Kurt Atterberg Jarvi

Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra present Vol. 2 in their series of the Symphonies of Atterberg. It is part of a larger recording project focussed on Scandinavian music, which has already seen Neeme Järvi give highly regarded performances of works by the Norwegian composers Halvorsen and Svendsen with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. During his lifetime, Kurt Atterberg was the most renowned Swedish composer both at home and abroad, as well as a successful conductor, critic, and administrator. He was a composer of clearly structured and brightly melodic music, whose large orchestral output includes nine symphonies, of which the Third and Sixth have already been released.

In the third CD in his continuing series of the great Swedish late romantic composer, Kurt Atterberg, Neeme Jarvi interprets the two symphonies here in an invigorating manner with tempos that are rather fast and sometimes abrupt. Although the performances by Ari Rasilainen done some 15 years ago to my ears are still the preferred performances of these pieces in terms of bringing out the greatness of Atterberg's musical genius, Jarvi offers the listener a valid interpretation. Although his tempos are often rather too rushed and the adagio moments almost too quiet, the Gothenberg musicians are playing music that is close to their heart with impassioned and soaring string playing and the brass sections brilliant. The slow lyrical introduction to the final movement of Symphony No 1 with concertmaster Sara Troback Hesselink gives us the most moving and beautiful bars Atterberg ever composed.

It would be especially interesting to hear Jarvi's interpretation of Atterberg's older contemporary Peterson-Berger who is mentioned in the booklet notes. Although his role as a music credit affected his reputation in his lifetime, this says little of his melodic qualities and orchestration, which makes him one of the three greatest Swedish late romantic composers to my ear with Atterberg and Wilhelm Stenhammer and a cut above Hugo Alfven and Ture Rangstrom.

This disc is especially valuable for the only performance of the 1947 revised version of the 5th symphony. The book notes are also especially valuable with informative background along with archival photographs. The recording is also the best available in Chandos 24 bit sound. These additional features should give this CD a 4 1/2 star rating.

The final volume in our Atterberg series with Neeme Järvi and his Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is finally out. Recorded on SACD like most of the previous ones, it features two late, again rarely performed symphonies.
The seventh, featured here in its final, three-movement form, was written in 1942, fourteen years after its famous predecessor, the Dollar Symphony. Originally in four movements, the work was received dismissively by the critics, and only acquired its final shape in 1969, when Atterberg decided to tear out the last movement from the original score (it became Vittorioso, see Vol. 4). In response to what he regarded as a critical insult, he also decided to baptise the work Sinfonia romantica, just to infuriate the modernistically inclined critics even further….

Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg was self-taught and made a living for much of his career as an electrical engineer and patent official. His nine symphonies are only sporadically played outside Scandinavia, but between the world wars they were quite familiar in both Britain and the U.S., and their revival is probably overdue. Although longer than the rest of the works on the album, the curiously named Symphony No. 6, Op. 31 ("Dollar Symphony"), is an odd and not really typical work. It was completed in 1928 for a contest mounted by the Columbia record label on the 100th anniversary of Schubert's death, calling for a work in the spirit of Schubert's music.

The warm and tuneful music of Atterberg – one of Sweden’s leading composers in the twentieth century – meets the idiomatic spirit and commitment of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi, for volume four in this series. The third of his nine symphonies, featured here, is a set of three ‘West Coast Pictures’. These contrasted movements (‘Summer Haze’, ‘Storm’, and ‘Summer Night’) were inspired by the atmosphere and landscape of the archipelago on the Swedish west coast and written between 1914 and 1916.

Neeme Järvi, with his children now as rivals, remains a busy star on the international conducting scene. Born in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, on June 7,1937, and brought up within the USSR's system for developing musical talent, Järvi studied percussion and conducting at the Tallinn Music School. He made his debut as a conductor at age 18. From 1955 to 1960 he pursued further studies at the Leningrad Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Nikolaï Rabinovich and Yevgeny Mravinsky.

Rosenberg's musical language in this dreamplay of reaching out for the unattainable is tugged between the poles of Sibelian cool and warm Gallic impressionism. As an opera this is not another Pelléas. It is far too mercurial and word-responsive for that. If anything it has subject connections with other operas: Korngold’s Die Kathrin (CPO) and Schreker’s Die Ferne Klang (Naxos and Capriccio). It occupies a surreal littoral between Puccinian verismo and modernistic objectivity; neither one nor the other……Most warmly recommended.

Rob Barnett @ Musicweb-international.com