Evert TAUBE (1890-1976)
Out There So Quiet and Other Rare Songs
Torsten Mossberg (tenor)
Stina Hellberg Agback (harp), Andreas Nyberg (violin), Jonas Isaksson (guitar & lute)
rec. 2020/21, Grisslinge gård, Ingarö, Sweden
Notes and song texts in Swedish and English
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
STERLING CDA1857-2 [73:44]
Say “Do you know who Evert Taube is?” to a Swede, and as long as the person in question is past fifty you get a positive answer: “Of course!”. And in nine cases out of ten he or she can sing some of his songs. When you ask people of a younger generation you cannot expect all of them to be familiar with his name, but still there will be many who answer “yes” with emphasis. Since the 1930s he was a household name and there was a saying that all Swedes knew many of his song texts by heart – except two: His Majesty the King and Evert Taube himself. He tended, at least in later years, to forget words but he often managed to find new replacements for them. He recorded many of his songs from the early 1920s right up to the early 1970s. By then he had lost most of his singing voice, but he recited the texts instead, and for the annual appearances at Gröna Lund during the summers, his son Sven-Bertil took over the singing. He also carried on the tradition in his own right and recorded a number of songs that his father had not been able to. Many others also sang his songs in concert and on records, right up to the present day, and the latest offering is this disc.
Torsten Mossberg has been busy recording Swedish songs and ballads, both art songs and visor. I have reviewed most of these discs and taken quite a fancy to his honest and straightforward approach and the warmth of his singing. These features are very much in the fore on the present disc, where he has focused on lesser-known songs, some that Taube himself never recorded and even one or two that has never been recorded before. That doesn’t mean that they are inferior, on the contrary one realises the overall greatness of his artistry. The discreet but efficient accompaniment contributes to the value of the programme: harp, violin and guitar/lute. Lute was Taube’s own instrument, so there is authenticity in this. And all the instruments are featured in solo passages. Several of the songs are dances: waltz, polska, tango. Taube spent several years in his youth in South America and several of his songs are inspired of this. The tango The Girl of Peru (tr. 18) is one example. It is sung here with accompaniment of harp and is one of the most charming songs in the programme. Readers with some previous knowledge of Taube’s repertoire will recognise it, the concluding Nocturne (tr. 22) likewise. But there are several gems here that will be new, even to afficionados: Minnet och tystnaden (tr. 6), Personligt samtal (tr. 8), Balladen om Blanca-Niña (tr. 12), Sandhamnsballaden (tr. 15) and Madam Läboms visa (tr. 16).
For newcomers to Taube, I would recommend as starters Vals på Mysingen (tr. 5) with a long violin solo as a prelude; Morgonsång på Baggensfjärden (tr. 7); Morgon efter regn (tr. 10), a lovely pastoral; Sjuttonde balladen (tr. 11), a fiery tango sung with infectious élan; the melancholy Damen I svart med violer (tr. 14), so touchingly sung; the previously mentioned Flickan i Peru (tr. 18) and Bal på Skeppsholmen (tr. 21), a stirring dance tune with folksy fiddling. If you get hooked and want to continue exploring the Evert Taube legacy, you should know that another handful of his songs is available on an earlier disc with Torsten Mossberg, To Cecilia: Swedish Love Songs (Sterling CDA1818) (review).
To me these songs are part and parcel of my entire musical life, having heard them from long before I could read and write, and even experienced Taube live. Listening anew to some of them in this album was not only nostalgia but evoked a wish to return to the “originals”- Evert Taube’s own recordings. No one can surpass them of course, but Torsten Mossberg’s readings are a worthy alternative – and he also treads some interesting byways. This is another feather in his cap.
Göran Forsling
Contents
1. Därute så tyst (Out there so quiet) [4:45]
2. Den gamle målaren från Paris (The old painter from Paris) [3:46]
3. Vals i Provence (Waltz in Provence) [4:12]
4. Bibbi (Bibbi) [2:37]
5. Vals på Mysingen (Waltz on Mysingen) [3:55]
6. Minnet och tystnaden (The memory and the silence) [2:36]
7. Morgonsång på Baggensfjärden (Morning song at Baggensfjärden) [2:39]
8. Personligt samtal (Personal call) [4:48]
9. Västanvind (West Wind) [2:53]
10. Morgon efter regn (Morning after rain) [3:05]
11. Sjuttonde balladen (The Seventeenth ballad) [3:06]
12. Balladen om Blanca-Nińa (The ballad about Blanca-Nińa) [2:28]
13. Blås, Kajsa, blås (Blow, Kajsa, blow!) [2:22]
14. Damen i svart med violer (The lady in black with violets) [3:20]
15. Sandhamnsballaden (The Sandhamn ballad) [2:43]
16. Madam Läboms visa om den förunderliga kärléken (Madame Läbom’s lay about the wondrous love) [4:07]
17. Vera i Vintappargränd och den italienska musikanten (Vera in Vintappargränd and the Italian musician) [3:43]
18. Den sköna Helén eller Flickan i Peru (The beautiful Helén or The Girl of Peru) [5:03]
19. Dottore Bordone (Dottore Bordone) [2:43]
20. Det fönstret som lyste (That window that was alight) [2:30]
21. Bal på Skeppsholmen (Ball at Skeppsholmen) [2:19]
22. Nocturne (Nocturne) [3:52]
