Customer Reviews

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 15

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I have listened all the Pettersson's symphonies: but the first I listened, the 15th, is peraphs the only one, for me, to present a characterization of absolute masterpiece. The symphonic language of Pettersson is not "thematic", where you can recognize a thematic line the music provides often to take you elsewhere. But here try to believe in the melodic refrains, such as desperate links with human capability to still "feel" something upon the rhythmical outburst of adversities; you'll have experience of an incredible depth of musical conception, in his phonosymbolic power and evocation. This is the better recording of the symphony, in my opinion. Roberto Ranieri

Allan Pettersson occupies a strange position among 20th century composers. This Swedish violinist, crippled by arthritis, turned out a limited number of works dominated by 15 symphonies. His orchestral writing inherits the tonal Nordic tradition, but the orchestral fabric is densely packed with polytonal lines. The mood is invariably grim, with catastrophes constantly succeeding themselves, and light never really shines through the darkness. Petterson is a cult figure, whose music is rarely performed and whose memory is kept alive by a small but fervent group of fans.

The two symphonies here are from opposite ends of his career. Though they share the same general mood as everything else he wrote, one notices a difference in the writing. The Symphony No. 3 (1954-55) shows the composer still very much in the Sibelian tradition, with Pettersson's perennial thick textures alternating with more austere ones reminiscent of Sibelius' Fourth. Here there's a multi-movement form that Pettersson was soon to abandon. The single-movement Symphony No. 15 (1978), the composer's last and premiered after his death, shows us someone who has fully mastered orchestration and who pushes the amount of polyphony almost to the very border of noise, though remarkably keeping everything "tonal".

I've previously heard the BIS disc containing Pettersson's Seventh and Eleventh, and the music here is often indistinguishable from there. If you like Shostakovich because you think his music tells the story of some struggle of the human soul against adversity, then Allan Pettersson's music is very likely to appeal to you. For those, however, who expect music to show them something they've never knew before, then the invarying mood of this composer's output is probably going to annoy, as capable an orchestrator he was. Give a BIS disc containing some of his symphonies a try, and decide whether this figure is for you.

Before I went to a Pederson Reunion in SD, I ordered Symphony 3 and 15 by Pettersson because I wanted something for the family and Segerstam had conducted it. It took Arkiv finally to come up with it. Pettersson I find was from a harsh family that he escaped from with the violin. He had arthritis so bad someone else had to sketch out many of his later concertos and symphonies, of which I believe there were sixteen symphonies. I greatly prefer three to fifteen. Like Sibelius Pettersson starts with motifs that he finally brings into coherence. Fifteen is too harsh for my eardrums. I'd like to try some of the [$$$] Pettersson symphonies. Segerstam's THOUGHTS I found to be pretty fair. In my country fair means good; we never say excellent.

This disk contains two important works from Pettersson's early and late periods. Although the middle symphonies (Fifth through Ninth) are widely considered his greatest, this disk shows that Pettersson possessed the rare gift of musical genius throughout his whole career as a composer. Both the Third and the Fifteenth also show the manner by which his works fell into that dark and obscure world for which they were destined: The Third, dating from 1955, was ignored by the Stockholm Concert Society for about four years until they finally deigned to perform it in 1959. And the Fifteenth did not receive its initial premier until 1982, more than two years after the composer's death.

He long considered the Third to be his best work. The influence of Sibelius is obvious in spots, combined with P's enduring penchant for creating dark, somber soundscapes, oftentimes jarringly dissonant. Though it is in four movements, there is no actual break between the last three. The fourth movement is particularly impressive, as out of dark obscurity a beautiful lyric slowly begins to emerge on the flute at the conclusion of the work. The strings restate this gently haunting refrain in the face of several false endings. Finally the lower woodwinds speak up, ending the work on a curt three-note phrase, dark and cryptic.

The Fifteenth shows Pettersson still at the height of his powers, a master of the orchestral palette. It begins as a work of "hardened diction", abrasive, troubled, with ever-present militant snare-drum and clashing cymbals. Yet there is also a sense of mission. There seems to be an earnest desire to carve a meaning out of the darkness, and to move toward some redemptive inner vision. The work concludes with a prolonged chorale of raw beauty painted with long broad brushstrokes, mildly dissonant yet occasionally breaking into some really beautiful harmonics. Struggling toward some inner light, the work ends with an urgent and prolonged chord on the higher strings, as the light is finally seized, however briefly.