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Sköld is much nearer Tchaikovsky and his Danish brethren Louis Glass and Hakon Børresen (early years) than he is to his compatriot Melchers or to the Finn Uuno Klami. He can sometimes sound like a dynamic Delius or at others like Malcolm Arnold. The hymnal recessional of the Adagio sounds as if it is likely to break into the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Fifth at one moment and into Grieg's Last Spring at another. There is a flighty finale that seems to shadow Elgar's Enigma. The allegro molto is vigorous and is bursting with regal and raucous confidence. There were two more symphonies: 3 (1948) and 4 (1966). Although Peterson-Berger's Third Symphony is spoken of in the notes as a model for the Sköld work the Sköld lacks the meldoic distinction of Same Atnäm.

The Violin Concerto ranges through the realms of lyric victory and rounded melody. The work's confrères are the Delius Violin Concerto not to mention the Bruch and the Mendelssohn. Sköld reminds me somewhat of his countryman Sillén one of whose symphonies and a violin concerto have been recorded on Sterling. While Stig Jacobsson's splendid note mentions Stravinsky as a model for the finale I suggest a more likely parallel in the Prokofiev First Violin Concerto (first movement) with a touch of the flightiness and suave smiles of the Bax Violin Concerto and the Saint-Saëns Havanaise.

This is a most fascinating release which I hope augurs well for recordings of the Third and Fourth symphonies as well as the cello concerto, concerto for violin and cello and the horn concerto (1977 - his last work). By the way that Double Concerto was written for Senta Bergmann (who premiered the Violin Concerto in Bad Homburg in 1949) and Bergmann's cellist husband. This is romantic music of considerable distinction.

Rob Barnett

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