Ingmar Bergman worked with many of the most significant mid-century Swedish composers – Hilding Rosenberg, Dag Wiren and Karl-Birger Blomdahl among them. If Erik Nordgren is relatively unfamiliar, it may be because of his sheer diversity: he is equally at home in the film and electronic studios as in the concert hall. Five of his 17 Bergman scores are featured here, their concentration and restraint meeting the requirements of a director for whom, at all levels, less meant more.
Ironically, the longest suite featured here, Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), is the least satisfactory; an odd assortment of post-Sibelian mood pieces and dance numbers which recall the Shostakovich of The Gadfly. By contrast, Women’s Waiting (1952) is an intriguing and cohesive set of variations on a theme of real pathos. Bergman’s films are fatalistic, often pessimistic, but rarely tragic – something that Nordgren understands intuitively. Wild Strawberries (1957), among Bergman’s most powerful creations, is represented by a short triptych, concluding with the almost expressionistic “Dreams”. The Face (1958), an offbeat black comedy about a travelling theatre troupe, opens with a haunting sequence, “Swindle and deceit”, skilfully assembled by Adriano from a number of cues and sketches (as is much of the music featured here). Two excerpts from The Garden of Eden (1961), Nordgren’s last original Bergman score, round off the disc in bittersweet mode. Performances and recording are among the best in this interesting series. Admirers of Bergman and of post-war European cinema will find this a welcome memento of a notable collaboration.'