Dag Wirén - Symphony No. 3; etc. (Rumon Gamba)

Information

Composer: Dag Wirén

• Symphony No. 3, Op. 20
• Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 11
• Divertimento, Op. 29
• Sinfonietta in C major, Op. 7a

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Rumon Gamba, conductor

Date: 2018

Label: Chandos

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Review

Completed towards the end of the Second World War, Dag Wirén’s Third Symphony acknowledges the starker ‘militaristic’ modalities of the time while remaining rooted in the more neoclassical sort of Sibelius; woodwind pair off perkily, often in thirds. Its undeniably eclectic quality may momentarily put you in mind of Vaughan Williams during lyrical passages or of Nielsen during climaxes – some are quite dark – but there’s certainly enough of a distinctive voice to quell the doubts. Better at hustle and bustle than profundity, Wirén’s vaguely Gallic civility holds up until his inflated denouement, pastiche Sibelius in triumphalist mode. In the outer movements Rumon Gamba’s interpretation dispenses with some of Thomas Dausgaard’s impatient drive and the lovely slow movement is given more space to bloom on Chandos’s ample sound stage.

This is a work Gamba has given in London as well as Reykjavík and there’s no mistaking his affection for the idiom: his 70 minute anthology would seem intent on seducing the general collector. Very attractive it is too, even if I would not want to be without the famous analogue recording of the Serenade (1937) by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. With leaner forces Marriner elicits a measured yet snappier account of the finale once associated with a BBC flagship arts programme.

Gamba’s other choices, by turns gently motoric and wistful, are pleasant rather than earth-shattering. Neither lasts as long as 20 minutes and the composer’s French training discourages a recurrence of hyperbole. The tauter Divertimento, a product of the 1950s, brings no fundamental stylistic evolution. (Even when providing the melody for Sweden’s old-school entry in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest, Wirén crossed Sibelius’s Valse triste with Prokofiev’s Cinderella.) In Chandos’s trilingual booklet, Gamba explains that he ‘wanted to record all the pieces using the large body of a full symphonic string section’. An eminently recommendable disc.

— David Gutman

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Dag Wirén (15 October 1905 – 19 April 1986) was a Swedish composer. He studied at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm from 1926 to 1931, then with Leonid Sabaneyev in Paris, where he also met Stravinsky. Wirén's music, known for its quality and listener-friendly style, spans from popular to serious works. His early pieces in Paris, like the Piano Trio and the Sinfonietta, are in a neoclassical style. Returning to Sweden, he went on to compose five symphonies, concertos and other orchestral works, as well as instrumental and chamber music. His style became more serious, perhaps under the influence of Sibelius.

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Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972) is a British conductor. He studied music at Durham University, and then went to the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1998, he joined the BBC Philharmonic as its Assistant Conductor, and later became Associate Conductor. He left the orchestra in 2002. Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010, and chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2015. In January 2022, Gamba became chief conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra. He has made over 50 CDs of for the Chandos Records label.

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