Allan Pettersson - Symphony No. 9 (Christian Lindberg)

Information

Composer: Allan Pettersson

• Symphony No. 9

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Christian Lindberg, conductor

Date: 2013

Label: BIS

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Review

This disc is a revelation. I have long been an admirer of Pettersson’s music, particular the symphonies from the 1960s (Nos 5 8). The climax to this group is the largest of them all, No 9 (1969 70), shortly after the completion of which the composer was hospitalised for nine months with rheumatoid arthritis and kidney disease.

Pettersson’s need to communicate had a ferocity unmatched by any composer since Beethoven, often expressed not just in the sustained intensity of his music but also in its use of large, unbroken spans. The Ninth runs, in the composer’s own timing, to 65 70 minutes, with Lindberg and his only CD rival (Francis) falling at either end of this range. Lindberg’s slightly broader tempi and shaping are spot-on, over 14 minutes faster than Commissiona’s highly regarded premiere recording on LP (Philips – nla; not reissued on CD but available on YouTube). This remains a powerful interpretation but at 20 per cent over the maximum timing is arguably a misrepresentation of Pettersson’s wishes.

Fine as Francis’s version is, it now seems almost a play-through by comparison with Lindberg, lacking the latter’s clarity and depth of understanding. Try the dancing episode around six minutes in (closing Lindberg’s first track; the start of Francis’s third), or the climactic chordal descent at five minutes into track 7 (at around a minute through Francis’s tr 12), or the final serene cantilena. Lindberg and the Norrköping players make these come to life in ways that eluded their rival. The disc is full of similar moments and, with BIS’s fabulous sound, is not just Lindberg’s finest Pettersson recording but one of the finest anyone has committed to disc, to rank alongside Kamu’s Sixth (2/77 – nla – which Lindberg’s own runs very close, 1/13), Thomas Sanderling’s Eighth (CPO, 10/94) and, of course, Dorati’s Seventh (Decca, 5/72 – nla). But Lindberg is recording more Pettersson than anyone previously. The Swedish master has found his champion at last.

— 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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