June 22, 2014

  • New Survey of Swedish Composer Lars-Erik Larsson Begins

     

    Larsson: Orchestral Works, vol. 1
    Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Manze
    CPO 777 671
    Total Time:  76:06
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    There are perhaps a handful of Scandinavian composers whose music has managed to find some success outside of their homelands.  One would think that there were but four starting with Edvard Grieg, and then moving on to Jean Sibelius and maybe Hugo Alfven or Wilhelm Stenhammer.  These are undoubtedly the composers listeners start with when they begin to explore music from Northern Europe.  As we head further into the 20th century, we see a host of modernists appear.  In Sweden, Dag Wiren may be the more familiar along with perhaps Erland von Koch whose work has appeared on CPO collections as well.  These composers were a bit overshadowed by a host of more “progressive” composers such as Karl-Birger Blomdahl and Ingvar Lidholm.  Among that early generation, Lars-Erik Larsson was one of the more successful composers whose music tended to continue to stay rooted in more traditional tonality with modern touches.

    Larsson (1908-1986) was forming his compositional approaches in the 1920s, a period of great musical diversity and discovery.  Other composers born that year included Elliot Carter and Olivier Messiaen to give one a sense of two additionally very different musical styles and approaches.  Larsson’s formative influences no doubt shaped by the music of Sibelius, and maybe Stenhammer, whose work informs the first symphony on this release.  What this first disc of orchestral music allows is for listeners to gain a deeper appreciation of Larsson’s music as it begins in the 1920s and continues to evolve through the next four decades.  The sequencing of the pieces here features a work roughly a decade later than the previous piece on the disc, save for the brief interlude of the 1937 Pastorale before the final Lyric Fantasy from 1967.  The result is a very great way to get to know the important work of this Swedish composer.

    The first symphony was completed in 1928 but went through some revisions after Larsson completed it and showed it to his composition teacher Ernst Ellberg.  The work is cast in the traditional four-movements with the more romantic outline of slow second movement and third movement scherzo.  The opening movement has some very gorgeous melodic writing, including a wonderful horn statement.  Delicate wind writing further explores the motivic and lyric capacities of the themes.  Harmonically, the music is more in keeping with the previous century with some flashes of modernism along the way.  The music has a sort of bucolic and pastoral quality.  Occasional brass punctuations for climaxes are reminiscent of Sibelius’ approach in his work.  The ideas tend to spin out throughout the ten minutes here with interesting key center shifts and often delightfully magical writing with a rather interesting final bars.  We slide a bit into the minor in the slow ABA “Adagio”.  Muted strings added a bit of a sheen to the sinuous undercurrents.  It does feel overall rather underwhelming though in light of the first movement.  The scherzo provides some rollicking energy in a light almost Mendelssohnian romp.  The final movement is also another light affair with a sort of folk-like violin dance.  There is more florid writing and the Sibelius-like brass also appear.  The symphony’s wonderful writing and light thematic content make it a rather delightful work that is certainly out of place in the modernist world, but that does not lessen its engaging music.  One can see why Larsson decided to withdraw this work from performance for most of his life, only relenting later.

    Next up is a set of four “vignettes” from 1937-1938 for music he composed for a production of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale.  It is among his most popular pieces.  The four movements illustrate the composer’s more subtle harmonic writing and wonderful orchestral textures that often shimmer.  The third movement “Pastorale” is perhaps the most delightful of the lot and reminiscent of the style Larsson had already formed in his symphony.  The final epilog is practically sublime as it withers away in the end.

    By 1949, Larsson had been exposed to many modern compositional trends, among them Hindemith’s music in the 1930s.  This sort of “influence” has certainly entered into the Music for Orchestra.  Here the music moves in closer intervals and often in 2nds that begin to gradually increase creating a rather unsettling effect in the opening movement where dissonance continues to grow.  All this nervous tension explodes in the final bars as the tempo increases and more angular writing asserts itself.  Using a 5/4 meter, the central movement too has this exploration of closer intervals, mostly flirting with 12-tone technique without really establishing it.  The elegiac quality of the music provides another level of austerity matched in the opening movement.  Still, there are some stunning arrival points in this movement which is very impassioned and dramatic.  The final movement also equally brings home this more intense writing, but the pastorale nature of Larsson’s style still is very evident.  Of the works on the release, this one is particularly interesting and worthy of more exposure.

    The delightful little Pastorale (1937) for orchestra is a simply wonderful miniature in a format that the composer is so very adept at creating.  It comes from another incidental music project for the play Kyshket (Chastity) by Vilhelm Moberg.  A bit of modal writing inserts itself here creating a really delightful atmosphere.

    The final work on the disc is the brief Lyric Fantasty (1967).  It is another wonderful example of the sort of modal writing and interesting interval combinations that Larsson is so adept at crafting and these are coupled with brilliant textural considerations in the orchestra.  Over parallel fifths in the opening, he sets a longing horn idea as the strings settle underneath very comfortably for harmonic support.  Wind writing is always crystal clear in these textures and the music stays within normal tonal boundaries.  This is another of the wonderful discoveries on this disc.

    CPO has kicked up their recordings a couple notches with this release’s multi-channel surround sound.  The Helsingborg orchestra has this music in their blood and is able to really show off their soloists in this often intimate music.  The release is a perfect introduction to this composer.  For those who love tonal music there is much to admire and while the first symphony is a bit slight it serves to introduce some of the key elements of Larsson’s style thus service to easily move the listener through the remaining selections on this well chosen program.  Some will find the dying away at the conclusions of many of Larsson’s pieces quite fascinating as they often leave one breathless.  The Music for Orchestra and Lyric Fantasy  are two excellent works worthy of further exploration and the rest of the pieces here, including the more performed selections from A Winter’s Tale make this an easily recommendable disc.  The performances are quite wonderful and beautifully shaped throughout.