Allan Pettersson (1911-1980)
Symphony No. 15 (1978)
Fantasie for solo viola (1936)
Viola Concerto (1979)
Ellen Nisbeth (viola), Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Christian Lindberg
rec. 2020, Louis de Geer Concert Hall, Norrköping; Petruskyrkan, Daneryd, Sweden
Reviewed in surround sound
BIS BIS-2480 SACD [68]
Allan Pettersson’s Fifteenth Symphony can be a tough nut to crack, but is certainly worth the effort. In his familiar one-movement format and about 35 minutes long, it rarely lets the listener escape its fierce, angry mood, and achieves only a very uncertain sense of resolution or arrival. But one can rarely escape Pettersson’s aura of having something important to say, or his knowledge of the symphony orchestra in how to say it – he was an orchestral violist in his early years.
The work opens with an unusual texture of a side-drum roll and punctuating brass chords (horns and trombones forte) and these first bars offer much of the material that follows. There is an intensity, searing at times, through much of the first half of the work, and rarely absent even later on. Tonality is always shifting, rhythms are disruptive, climaxes discordant. Also, instruments often function in taxing registers, the strings sometimes very high in their ranges, which itself adds to the sense of tension. The percussion section is kept especially busy. There is eventually some respite from the prevailing turbulence of the music, in a passage marked Cantando – it is apparently rare for such expressions to be found in Pettersson, where metronome marks provide the main instructions. Any such lyrical moments are soon disrupted, as the molten lava bubbles up once more in this volcanic work.
Christian Lindberg is as committed in this work as in the other symphonies he has recorded in his excellent series, and the splendid Norrköping Symphony Orchestra plays superbly well, especially the strings on whom so much depends and of whom so much demanded. They play equally well though for Leif Segerstam on the earlier recording of the work, coupled with the Third Symphony (CPO label recording of the work (CPO 999 095-2, 1994 – review of cycle) refers to “an absolutely unplayable passage “ - surprising in Pettersson - and explains the adjustments he made in “giving the instruments their due”. This might be why his fine version takes the most time to perform. The composer indicated a timing of 31 minutes; Segerstam comes closest at 32:20, while Ruzicka takes 38:18. Lindberg splits the difference with a timing of 35:52.
The 15th is thus fortunate to have had such fine interpretations on disc. The playing in all has plenty of fire, and despite the varied timings none sounds sluggish. But Segerstam is certainly not supplanted, and his stereo recording still sounds superb. Its one weakness for some might be that it is given as a single track, whereas Lindberg has 11 tracks and Ruzicka has 5. Ruzicka’s disc also still sounds well, though now might only to be available as a download, except in the CPO box of symphonies 2-16 (review). The coupling is a fourteen-minute work of Ruzicka’s own: a “Requiem for Allan Pettersson”. Lindberg is as fine as either, and of course is on an impressive surround sound SACD and will be preferred by those wanting the highest resolution, or collecting his series.
The coupling for Lindberg is the Viola Concerto of 1979, which the booklet explains might not be quite finished. We are also told that soloist Ellen Nisbeth edited the viola part - but it all sounds finished enough now, however the result was achieved. We owe its rediscovery to the aforementioned German conductor and composer Peter Ruzicka, a Pettersson enthusiast who arranged its premiere, given by Russian violist Yuri Bashmet in Berlin in 1988. It is in the composer’s favoured single movement form, plays for nearly half an hour, and is given six tracks on this recording.
It might be significant that Pettersson’s widow referred in a letter to the “Viola Symphony” - rather as Pettersson himself referred to his Violin Concerto No.2 as a “symphony”. Per-Henning Olsen’s highly informative booklet note explains this and much else about the works on this disc. Certainly there is less of a regular concertante relationship between soloist and orchestra than a symphonic one. Thus, there is no separate orchestral exposition, with the soloist awaiting their entry, no real cadenza, or long orchestral passages when the soloist can rest for a while. Rather, orchestra and soloist play together at the outset and virtually throughout, sharing all the material, in a highly integrated (or symphonic) manner. The solo part sounds demanding enough, but there are no spectacular virtuoso moments for the viola, which might discourage some players from learning it. But there are not so many viola concertos in the repertoire that this one can be ignored. It could stand alongside those written in the last century such as Bartók and the Walton, although it does not remotely resemble either of them.
Nisbeth is a superb advocate here. She makes a lovely sound whenever – briefly – the orchestral texture lightens enough for her 1714 Amati viola to be most clearly heard. Again, BIS is its own competitor, since there is an earlier stereo CD of this concerto with Nobuko Imai as the soloist, coupled with the 5th Symphony (BIS-CD-480, 1990). The Viola Concerto is given just one track, alas, which plays for 28:54. Nisbeth’s version runs for 27:21, so there is no discernible difference in tempo. Imai plays as well as we expect and draws fine tone from her instrument, but this new account surpasses the earlier one, not least in terms of recording.
The three-minute Fantasie for solo viola, placed between the main works on the disc, is a much earlier work. After the rich double-stopping of the introduction, there comes some very fast chromatic passagework absent from the much later concerto, so we can hear just how dazzling Ellen Nisbeth’s viola playing can be. The recording seems to puts a real viola in your listening room.
Ultimately, I find Pettersson’s remarkable music easy to admire but hard to love. What we know of his personality and life suggests that might have been the case with the man himself. He does not set out to ingratiate himself with the listener, or meet conventional expectations of what a symphonic journey should be like, yet his symphonies have a unique message, and should be heard. Their prevailing melancholy and powerful protestations could well suit our troubled times. He will, I suspect, always need champions. In Christian Lindberg, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and this BIS label project, his legacy is in the best possible hands.
Roy Westbrook
Previous review: Rob Barnett
