December 3, 2014

  • Fascinating Modernist Music From Sweden

     

    Kallstenius: Symphonic Works
    Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra/Frank Beerman
    CPO 777 361
    Total Time:  56:08
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    CPO explores a great deal of Swedish musical literature and this new release, recorded back in 2007, is now seeing the light of day.  The music focuses on the work of Edvin Kallstenius (1881-1967), an important figure in Swedish music for his work with the Swedish Broadcasting corporation and Society of Swedish Composers.  His musical studies began in that fertile period at the start of the 20th century though his studies in Leipzig, the place many composers headed throughout the 19th century, proved to be less satisfactory.  His exposure to the new music of Debussy, Reger, and Schreker, would have important impacts on the young composer who found himself at the threshold of expressionism, further exemplified by the work of Richard Strauss he heard at the time.  His work thus eventually fell into that catch-all “modernist” category.  Both Nielsen and Sibelius greatly admired his work.

    Kallstenius would compose five symphonies and his first appeared in 1926, rather late in his career.  The work was premiered two years later amidst a pops-like concert insuring the modernist work would be poorly received amidst the bane of most modern composers, the poorly-performed and rehearsed resulting first performance.  In 1941, Kallstenius revised the work, and it is this version recorded here.  The opening movement certainly has its expressionist and modern complexities on display from the opening dramatic bars.  Dark colors and non-traditional harmony swirl around as the piece starts with a second thematic idea launched subtly by horns and winds.  It seems to come in small segments rather than in a more traditional lyrical long line in an often fascinating atmospheric beginning to this three-movement work.  There are certainly more traditional lyric and harmonic moments that are reminiscent of Sibelius’ slow revealing of motives, though the language is a bit more dissonant here.  These serve like flashes of light and comfort, especially in the final bars.  The ternary central movement is a slow movement wrapped around a scherzo.  The opening is a pizzicato slow bass idea with rising string idea with a more pastorale scherzo to follow.  Even in the midst of the modern harmony, Kallestenius’ melodic ideas tend to shy away from angular lines, though things may jump to higher pitch levels, and he uses this to add tension and more emotional thrust to the music.  The final movement starts with a flurry of activity and some arrival points that are very parallel to Sibelius’s symphonic writing.  Today, the piece is certainly something to explore with interesting musical ideas and orchestral writing that does want one to further explore the composer’s later symphonies as it signals an interesting direction in Nordic symphonic writing.

    The central work on the release is the second of four Sinfoniettas by the composer.  Composed as World War II was drawing to a close, it is now tempered modernist work typical of many of the 1920s modernist’s maturing in the 1940s.  The music here is slightly more accessible harmonically with lyrical melodic ideas and playful orchestral writing.  It is still a very modern work and the opening movement has an almost folk-like quality to the music and rhythms.  The central movement is a beautiful highlight for strings (reminiscent of Wiren, but with slightly more intriguing harmonic ideas).  The final movement has playful interaction and marches away in fits and starts.  The arrival points in Kallstenius’ music are always the most fascinating delights as they are certainly very stylistic, but recall other 20th Century masters of Northern Europe.

    The opening of Musica sinfonica, completed in 1953, and rescored for smaller orchestra (used in this recording, feels like an extension of the preceding sinfonietta.  The three movement work is fully in the period of abstract mid-century music with more freedom for formal structures.  The opening movement features a sort of variation on a rhythmic idea that gets tossed about the orchestra.  The central movement has a more austere religious atmosphere and the finale recalls folk music in a more episodic concluding movement.

    The music of Kallstenius feels very unjustly neglected.  Hopefully a wider audience through recordings such as this can draw some attention to this otherwise forgotten Swedish composer.  His musical ideas are sound, the orchestration accomplished and often drawing out unique colors and sounds.  Melodic ideas are approached at a micro level as an extension of Beethoven-like motive exploration.  The harmonic language will seem fairly tame to those who appreciate modernist styles, but there is a great deal to enjoy in this music.  When Kallstenius starts moving through his melodic ideas they often end up in very traditional harmonic areas which help sweeten this engaging music.

    The Helsingborg players provide committed performances to these rarely heard works and the ensemble is on great display in CPO’s stunning recording.  Easily recommendable to fans of Northern European music, especially if one appreciates the later work of Sibelius and Nielsen.  It is a great set of pieces to compare to the more traditional works of Alfven.