Allan Pettersson: Symphonies 5 & 7 cover

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies 5 & 7

Composer
Released

Paralyzed by a debilitating case of rheumatoid arthritis, the Swedish composer Allan Petterson was largely confined to his cramped apartment in a loud industrial neighborhood of Stockholm while writing his Seventh Symphony in 1967. The psychological toll of his surroundings and near-complete isolation courses through the work. A hulking 40-minute monolith, the Symphony is driven by a menacing two-note motif that, like a Rothko color field painting, sluggishly oozes bleak grays and blacks across a colossal orchestral canvas. Christian Lindberg’s 2018 recording with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, released as part of an ongoing effort to record all of Pettersson’s orchestral works for Bis, reveals unexpected tenderness in the Symphony’s broad brushstrokes, aspiring to what the composer called the ultimate aim of his music: “to rediscover the song once sung by the soul.” 

Zev Kane

Suggestions
Pierné: Piano Concerto; Divertissments Sur Un Thème Pastoral; Suites Form ‘Ramuntcho’ cover

Pierné: Piano Concerto; Divertissments Sur Un Thème Pastoral; Suites Form ‘Ramuntcho’

Juan José Mena, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Rumpelstiltskin cover

Rumpelstiltskin

Martyn Brabbins, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Venezia Millenaria cover

Venezia Millenaria

Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI
Mozart y Mambo cover

Mozart y Mambo

Sarah Willis
Offenbach, Gulda: Cello Concertos cover

Offenbach, Gulda: Cello Concertos

Raphaël Merlin, Orchestra Les Forces Majeures, Edgar Moreau
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 “L’Égyptien” cover

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 “L’Égyptien”

Alexandre Kantorow, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jean-Jacques Kantorow
Island Songs cover

Island Songs

Amy Dickson
Alfred Schnittke & Arvo Pärt: Choral Works cover

Alfred Schnittke & Arvo Pärt: Choral Works

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kaspars Putniņš
Mozart: Sonatas for Fortepiano & Violin, Vol. 2 cover

Mozart: Sonatas for Fortepiano & Violin, Vol. 2

Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov