Kurt Atterberg - Violin Sonata; Trio Concertante (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Kurt Atterberg

• Sonata in B minor for violin & piano, Op. 27
• 2 Höstballader (Autumn Ballads), Op. 15
• Valse monotone in C major
• Rondeau rétrospectif for piano 4-hands, Op. 26
• Trio Concertante for violin, cello and harp, Op. 57a (chamber version of Double Concerto, Op. 57)

Eszter Perényi, violin

András Kiss, violin

Ilona Prunyi, piano

Sándor Falvey, piano

György Kertész, cello

Deborah Sipkay, harp

Date: 1993

Label: Marco Polo

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Review

Following on from the disc of chamber works that I reviewed last September (actually designated as Vol. 2) comes another (Vol. 1!) also featuring the B minor Sonata, Op. 27, this time in its incarnation for solo violin (there are others for viola and cello; perhaps these will feature on future volumes). I prefer the version for horn but there is much to be said for Eszter Perenyi's account, an occasional rawness of tone aside. She and Ilona Prunyi respond to Atterberg's Nordic romanticism with a Hungarian warmth and full-bloodedness that is most engaging. Prunyi also gives spirited accounts of the two Autumn Ballads of 1918 (Atterberg's only original score for solo piano) and the Valse monotone. This last is well known as the finale of the Suite No. 3 for violin, viola and strings, one of this composer's most enduringly popular works, which originated in incidental music for a Maeterlinck play. The Valse's performance here in Atterberg's own transcription (apparently made as a display-piece for a ballerina) is marred by a sloppy edit. Prunyi appears again in the jolly Rondeau retrospectif, which was submitted pseudonymously for a competition in 1926, winning third prize (as Stig Jacobsson's notes point out, Atterberg's official entry won it outright). The disc is completed in entertaining if unremarkable fashion by the Trio concertante in G minor and C. As with Vol. 2 this is an arrangement made in 1966 of an orchestral score, in this case the late Double Concerto for violin and cello (1960). The disc's documentation does not assign players to pieces, nor does it detail the scoring of the Rondeau or Trio, which is rather remiss.

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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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