Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 11

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) is one of the main influences in the music of Leif Segerstam, so it makes perfect sense for Segerstam to conduct Petterrson's symphonies. Pettersson was able, in his early symphonies, to maintain at once a sense of thematic drive as well as a dark presentiment of atonal forces. Tricky, but both Pettersson and Segerstam--in his own symphonies--pull it off. The Symphony 7 (1968) contains rough moods, dark clouds, with brightness (on the flute and woodwinds) peeking in here and there throughout. The Symphony 11 (of 1974) is full of polyphonic shifts and syncopations that sweep the listener along. --Paul Cook

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 11, Music, Gustaf Allan Pettersson, Leif Segerstam, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, 20th/21st Century Symphony, Classical, Classical Composers, Symphonic

Average customer rating:

Excellent recording of 2 very intense sym's

The still, small voice

Unbelievable

The BEST performance on record of this REMARKABLE symphony!

The recommended recording of the most remarkable work

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 11

Manufacturer: Bis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 16

ASIN: B0000016IY
Release Date: 1994-10-12

Tracks:

Symphony No. 7
Symphony No. 11

Amazon.com

Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) is one of the main influences in the music of Leif Segerstam, so it makes perfect sense for Segerstam to conduct Petterrson's symphonies. Pettersson was able, in his early symphonies, to maintain at once a sense of thematic drive as well as a dark presentiment of atonal forces. Tricky, but both Pettersson and Segerstam--in his own symphonies--pull it off. The Symphony 7 (1968) contains rough moods, dark clouds, with brightness (on the flute and woodwinds) peeking in here and there throughout. The Symphony 11 (of 1974) is full of polyphonic shifts and syncopations that sweep the listener along. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Excellent recording of 2 very intense sym's.......2006-01-10

Great to read comments from Mark, Dan, Daniel, Drew about this least known of the great 20 th century composers. Along with Schnittke, Pettersson, these 2 composers represent the last of the long line of great symphonists starting with Mozart. Its been 20 yrs since P's passing and 15 since Schnittke's passing and yet these master composers have yet to be discovered by even the professional orch members and musical school staff. . This recognition process is slow but its destined u8nfolding is to come.
Regardless of this neglect of P on the world's stage, we devoted fans of this remarkable man have his music in splendid recorded form on the BIS label (almost all) and complete on the CPO label, most of which are excellent as well. Refer to my other reviews.

EDIT: April 17, 2007...upon further lisenting to the 7th, Segerstam, as the booklet notes make mention, seems to miss the "durge, emotive elemenst", his orchestra is just not up to the task of revealing Pettersson's dark, brooding melodic lines. Like Segerstam with his Sibelius cycle, Danish Radio, the orch is not organic enough, the connective tissue is not strongly felt. The CPO release with Albrecht/Hamburg is the finest 7th on record. The CPO is "the definitive 7th". Considering I've heard all 4 recorded performances.
Segerstan's 8th is very good, the 10th I prefer the CPO over the Segerstam/BIS

The still, small voice.......2001-12-29

Pettersson's Seventh symphony is an enormously moving and cathartic work. I am tempted to call it a masterpiece, but that word is so overused nowadays that it is all but meaningless. Certainly it is a work of the very highest artistic quality, and as good a symphony as any Shostakovich ever wrote. At about 35 minutes into the recording, a long and beautiful quiet passage begins in the strings. Almost inaudible in spots, it is like the still, small voice of God speaking to humanity through an obscure and rejected vessel. And truthfully, from his written statements, P. considered himself to be more of a prophet than a composer. He conceived his mission as being a spokesperson through his music on behalf of the outcasts of society with whom he identified. Whether or not he really succeeded in this endeavor, we cannot say. But we are truly indebted to him for the legacy of his music, which speaks with such brutal honesty to those who "have ears to hear".

While there are a number of recordings of this work available, I bought this particular one based on reviewer Mark Shanks' recommendation. I was not at all disappointed with this recording. As usual, the BIS engineers do a superlative job. It's too bad, however, that this recording is not indexed into tracks at the various "turning points" in the score, as has been done on Alun Francis' recording of the Ninth on the cpo label. This would have allowed one to revisit places in the recording much more easily. But that is my only complaint.

The Eleventh symphony is an added bonus to this disc. Clocking in at only a little more than 20 minutes, it is perhaps the shortest of P's symphonies. It possesses a multi-faceted canonical structure. Beginning in a very mild-mannered way, beautifully lyrical and atonal, rather atmospheric and ethereal, slowly the work grows more menacing and uncontrolled, without losing its ethereal nature, until it eventually takes on sinister proportions, then slowly subsides.

Unbelievable.......2001-08-11

If you own only one recording, this should be the one. Pettersson's seventh symphony is a haunting work that you just can't shake. Under the handiwork of Leif Segerstam, the music breathes life and becomes a creature unto its own which, as all living things do, perishes at the end. The only viable complaint that one can make about this recording is that each symphony is only one track long. This makes it difficult to get to the third movement of the seventh which is by far the greatest dark movement written in the second half of the twentieth century.

The BEST performance on record of this REMARKABLE symphony!.......2000-06-07

The reclusive, crippled Swedish composer Allan Pettersson once wrote, "When will the angel come and restore the song sung by the soul, so simple and pure, that a child will stop its weeping?" With this remarkable work, I believe he achieved his aim.

Certainly the most well-known and most frequently performed of all of his symphonies, Pettersson's Seventh was dedicated to Antal Dorati, whose recording of it brought the world's attention to the reclusive composer. If the Sixth is a dark and desperate cry ending in resignation, the Seventh is the "song sung by the soul" that Pettersson sought so yearningly to reveal.

The symphony's origins are not clear. The work was premiered on October 13, 1968 in a concert for the Music for Youth series founded by Antal Dorati in cooperation with the Stockholm Philharmonic. Pettersson, in very poor health, was called to the podium with standing ovations four times after the work's conclusion. It was the last time he was able to personally attend a premiere of one of his symphonies. Some hear it as a "reconsideration" of the bleakness of the Sixth; others have compared its structure to the arch formed by the profile of a mountain range. Many members of the audience at the premier were in tears at the close of this remarkable work. Once again, Pettersson uses a roughly 40-minute single movement. Unlike earlier symphonies, this one is not as clearly divided into sections, but uses recurring themes throughout.

Leif Segerstam's recording with the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra on BIS (CD-580) is the longest one at 46:17. Frankly, I prefer the kind of "punch" Segerstam uses to emphasize the lines, and the intensity of emotion is never in question. The sound is easily the best of the four (it was recorded April 29-39, 1992 in the Linkoping Concert Hall), and it comes coupled with the Eleventh Symphony (an irresistible 7-11!). Some (Paul Rapoport) find the brass overpowering in places, and some passages may be taken too slowly to sustain the music's power. But this is my kind of performance - intense, fervently wrought, and unforgettably affecting. Do not hesitate.

The recommended recording of the most remarkable work.......1998-10-03

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