Kurt Atterberg - Symphony for Strings (Ulf Wallin)

Information

Composer: Kurt Atterberg

• Sinfonia per archi, Op. 53
• Adagio amoroso for violin & strings
• Intermezzo
• Prelude and Fugue
• Suite No. 7, Op. 29 (Incidental music to Shakespeare's "Antoine et Cléopatre")

Camerata Nordica

Ulf Wallin, violin & conductor

Date: 2005

Label: CPO

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Review

To all who have sagaciously picked up on Atterberg’s opulent nationalism this disc will be an indispensable addition to the shelves. CPO have already cornered the Atterberg market with a complete set of the nine symphonies at bargain price. When I reviewed that set I pleaded for his String Symphony to be recorded and here it is conducted by Ulf Wallin.

The Sinfonia per archi (Symphony for Strings) is a latish work from this long-lived composer. It derives from his String Quintet. What a reactionary work this must have seemed when premiered in the 1950s. The style is approximately between Sibelius's Sixth Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Serenade and Frank Bridge's Suite for Strings. It is a luxuriously romantic piece across four movements. Camerata Nordica are recorded in a lively almost unruly acoustic which allows a gritty, guttural excitement to be caught alongside the sentimental whispers and half-lights. Surely Atterberg was influenced by Wirén's Serenade for Strings in the second movement allegro molto and elsewhere. The influence of Sibelius returns in the lovely tranquillo which combines the watercolour delicacy of Sibelius's Tempest and a sentimental melodic invention we may now associate with John Barry. The finale floats and darts along a middle way between Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra and Holst's St Paul’s and Brook Green suites. The piece ends in fragile twilight: a pizzicato figure and a quietly held sigh.

Almost incredibly the Adagio Amoroso for violin and strings dates from 1967, his last work. It is melancholic; sensitive rather than ardent or passionate - recalling Sibelius's two serenades and Laetare anima mea. The three movement Intermezzo has the air of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march trios and of Korngold's triumphal music in The Adventures of Robin Hood - muscular and noble. The end of the first movement resonates with the hoarse attack of Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. The central adagio is sentimental.

The title of the Prelude and Fugue suggests dry academicism. Not a bit of it. This diptych was originally for organ in 1917 and was then arranged for strings in 1933. The language is rich with allusion. This is much closer to the Sinfonia than to the Intermezzo. If the Sinfonia has the scale and weight of say Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro then the Intermezzo is the equivalent of the Elgar Serenade.

Atterberg wrote the Suite No. 7 in 1926, drawing on music he had written for a stage production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The five movements are splendidly romantic with gleaming strings; how Stokowski would have revelled in this! The music suggests Grieg's Gynt. The final Festivo flies along, again linking in style with Holst's Brook Green - bluff and celebratory - just like the opening alla marcia.

Not to be missed by Swedish romantics. Beautiful coaxed and balanced dynamics, subtle and diaphanous textures contrast with resinous attack.

— Rob Barnett

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Kurt Atterberg (12 December 1887 – 15 February 1974) was a Swedish composer and civil engineer. Born in Gothenburg, he studied composition at the Stockholm Conservatory and earned an engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology. Atterberg composed nine symphonies, six concertante works, five operas, and two ballets, all in a late Romantic style. In addition to composing, he also served also as a conductor, critic and administrator. After the end of World War II, Atterberg was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, which resulted in him being isolated and ignored by younger composers and writers.

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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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