAIK his symponies does not mix rock/electronics with the orchestra, but are purely orchestral. His 2nd was much lauded in its time.

[Christo]

The lst Symphony used to be available but I have never been able to lay my hands on it. Robert Layton refers to it in terms which make me long to hear it-"great concentration of atmosphere", "breadth that is almost Sibelian", "recalls Reger or Bruckner", "brooding intensity that betokens a kinship to the great symphonic adagios that open Shostakovich 6 or 8". Sounds just up my street!!

Haug's First Symphony, another Aurora CD that I happen to own, used to be, for a long time, the only contemporary Norwegian symphony that I knew of. I never heard the other two, and left it there. Now, your description makes me turn off Söderlind's Fourth and play Haug's First first again:

                                 

I think I remember I Robert Layton mentioned Haug's First as a promising recent composition in his chapter about `Holmboe and the Scandinavians' in Robert Simson's (ed.) book The Symphony which used to be my guide into the modern symphony in the early 1980s. (This book, btw, being a major incentive for me to find out more about this Vagn Holmboe, a name I wouldn't have know without this vivid description of his symphonies.)

Anyhow, in Robert Layton's own (ed.) Guide to the Symphony, I read in his own chapter on the Scandinavian symphony after Nielsen and Sibelius, these words on Haug's First you are referring at. Great to hear this impressive music afresh, after more than a decade! And time to play the Sinfonietta too. Lots of work to do. now: first Haug, than Söderlind again, Egge, Saeverud again, then explore the complete Aho cycle ... 

[Dundonnell]

You are absolutely right, and I have them both...

My father actually are from Vesterålen - a couple of pictures from where he spent his first 18 years (Bleik on Andøya - and I've visited lots of times):





And Lofoten - a few miles further south is even more spectacular!

Amazing! It is a small world indeed! I have certainly been to Andoya before-in 2003-but probably not Bleik(which I can see on my map). Langoya I have explored more-Langenes, Nyksund-and this holiday I shall be staying in Stokmarknes for a few days.. The Lofotens are truly amazing but I also do like Langoya, Hinnoya and, to the north, the magical island of Senja.

Ok...nothing to do with composers I know but I could not resist replying

[Dundonnell]

Thanks, that definitely looks like my kind of stuff - if one can discount the occasional exaggeration (his orchestration is "revered").

Another scandinavian composer I like a lot is the Swede Anders Eliasson. I have his first symphony and some other stuff. Anybody knows if he wrote other symphonies, and if they're available on disc ?

Sorry, never heard of him but here is a good link-

http://www.musikmph.de/rare_music/composers/a_e/eliasson_anders/1.html

Apparently he has composed four symphonies, the most recent of which was premiered in 2007.

John Fernstrom composed twelve symphonies and, as you know, BIS recorded Nos. 6 and 12. I too would like to hear more of his music!

[Lilas Pastia]

Thanks for the link !

I have these two BIS discs. Fernström's Songs of the Sea are a real find (on the Symphony 12 disc). I also have his Miniatures for string orchestra. I'm not aware of other discs out there.

[The new erato]

Thanks for the link !

I have these two BIS discs. Fernström's Songs of the Sea are a real find (on the Symphony 12 disc). I also have his Miniatures for string orchestra. I'm not aware of other discs out there.

There is a disc of string quartets on Naxos that I like quite a bit.

[vandermolen]

I nearly got a student job working on a farm on the Lofoten Islands. Looking at the amazing photos of the place I am sorry that the plans fell through.

Johan (Jezetha/Havergal), yes, Miaskovsky's 6th, especially in that Kondrashin recording is wonderful-best CD version. Highlights are the trio of the scherzo (flute passage), possibly my favourite moment in all music and the darkly moving chorale finale.

Now, back to the scandinavians: Egge's First Symphony is a favourite. Decades ago I discovered it on an LP taken out from my local music library in London. It was not the same recording as later appeared on a Phillips LP and is now on an Aurora CD (Karsten Andersen and the Bergen Phil.) The Andersen recording is very boxed in and distorts at the climax of the first movement. I wish that the earlier recording would appear on CD but it is unlikely. There is, incidentally, a very beautiful string quartet by Egge on Naxos ("Norwegian string quartets"...or similar title). It is one of the very few pieces which my wife also enjoys (surprisingly she does not share my taste for Havergal Brian, Miaskovsky etc). Jon Leifs is an interesting composer although one of my colleagues suggested that his music sounded like someone inflating a paper bag and then bursting it!

I also discovered Halvar Haug through Robert Layton's recommendation in that useful "The Symphony" book.

[Harry]

I am really happy that this thread which I started long ago, is so successful!
I learned so much about new composers, that my to order list gets longer and longer.
Thank you all for keeping the quality of this thread sky high!

[karlhenning]

Well, I get word that my Holmboe symphonies have shipped, but won't land until after the holiday weekend.

No doubt these minor reverses are sent to us for an improving purpose