A
quirky and engaging collection of music by that remarkable
figure Stellan Sagvik. Sagvik’s energy and range of abilities
is astonishing – as a composer he has written eight operas,
three symphonies, five string quartets, several song cycles,
a good deal of choral music (including his Missa Maria
Magdalena - see review) and electronic music. He plays
several instruments and works as a conductor. He has been
musical
director
of more than one theatre, edited a number of musical periodicals
and has worked as a producer for the musical channel of
Swedish Radio. Since 1989 he has been running the eclectic
label Nosag.
The
core of this two CD set consists of Sagvik’s sequence, 10
Swedish concertini. Each of these is based on Swedish
folk tunes, the title of each indicating the region of
the country from which the material comes. The booklet
(in Swedish only) gives more precise sources. Each concertino
is in three movements and all of them are unfailingly beguiling – tuneful,
elegant, with a few acerbic touches that leave one in no
doubt as to the quality of Sagvik’s musical imagination
and technique. This is not cosily nostalgic or superficially
pictorial music.
There
is some attractive jazz-inflected writing for Jörgen
Pettersson’s alto sax in the Närkisk
Concertino; there’s some charming melodic writing for the
flute of Kinga Práda in the Skånsk Concertino and
some brilliantly brassy writing and playing in the Sörmländsk
Concertino, which features Gabriel Posdarescu’s trumpet. The Trioconcertino is full of delightful
instrumental interplay and the sureness of Sagvik’s knowledge
and touch is evident in his thoroughly idiomatic writing
for the tuba, bassoon and trombone as soloists in their
miniature concertos. Everywhere the writing for strings
is lucidly imaginative. A number of these concertinos deserve
to enter the repertoire of other soloists.
On
the CD the 10 Svenska Concertini are interwoven
with some folk tunes played ‘straight’ - as it were - on
the latfiol, which is, I believe, a relative of the better-known
Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, with two understrings; with
recordings of the sounds to be heard in various locations – birdsong,
dripping water, a ringing telephone, conversation, creaking
stairs, rain, footsteps, opening doors, farm noises etc.
At times the concertini emerge from these sounds without
pause and disappear back into them at their close. Each
of the two CDs closes with an extended piece for tape.
I have dutifully followed the CD sleeve in describing these
as the work of a certain Konkret Buchla, but this name
is presumably a joke – Buchla, of course, being one of
the major manufacturers of electronic musical instruments.
I
recommend this heartily – both for the quality of several
of the concertinos and for the wit and imagination evident
in every aspect of the presentation of the whole package.
Glyn Pursglove
AVAILABILITY
Nosag