Allan Pettersson - Violin Concerto No. 2; Symphony No. 17 (Ulf Wallin; Christian Lindberg)

Information

Composer: Allan Pettersson

• Violin Concerto No. 2 (revised version)
• Symphony No. 17 (fragment)

Ulf Wallin, violin

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Christian Lindberg, conductor

Date: 2019

Label: BIS

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Review

Michael Oliver described Pettersson’s Second Violin Concerto (1977 79) in these pages as ‘perplexing but absorbing, infuriatingly chaotic but somehow unified by sheer eloquence’, noting how in the original version Ida Haendel had to ‘fight against a texture in which two or three strands of argument are continually interweaving’. That was the composer’s intention, of course, in what is less a concerto than a symphony with solo violin. Pettersson’s revised score (1980) lightened the orchestral string textures, as Isabelle van Keulen’s recording a quarter of a century later confirmed.

What stands out most in its third recording is the sustained lyricism of this very long (53 minutes), intense and demanding meditation on one of Pettersson’s own Barefoot Songs. He may have originally intended the soloist to be the orchestral leader, and the strong-toned Ulf Wallin – as commanding as Haendel and van Keulen – does seem slightly more integrated into the whole than his predecessors. Lindberg moulds the structure convincingly, driving the music forwards without overwhelming his soloist; the emergence of the song theme, Cantando (track 4), is magical. The result is less perplexing, just as absorbing and eloquent but not at all chaotic. BIS’s crystal-clear recording enhances the lighter and more transparent textures still further.

Pettersson enthusiasts will be most excited by the coupling, the premiere recording of the seven-minute untitled fragment begun in the composer’s final months and generally thought of as the opening of an unfinished Seventeenth Symphony. In this performing edition, made by Lindberg with Pettersson expert Markus Brylka, it feels exactly like the exposition and initial development of a symphony. Thoroughly engrossing, its sudden finish is dismaying but it is wonderful to hear this final utterance in such an idiomatic account. Needless to say, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra are on top form; no one plays Pettersson like them!

— 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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Ulf Wallin (born 1960 in Växjö) is a Swedish classical violinist. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Since 1996, Wallin has held a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Wallin has performed globally with prominent conductors and chamber musicians, appearing at esteemed venues and festivals. A prolific recording artist, he has made numerous radio, and television appearances and more than 50 CD recordings  for BIS, cpo, EMI and BMG labels. Wallin plays a violin by the Venetian master Domenico Montagnana from 1746.

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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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