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4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting and powerful music, March 3, 2011
This review is from: Saeverud: Bassoon Concerto/ Lucretia/ Salme (Audio CD)
Harald Sæverud (1897-1992) is probably more famous in his native Norway than abroad. He has not experienced the international acclaim that Svendsen and Tveitt have received the last few years, but I wager a guess that more people in Norway will be familiar with Sæverud's name than either Svendsen or Tveitt. In one sense that may be surprising; Sæverud's music is grittier and more challenging than Tveitt's (although it is perhaps even more personal), but his position in Norway is to a large extent due to the status his piano pieces Kjempeviseslåtten and Rondo amoroso in his homeland.
The fact that his bassoon concerto is one of the best concertos for the instrument I know does perhaps not tell you much. It was composed in 1964 and revised in 1980 (the cadenza was written by the present performer). The style is generally atonal (though by no means following any strict schema or school), but lyrical and amiable, even ebullient at times. Despite the rather modernist language, this is a charming, sunny and singing work. The Lucretia suite is much earlier; tuneful but dissonant, and best in its darker moments (of which there are many). It is not as original or striking as the composer's incidental music for Peer Gynt, and I have to admit that I found the suite a little meandering at times.
The seventh symphony, the Psalm symphony, was written in 1945 and is cast in a single movement (though with five sub-sections). The central chorale theme is a powerful one, and Sæverud treats it with formal ingenuity and skill. The work is subtitled "Symphony of strain, of struggle, of faith and of gratitude", which I think sums up the general impression pretty well - and it is indeed a powerful, concentrated work; harmonically adventurous, but not forbidding, and the final culmination is quite striking. The performances by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Dmitriev are compelling, idiomatic and powerful. They may like the last ounce of bite and rhythmic sharpness and attack, but these are overall performances that do the music justice. Robert Rønnes is a very good soloist in the concerto. Recommended.
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