Allan Pettersson - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 (Christian Lindberg)

Information

Composer: Allan Pettersson

• Symphony No. 5
• Symphony No. 7

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Christian Lindberg, conductor

Date: 2018

Label: BIS

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Review

I doubt whether many in the audience at the premiere of Pettersson’s Seventh Symphony (1966 67), 50 years ago this autumn, could have dreamt that a half-century later it would be receiving its fifth recording. In a climate where most forward-looking commentators were declaring that the symphony as a form was dead, Pettersson (a not unknown but fairly marginal figure) could hardly have hoped for one. Of course, the first followed quickly – by those premiere performers, the then Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati (5/72 – sadly nla) – bringing this work and its composer to international attention. The benchmark recording, this is how I came to know the work and have been in its thrall ever since.

Dorati’s is the fastest on disc and – until now – the most urgent, gripping in ways that eluded even Comissiona, Pettersson’s other great early champion, and Albrecht; Segerstam’s account (the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra’s previous recording of the work) loses impetus as it progresses. The Seventh has needed a good modern recording for some time, and finally it has one. Only a minute behind Dorati, Lindberg gets the pacing absolutely right, even while taking a different line, quicker and more urgent at the outset, almost taking my breath away where his predecessors do not. The Norrköping players are once again on superb form, responding to Lindberg’s advocacy just as keenly; but then this music is in their blood.

This understanding shows also in their compelling account of the Fifth (1960 62) – its fourth recording – a performance of complete authority which the valiant competition from Berlin, Malmö and Saarbrücken could not achieve. It also made a mark at its premiere in 1963 but not such a popular one. Lindberg’s understanding of the idiom may be incontestably the deepest of any previous interpreter; but what caught my ear as much in both symphonies was the orchestral balance, with so much of the detail coming through as never before. Simply wonderful.

— Guy Rickards

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Allan Pettersson (19 September 1911 – 20 June 1980) was a Swedish composer and violist. He is considered one of the 20th century's most important Swedish composers. He studied at the Swedish Royal Academy of Music, and later in Paris with René Leibowitz, Arthur Honegger, Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud. Pettersson was best known as the creator of Barfotasånger, a collection of 24 songs for voice and piano set to his own lyrics. He also wrote 16 symphonies, choral and chamber music, and a number of orchestral pieces. His symphonies are often compared to Mahler's symphonic output.

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Christian Lindberg (born 15 February 1958) is a Swedish trombonist, conductor and composer. In the course of an exceptional career, Lindberg has single-handedly established the trombone as a solo instrument and was the first Swedish instrumentalist to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Today he devotes most of his time to composing, with commissions from ensembles such as the CSO and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Lindberg also has a flourishing conducting career. His acclaimed and wide-ranging discography on BIS includes more than 50 CDs.

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