Scandinavian and Finnish composers.

Started by Harry, April 13, 2007, 05:33:51 AM

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Dundonnell

The Scandinavian composers most in need of urgent attention in the recording studios are imo-

Norway-Klaus Egge
Sweden-Hilding Rosenberg
Finland-Aare Merikanto
Denmark-Niels Viggo Bentzon

There are significant gaps in their recorded output. Bentzon is the most difficult to tackle since he wrote so much(24 symphonies, for example).

vandermolen

Quote from: Dundonnell on September 26, 2008, 01:01:24 PM
The Scandinavian composers most in need of urgent attention in the recording studios are imo-

Norway-Klaus Egge
Sweden-Hilding Rosenberg
Finland-Aare Merikanto
Denmark-Niels Viggo Bentzon

There are significant gaps in their recorded output. Bentzon is the most difficult to tackle since he wrote so much(24 symphonies, for example).

Yes, we definitely need a Rosenberg cycle. Nos 2 and 3 are wonderfully inspiriting works. I'd also like too see a new recording of Klaus Egge's First Symphony. The Karsten Andersen, Bergen SO recording (Phillips) has a very "boxed in" sound.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

springrite

Quote from: Dundonnell on September 26, 2008, 01:01:24 PM
The Scandinavian composers most in need of urgent attention in the recording studios are imo-

Norway-Klaus Egge
Sweden-Hilding Rosenberg
Finland-Aare Merikanto
Denmark-Niels Viggo Bentzon

There are significant gaps in their recorded output. Bentzon is the most difficult to tackle since he wrote so much(24 symphonies, for example).

Bentzon reminds me of Martinu. Both composers composed a lot of music (several hundred!). Both composers can be very creative, original and inspirational, while at the same time the quality of their works are uneven. In a way, the unevenness almost add to the attraction.

Dundonnell

Quote from: springrite on September 29, 2008, 08:38:05 AM
Bentzon reminds me of Martinu. Both composers composed a lot of music (several hundred!). Both composers can be very creative, original and inspirational, while at the same time the quality of their works are uneven. In a way, the unevenness almost add to the attraction.

No doubt true but I don't know enough to be sure :(

I do have the cds coupling Symphonies 3 + 4 and 5 + 7(both Dacapo) , and the 8th(Classico) coupled with the Symphonic Variations. The Classico cd is performed by a student orchestra, the Gothenburg-Aarhus Philharmonic. The 3rd and 4th symphonies are both very impressive works from the 1940s-shades of Hindemith, Copland, Stravinsky-but enough to suggest a Danish composer to rival Holmboe as the natural successor to Carl Nielsen.

I am surprised that Dacapo should not have gone on to record more Bentzon. He strikes me as a deeper and more interesting composer than others whose music they have recorded!

Ugh!

Returning not the Swedes, I cannot but recommend at least two experimental electro-acoustic composers.

Sten Hanson was involved with the Fylkingen language group's studies in electronic text-sound, often combined with visual images and intense performances (other composers include Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Åke Hodell and Bengt Emil Johnson, but IMO Hanson is the most interesting). His work Che (1968) for instance revolves around a recitation in Spanish of one of Che Guevara's texts, while other voices start joining in shouting "Che", all the more rapidly until by tape manipulation and ring modulation, the name has been transformed into the sound of a machine gun.
http://www.ubu.com/sound/hanson.html

Rune Lindblad was an interesting pioneer and outsider who independently, unaware of the developments in musique concrete in France and Germany developed his own equivalent of it during the early 1950's. His Attack series for instance consists of manipulated recordings of insects trapped inside glass jars, violently trying to escape.



Senta

I know nothing of Ernest Pingoud, but am listening to "Extinguished Torches" right now on our classical radio from this disc. :D



This sounds sort of like...minimalistic Debussy....with undulating scales and fluttery bird metaphors, much double reed goodness...lovely and interesting music. Reminiscent of La Mer in its crescendos at times. Short piece...I'd like to hear more... 

some guy

Hey Eugene, I just met Sten this past spring. Very charming man. Indeed, he it was who came up to me to ask me how I was doing!!

Took me totally off guard! I was pretty sure we'd not met before, anyway. Whew. (This was at Bourges, which is crawling with composers late spring/early summer. One could easily meet people and forget, especially if you go several years in a row and have a bad memory....)

Anyway, I've been very happy with the Fylkingen folks. I have their three "Five composers" CDs.

And they're international as well. I first heard Denis Smalley (New Zealand) and Beatriz Ferreyra (Argentina/France) on a Fylkingen LP.

There's a very nice three CD EMS set, I'm sure you know about it, probably have it, called Bits & Pieces, which has many tasty treats, including the Hungarian expat Akos Rózmann.

And let's add Rolf Enström to the mix, for sure.

Dundonnell

Quote from: Senta on October 14, 2008, 09:44:50 PM
I know nothing of Ernest Pingoud, but am listening to "Extinguished Torches" right now on our classical radio from this disc. :D



This sounds sort of like...minimalistic Debussy....with undulating scales and fluttery bird metaphors, much double reed goodness...lovely and interesting music. Reminiscent of La Mer in its crescendos at times. Short piece...I'd like to hear more... 

Agreed. A more interesting composer than I had been led to expect! Sadly, he committed suicide in 1942 by throwing himself in front of a train in Helsinki. He was only 54 years old.

Dundonnell

CPO has embarked on one of their comprehensive composer surveys- this time of the music of Edvin Kallstenius(1881-1967), the almost forgotten Swedish composer. The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Frank Beermann.

I will go off to listen to my Musica Sveciae recording of Kallstenius's 2nd Symphony(he wrote five) and report back!

Dundonnell

Well, there is no doubt that the people at CPO do have good taste!

I have listened again to Kallstenius's 2nd Symphony and his Dalarapsodi and am astonished that this music did not make more impact on me the first time I heard it.

The Swedes certainly keep many of their composers to themselves ;D Kallstenius comes from the same generation as Hilding Rosenberg but received far less attention. He studied in Leipzig and was influenced by the music of Strauss, Reger, Debussy and Franz Schrecker.
Regarded as something of a modernist at first but a conservative by later generations, Kallstenius did actually employ 12-tone techniques in his last works. He wrote five symphonies and four sinfoniettas and worked as music librarian for Swedish radio.

The thing is that the music does not sound much like any other Swedish music I have ever heard-with the possible exception of Gosta Nystroem. There is a quiet dignity and clean-lined precision which is almost Mahlerian at times but really escapes more accurate description. It does not jump out and grab the listener but this is a composer who definitely wrote music of integrity and purpose.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/June01/Kallstenius.htm

http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/kallstenius

The CPO series could turn out to be an interesting one!

Lilas Pastia

Phono Suecia discs are hard to find  :'(

The only Kallstenius I ever heard is his winsome Midsummer Serenade (on (Musica Sveciae). The Music Web review mentions one Hambraeus as a composer more in vogue than Kallstenius. Well, I've never heard of him, and I'm a swedish music enthusiast. That must put Kallstenius way down the ladder indeed :P

J.Z. Herrenberg

I am listening to Kallstenius's Dalarapsodi, thanks to Him Who Must Not Be Named - lovely rustic music, with a crispness and bite to it that saves it from being blandly beautiful. Nice solos, lovely woodwind writing, and a tasteful use of percussion. I love it. Clear as a Scandinavian sky.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

vandermolen

Quote from: Jezetha on November 29, 2008, 08:08:54 AM
I am listening to Kallstenius's Dalarapsodi, thanks to Him Who Must Not Be Named - lovely rustic music, with a crispness and bite to it that saves it from being blandly beautiful. Nice solos, lovely woodwind writing, and a tasteful use of percussion. I love it. Clear as a Scandinavian sky.

Yes, I too have been enjoying this work today. The Dalarapsodi gets better and better as it progresses; an interesting discovery. I can already detect the first tentative signs of a group of 'so-called Kallstenius experts' in the making.  ;D
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on November 29, 2008, 09:27:19 AM
Yes, I too have been enjoying this work today. The Dalarapsodi gets better and better as it progresses; an interesting discovery. I can already detect the first tentative signs of a group of 'so-called Kallstenius experts' in the making.  ;D

God forbid!  ;D

But - I have listened to the Dalarapsodi three times already - excellent piece! I'm saving the 2nd Symphony for later (tomorrow).  I like Kallstenius a lot!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

I know that I should really go back to listening to more music by the great mainstream composers-Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak etc etc.-but I am (irresistibly) drawn to continually explore the outer fringes of the symphonic world ;D
One does encounter quite a few 'turkeys' on the journey but when composers like Braga Santos and-possibly-now Kallstenius are discovered and their music turns out to be at least interesting, and often a great deal more than that.......well that just is so plain exciting :) :)

vandermolen

Quote from: Dundonnell on November 29, 2008, 10:32:16 AM
I know that I should really go back to listening to more music by the great mainstream composers-Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak etc etc.-but I am (irresistibly) drawn to continually explore the outer fringes of the symphonic world ;D
One does encounter quite a few 'turkeys' on the journey but when composers like Braga Santos and-possibly-now Kallstenius are discovered and their music turns out to be at least interesting, and often a great deal more than that.......well that just is so plain exciting :) :)

Totally agree. Am just listening to the Ernest Pingoud CD mentioned above. A very rewarding experience, there is a lot to this music and I am gradually getting to grips with it. Interesting that Stokowski performed Pingoud's 'Prophet'. Very sad that he chose to end his life under a train.

Long live Pingoud, Egge, Braga Santos, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Popov, Cyril Scott etcetcetc.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

J.Z. Herrenberg

I have listened to the Dalarapsodi yet another time. It's in four sections - 1 and 3 are slow and dominated by the horn, with 1 having a rather serious introductory character and 3 a wonderfully lyrical one, with melodic/harmonic twists that sound... American; 2 and 4 are pastoral and lively, infused with a John Ireland-like acerbity.

Marvellous piece!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

Quote from: Jezetha on November 29, 2008, 01:09:43 PM
I have listened to the Dalarapsodi yet another time. It's in four sections - 1 and 3 are slow and dominated by the horn, with 1 having a rather serious introductory character and 3 a wonderfully lyrical one, with melodic/harmonic twists that sound... American; 2 and 4 are pastoral and lively, infused with a John Ireland-like acerbity.

Marvellous piece!

Oh....very well...I had better send you some more Kallstenius then ;D ;D ;D

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Dundonnell on November 29, 2008, 01:31:39 PM
Oh....very well...I had better send you some more Kallstenius then ;D ;D ;D

Yes, please!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

71 dB

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