Allan Pettersson - Violin Concerto No. 1; Chamber Works (Ulf Hoelscher; Mandelring Quartet)

Information

Composer: Allan Pettersson

• (01) Concerto No. 1 for Violin and String Quartet
• (04) Four Improvisations, for Violin, Viola and Cello
• (05) Fuga in E, for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon
• (06) Fantasy, for Viola solo
• (07) Lamento, for Piano

Ulf Hoelscher, violin (1-3)
Members of Mandelring Quartet (1-4)
Members of Albert Schweitzer Quintet (5)
Michael Scheitzbach, viola (6)
Volker Banfield, piano (7)

Date: 1994
Label: cpo

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Review

Readers of a nervous disposition regarding Allan Pettersson’s music should start this disc with the Four Improvisations (1936). The opening’s rusticity will come as a surprise; the remainder oscillates between Bartok in folk-mode and Hindemith. Like the other shorter items, the Improvisations are stylistically anonymous, unrecognizable when set against the monumental, Angst-driven output of the composer’s maturity, and strangely patchy in quality. When vast symphonic canvases could later be erected from the sparest of material, the two-and-a-half-minute Fantasy (1936) seems prodigal by comparison in achieving so little with so much. On a similar scale, Lamento (1945) – Pettersson’s only surviving piano work – is quite forgettable. At over 14 minutes in duration, the 1948 wind Fuga is certainly no trifle; its obsessive reliance on pure counterpoint (with precious few textural contrasts) is suggestive of the later symphonist. Yet it just does not sound like Pettersson, making the vibrancy of personality evident in every bar of the Concerto of a year later all the more extraordinary. This really is a masterpiece, albeit a discomfiting one, written by a composer who was also a master string player. Karl-Ove Mannberg and the Fresk Quartet recorded it for the Swedish label Caprice, a fine performance fiercely recorded, emphasizing the dissonance of expression. Hoelscher and the Mandelring are equally good and CPO’s sound has less glare, softening edges that were unnaturally severe with no loss of impact. A revelatory issue.

-- Gramophone

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Allan Pettersson (19 September 1911 – 20 June 1980) was a Swedish composer and violist. Pettersson studied violin and viola at the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and composition in Paris with René Leibowitz, Arthur Honegger, Olivier Messiaen, and Darius Milhaud. Today he is considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century. His symphonies developed a devoted international following, starting in the final decade of his life. Most of his music has now been recorded at least once and much of it is now available in published score.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pettersson

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Ulf Hoelscher (born 17 January 1942 in Kitzingen) is a German violinist and teacher. Hoelscher studied with Max Rostal (Musikhochschule Köln), Josef Gingold (Indiana University, Bloomington) and Ivan Galamian (Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia). Since 1970s, Hoelscher has been an international recognized violinist and chamber muscian. He has performed with many great orchestras, under renowned conductors. In addition to famous Classical and Romantic works, Hoelscher's repertoire contains numerous compositions which he has taken from oblivion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulf_Hoelscher

http://www.ulfhoelscher.de/indexen.html

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