I’ve
noticed that the other reviews of Dag Wirén’s music on Musicweb
start with a mention of how popular his Serenade is to the
exclusion of his other compositions. So, I’ll be different
and not say anything about it!
In
his home country of Sweden, Wirén was considered to belong
to a group known as the “Composers of the Thirties”, which
included among its members, Gunnar de Frumerie and Lars-Erik
Larsson. The group’s name derived from the fact that its
members wrote their first significant works during that decade. Membership
of a group tends to imply friendships and shared experiences
such as the Mighty Handful of Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov,
Borodin and Cui, but in this case, it seems to be more a
chronological and stylistic connection. The style here is
neo-classical, but in Wirén’s case at least, it is a much
more lyrical neo-classicism than that of Stravinsky, Prokofiev
or Milhaud, with whom he is roughly contemporary.
His
output was relatively limited: forty-four published works,
including five symphonies - the first was withdrawn by the
composer after publication and has never been performed -
and five string quartets, three ballets and nine film scores
(including Ingmar Bergman’s
A Lesson In Love).
Wirén’s
musical credo was “I believe in Bach, Mozart, Nielsen and
absolute music”, but this is not entirely an accurate reflection
of his music. The CD notes, which are informative and comprehensive,
refer to Haydn and Sibelius as more reliable signposts to
his style. Certainly, my first listening to
Symphony
No. 2 immediately brought Sibelius to mind. “Restless” is
the adjective that best describes the whole symphony: scurrying
string figures and twittering winds dominate the three movements. This
is not to say that there is no room for melody – quite the
contrary. In each movement, there is a quite beautiful
cantabile theme
which provides the necessary contrast with the
con moto activity
surrounding it.
Kurt
Atterburg, another composer well served of late by CPO, was
also a music critic at the time of the premiere of Wirén’s
Second Symphony in 1940. He commented on the pastoral nature
of the music as he saw it, and the “great refinement and
artistic economy” of the instrumentation. There is no question
that the music has an outdoorsy feel to it – the grand sweep
of nature – but if we are going to associate mental images
with the music – something Wirén didn’t believe in – I would
plump for forests and snow-capped mountains under sunny skies
rather than pastures and meadows. Perhaps this is trying
too hard, and it is simply better just to listen to, and
enjoy this fine music!
Symphony
No. 3 opens in an even more Sibelian way, but
as the theme is developed, the mood changes to an aggressive,
almost militaristic one, which reminds one of Nielsen. Given
that the symphony was composed during 1943-4, the military
tone epitomised by the drums is perhaps not surprising. The
slow movement is elegiac for the most part, and recalls
Vaughan Williams, particularly the
Pastoral Symphony and
Fifth Symphony. Towards the end, it opens out into a fanfare
in the brass which then fades into silence. The third
movement bursts upon us with more of the percussion and
brass that closed the first movement. Intertwined throughout
the movement - see below - is a gentler theme which metamorphoses
into a chorale-like fanfare which is the symphony’s climax.
The
structure of the symphony is novel and interesting. Each
of the first two movements concentrates on the development
of a single theme. In the first movement, the theme is created
gradually from an ascending scale from which notes are gradually
removed to provide the theme. These two themes then compete
with each other for dominance in the third movement. Compositionally,
this makes the entire symphony more akin to an extended single
sonata movement but with two pauses.
The
Third Symphony is a substantial advance in complexity and
development of ideas from its very pleasant but relatively
simple predecessor, and its lack of recognition and recordings
- there is one other on Phono Suecia coupled with the cello
concerto and early Sinfonietta (see reviews by
JW &
RB)
- is mystifying. CPO have also released Wirén’s two other
extant symphonies (4, 5 – 999
563) which I have ordered – expect a review of it in the
near future.
The
two concert overtures that conclude the disc are highly enjoyable,
well-crafted examples of the genre, and would not be out
of place opening a symphony concert programme. However,
as we all know, symphony concert programmers are very conservative,
and rarely schedule any music - other than new compositions
- that isn’t from a well-known composer.
When
I put this disc in the player for the first time, I was intending
to do some work on the computer. Very soon, my attention
was drawn away from my work to the music. After it had played
through the first time, I played it again immediately afterwards
in the car. Throughout the course of the following week
whilst writing this review, it has been in one CD player
or another at least once a day. Rarely has music from a
composer new to me made such an immediate impression.
CPO
has done sterling work in bringing 20
th century
Swedish music to a wider audience with their recent symphony
cycles of Kurt Atterberg and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. Anyone
who enjoys the symphonies of Sibelius, and in fact, well-crafted,
melodic 20
th century orchestral music in general,
should not hesitate over this disc.
David
J Barker
Norrköping
Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard 
