Symphonies 1 & 4

Abstract

This work is a lanky great 40 minute symphony full of Rimskian colour, subtle textures, heroic turbulence akin, in the tempestuous finale, to Howard Hanson’s first two symphonies. When the supremely confident French horns sing out in Tchaikovskian warmth over the top of the aspiring strings (at the climax of the finale) you know that you are confronting a seriously-intentioned symphonist. You also know that the CPO engineers have done well to capture such virile playing with natural fidelity. Both versions are good at putting across the exhilarating spasm and majesty of the final five minutes. The only differences I noted between the two versions was that the violins of the Frankfurt orchestra sounded sweeter than those of Swedish Radio and generally there seemed a more naturally spacious effect on the CPO. It was, after all, made fourteen years after the Sterling sessions. Otherwise there is little to choose between the two except of course that the Sterling is at premium price.

The Fourth Symphony was completed in 1918, the same year that Atterberg finished his first opera, Hårvard Harpolekare. It is splashed with many Sibelian touches especially in the bristling tense high writing for violins redolent of the Finn’s light-suffused Sixth Symphony itself recorded by Georg Schneevoigt who in 1919 premiered the Atterberg in Stockholm.

The Fourth is much more concise than the First and runs to just over twenty minutes. Sten Frykberg for Sterling is perhaps a minute quicker overall. The spirit of folksong is there in full and a life-enhancing tune courses through the first movement. The andante second movement is simply magical with a Grainger-like folk-tune intoned smoothly and lovingly by the clarinet over the gossamer glow of ppp strings - we will meet that effect again. In the Sterling version such is the whisper-quiet of the music you can hear the light bristle of groove noise both here and in the finale. The scherzo is all over in less than 1½ minutes recalling, along the way, Dvořák’s New World. It ends with a veritable wink.

Rasilainen is a mite more heavy-handed than Frykberg who is closer to the music’s Mendelssohnian faery-lightness and strangely enough his sound-stage is kinder to this spirit than the grand hall ambience achieved by Hessischer Rundfunk for CPO. The finale is lively with the Swedish equivalent of a lesghinka and the stompingly triumphant dances that Atterberg became adept at turning to symphonic gold in his finales. Listen to the way the orchestra’s leader launches and sustains a touchingly yielding obbligato half sob, half cry at ppp at 2:45 continuing for many bars. The exuberance and exhilaration of the finale recalls Lemminkainen’s Homecoming, Smetana’s Bartered Bride furiants and Rimsky’s Capriccio Espagnol. The piece ends with the usual affirmative blows topped off with a high squeal from the first violins. This sounds for all the world like the village fiddlers dashing off one last stratospheric stab and slash with the triangle resounding as the dancers fall exhausted to the floor. A lovely work this. Some vinyl wear can be heard in the demanding finale of the Symphony in the Sterling version.