ATTERBERG Symphonies Nos 1 & 5
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Kurt (Magnus) Atterberg
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 08/2015
Media Format: Super Audio CD
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHSA5154
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 1 |
Kurt (Magnus) Atterberg, Composer
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Kurt (Magnus) Atterberg, Composer Neeme Järvi, Conductor |
Symphony No. 5, 'Sinfonia funebre' |
Kurt (Magnus) Atterberg, Composer
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Kurt (Magnus) Atterberg, Composer Neeme Järvi, Conductor |
Author: Guy Rickards
Nonetheless, the First Symphony is a rewarding listen, especially in this full-blooded account from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and Neeme Järvi has the measure of the composer’s style, not letting the occasional structural awkwardnesses get in the way. Järvi perhaps manages the turbulent tonal shifts of the opening bars with slightly more conviction than Rasilainen on his CPO recording, but thereafter the performances run shoulder to shoulder through the score.
It is much the same in the Fifth, Sinfonia funebre (1917-22), which was revised repeatedly until 1947 when it reached its final form, as given here. The title and dates of this continuous, tripartite design – and indeed the bracing, recapitulatory ‘valse macabre’ climax in the third span – might suggest a reaction to the Great War but, as Stig Jacobsson points out in the booklet, it is rather ‘a symphony of fear and fright’, its motto Wilde’s ‘For each man kills the thing he loves’. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra bring out its wild moods beautifully, although arguably Rasilainen in Frankfurt catches the nightmarish aspect slightly more vividly.
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