Wilhelm Peterson-Berger - Symphony No. 3; Earina Suite (Michail Jurowski)

Information

Composer: Wilhelm Peterson-Berger

• (01) Symphony No. 3 in F minor 'Same Ätnam'
• (05) Earina Suite
• (10) Domedagsprofeterna

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Michail Jurowski, conductor

Date: 2000

Label: cpo

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Review

Jurowski’s fine Peterson-Berger symphony cycle moves on to the Third, inspired by the landscape and music of Lapland

Like Virgil Thomson in the United States, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger was feared as a critic. Even if he did not always compose up to the high ideals he demanded of others, he was a very capable composer, particularly in smaller forms. He also produced five symphonies, and was considering a sixth before he died. Like the First and Second (3/99), No 3 (1915) is built on a large scale and written in a late-romantic language that was already anachronistic. Peterson-Berger had a fine ear for melody (though not perhaps so memorably, in a symphonic context, as his compatriot Atterberg) and knew how to orchestrate: indeed the Third is usually cited as his most important orchestral work. Its sound world is very beguiling, in places like a Swedish ancestor of Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia antartica without the percussion and refracted through the manner of the Englishman’s Pastoral Symphony. There is a jolly Elgarian bumptiousness to the finale, too, though at all times the accent is Nordic. Yet the style is a touch anonymous, and I found the treatment of the Sami joiks that make up its core material less memorable than the thematic developments in the Second Symphony.

The Symphony is certainly more imposing than the accompanying Earina Suite (1917; the title derives from the Greek word for Spring, reflecting the composer’s lifelong love of ancient Greece). Orchestrated from a piano original, this is light music, pleasant enough, but wallpaper. The Chorale and Fugue from his all-but-forgotten comic opera The Doomsday Prophets (also 1917) is much more successful, and rousingly concludes this very entertaining disc. The performances by the excellent Norrkoping orchestra are as excellent as always, and Jurowski has a real feel for the style. Sound is excellent.

--  Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cpo99632a.php

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/july00/Peterson-berger.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-3-W-Peterson-Berger/dp/B00004R8E1

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Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (27 February 1867, Ullånger, Ångermanland – 3 December 1942, Östersund) was a Swedish composer and music critic. As a composer, his main musical influences were Grieg, August Söderman and Wagner as well as Swedish folk idiom. He is best known for three albums of national romantic piano pieces (Frösöblomster I, II, III), which were composed over a period of 18 years (1896-1914). His other works include five symphonies, four operas and about eighty songs. His songs for vocal ensemble are also still regularly performed, and are part of the core repertoire of Swedish choirs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Peterson-Berger

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Michail Jurowski (born 25 December 1945 in Moscow) is a Russian conductor. He is the son of Soviet composer Vladimir Jurowski (1915-1972), and the father of Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski (b. 1972). Jurowski studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Lev Ginzburg and Alexey Kandinsky, and also worked as assistant to Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Jurowski was music director and principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (1992-1998), the Leipzig Opera (1999-2001), and the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln (2006-2008). He is currently principal guest conductor of the Sinfonia Iuventus in Warsaw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michail_Jurowski
https://imgartists.com/roster/michail-jurowski/

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